And much like World of Warcraft, there is a significant financial backing behind Destiny, one that Activision believes sets a precedent for new IPs. Obviously, Activision would like to turn Destiny into a blockbuster franchise like Call of Duty, but that takes a substantial amount of money.
According to Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg, his company’s investment in Destiny is “probably one of the biggest investments in a new IP that’s ever been made in this industry.” Clearly, Hirshberg and Activision believe in the title’s potential — and Bungie’s loyal Halo fan base — to the point they were willing to make what Hirshberg calls “a sizeable investment.”
It didn’t take much convincing on Activision’s part, mind you, as the publisher was impressed by Bungie’s vision from the get-go:
However, with Destiny being, at its core, a shooter, one has to wonder whether Activision would want to bring another triple-A FPS under their banner. After all, they have a pretty firm stranglehold on that market with Call of Duty.
In Hirshberg’s mind, though, Call of Duty and Destiny (if it becomes a franchise) can “peacefully coexist.” They each have their inherent appeals and rabid fan bases, and at the end of the day sales from both games go back to Activision.
In a way, Destiny might be a contingency plan for Activision — a way to hedge their bets heading into the next generation of consoles. With Call of Duty showing signs it may have peaked, many gamers might be looking to other franchises for their FPS fix, and Destiny could potentially provide that fix.
Granted, Destiny’s experience is markedly different from Call of Duty’s — and is much more focused on the cooperative multiplayer experience (at least based on the E3 demo) — but we’ll have to wait and see how the presence of one Activision title impacts the other.
Do you think that Destiny will be one of the biggest IPs of this next generation? Can Destiny and Call of Duty peacefully coexist?
Destiny is set for a 2014 launch on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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Source: IGN
