Quick recap:
We have touchdown on Bungie's next game, ladies and gents. Its next gaming universe, rather. According to a contract revealed as part of Activision's on-going legal squabble with former Modern Warfare 2 developers, the Halo studio's mysterious "Destiny" project will see it releasing four "sci-fantasy, action shooter games" every other year from 2013 onwards.
Exciting, no? It gets better. As reported on the LA Times, the first of the Destiny titles will be a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 and - drum roll please - a console described as "Xbox 720". Microsoft's next Xbox - name and launch year confirmed? Not quite. The contract is dated 16th April 2010, leaving plenty of time for amendment since its devising, and may employ approximate terms for unannounced products.
Bungie will also produce four downloadable expansion packs code-named "Comet", released every other year, with the first arriving in 2014.
One more gobbet of heart-jumping news before you go: the document also reveals that Bungie is working on a successor to its 1994 hit Marathon, generally considered to be Halo's spiritual predecessor. It's unlikely to be a heavyweight effort, though - the studio is allowed to devote no more than five per cent of its staff to the project while under contract with Activision.
I had a think about the Destiny project in a feature earlier this year - Bungie's MMO: headshot or a shot in the dark? The game is confirmed to employ technology suited to the creation of large-scale worlds. Bungie has admitted that its Halo titles "grossly under-utilised" the Xbox 360 CPU.
Below are screens from a Bungie anniversary vidoc, thought to be Destiny teasers:
Important to note, this is all 2010 info, so could be inaccurate.
Overall I'm not suprised it could be a bit like Halo, it's basically confirmed to be slightly steampunk styled, Space is a big theme, and they want large open, dynamic worlds.
