'Destiny' becomes the biggest new video game franchise launch in history

[Shawn Knight]

Activision is off to a solid start with Destiny. The publisher recently announced they racked up $500 million in sales to retailers and first party buyers on day one which means they’ve already recouped the money they spent on the game’s development and marketing.

It’s worth pointing out that sales to retailers and sales to customers are two totally different figures. Even still, however, it’s an impressive figure that indicates sales of about 10 million units to stores according to Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter.

In a statement on the matter, Activision said the sales figures make the game the biggest new video game franchise launch in history, topping Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs this past May. Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz added that it was the most pre-ordered game in history that wasn’t a sequel, eliminating titles from the Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Battlefield franchises from the discussion.

Creutz added that the first five days of sales for a title in this genre are crucial to its success as almost 40 percent of revenue generated in the first year come from the first five days.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said the industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for his company and demonstrates their unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.

More than 11,000 stores around the world held midnight launches for Destiny. 

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/58024-destiny-becomes-the-biggest-new-video-game-franchise-launch-in-history.html

 

[Kibaruk]

"Most succesfull", ask them how much of that 500 million was spent on marketting, the freaking game had so much marketting it freaking gave me the creeps, boulevards, websites, tv, radio, every-freaking-where.

I won't preorder any more "new" games since most recent launches with this much advertisement end up being a big-freaking-flop.

PS: Replace freaking with the word you want.

 

[Guest]

LMFAO, that guy in the front in the green shirt. Shut your mouth bro, lol. Some people just need help. But yeah, seems like a decent game I guess, idk. lol

 

[amstech]

With how crappy most games are these days (pretty to look at, but crappy) you can't blame all these gamers, they need to be excited about something.
Makes me appreciate my era...Zelda, Mario, Half-Life, Banjo Kazooie, Metroid, StarCraft, Dues Ex, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc, we had it made.

 

[Egon Spengler]

They would probably rack up a lot more sales if they also released it on PC and distributed it through Steam. Oh great, another console port. I can't wait.

 

[cmbjive]

It better pull those numbers if this is supposed to be some kind of multi-billion dollar franchise.

 

[davislane1]

"Most succesfull", ask them how much of that 500 million was spent on marketting, the freaking game had so much marketting it freaking gave me the creeps, boulevards, websites, tv, radio, every-freaking-where.

I won't preorder any more "new" games since most recent launches with this much advertisement end up being a big-freaking-flop.

PS: Replace freaking with the word you want.

I was pretty turned off by the marketing, too. I figured it might be a major disappointment based on that alone. It was pleasantly surprising to discover that the game is pretty solid for what it does.

It is, however, not as epic and grand as Bungie had been saying for the past several months. Fun, yes. New and innovative, not so much. And unless they have three metric tons of DLC planned, there's no way this game stays popular for "10 years."

 

[Jad Chaar]

Hey at least they made back the money spent by marketing .

 

[Guest]

A bunch of ****** posting for greedy corporate advertisement.

 

[yukka]

I'm playing it at the moment and I played the beta. There have been some good moments and I've progressed to the start of the Venus map but there wasn't any difference between earth in beta and release so it was retreading old ground. That's also made me notice that the missions are very similar. You make your way to the objective on your map which loads you into a personal instance (or coop if you are in a fire team), fight through enemies along a linear path and then activate your ghost to scan/decide/repair something while you fight waves of rushing enemies. After this you port back to your ship and get a reward.

Fair enough but once these missions are all done and you are level 20+, is the game really about just repeating these missions over and over to get better loot and faction rep? I'm not sure the enemies and missions are interesting enough. The game has been compared to Diablo 3 for running dungeons and looting but Diablo 3 has randomly generated maps which Destiny so far doesn't. I'm glad I didn't buy the expansion pass already and I'm a little disappointed I bought the 360 digital version (to upgrade to an Xbox One version at some point) instead of a tradeable disk copy.

 

[davislane1]

I'm playing it at the moment and I played the beta. There have been some good moments and I've progressed to the start of the Venus map but there wasn't any difference between earth in beta and release so it was retreading old ground. That's also made me notice that the missions are very similar. You make your way to the objective on your map which loads you into a personal instance (or coop if you are in a fire team), fight through enemies along a linear path and then activate your ghost to scan/decide/repair something while you fight waves of rushing enemies. After this you port back to your ship and get a reward.

Fair enough but once these missions are all done and you are level 20+, is the game really about just repeating these missions over and over to get better loot and faction rep? I'm not sure the enemies and missions are interesting enough. The game has been compared to Diablo 3 for running dungeons and looting but Diablo 3 has randomly generated maps which Destiny so far doesn't. I'm glad I didn't buy the expansion pass already and I'm a little disappointed I bought the 360 digital version (to upgrade to an Xbox One version at some point) instead of a tradeable disk copy.

I have a level 20 warlock and can confirm that the 20+ gameplay is a lot of rinse and repeat. Only, they bump up the number and aggressiveness of enemies on higher difficulties. It makes for a challenge, but one that can get old quick. Same with strikes, thus far.

The problem with all the comparisons to Diablo is that Diablo has a physical world that feels authentic, helped in part by procedurally generated maps. Destiny is a corridor shooter. This becomes especially apparent when you do non-story missions that have you running around from A to B to C. Bungie simply saw fit to make the corridors really large.

 

[Guest]

Let's see if it beats gta 5 after the dust settles

 

[cliffordcooley]

In a statement on the matter, Activision said the sales figures make the game the biggest new video game franchise launch in history, topping Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs this past May. Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz added that it was the most pre-ordered game in history that wasn’t a sequel, eliminating titles from the Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Battlefield franchises from the discussion.

Let's see if it beats gta 5 after the dust settles

You did read the article right?

 

[Kibaruk]

So... I hear flop?

A game released a couple hours ago feel repetitive, I think I choose the right path.

 

[Trillionsin]

"Most succesfull", ask them how much of that 500 million was spent on marketting, the freaking game had so much marketting it freaking gave me the creeps, boulevards, websites, tv, radio, every-freaking-where.

I won't preorder any more "new" games since most recent launches with this much advertisement end up being a big-freaking-flop.

PS: Replace freaking with the word you want.

Yea, the marketing hype has definitely helped people convince this game is a big deal for some reason... I havent seen anything good from it yet, but maybe I'm just being ignorant.

 

[lipe123]

Strange how the "success" of a product nowdays is measured by the amount of hype it can generate and has no bearing on the actual product.

My co-worker reluctantly purchased the xbox version since there is no PC release and basically calls its a VERY boring mashup of halo and warframe.
The "open world" isn't open at all and the gameplay is boring and repedative.

 

[yukka]

I was playing it again last night and have now reached level 12 with my warlock. I went back to the moon and did the patrol missions which felt pretty good but there wasn't really much challenge there. As people have suggested, when one of the bounties is 'kill 100 enemies without dying" and it pops up complete, you know you aren't being tested. I am aware I can try levels that are higher than my level but my experience so far has been that it doesn't increase the skill of the AI to make it more interesting but rather it makes your weapons less effective and theirs do more damage.

Still, I had fun playing it last night. The first strike is good fun even though I played it several times during the beta. I haven't tried the moon strike yet. There is plenty of content to keep me interested for a couple more weeks I think as I am not playing it constantly. It will also get less playtime once Fifa15 is out but at this point the future of the game will depend on the quality of the DLC rather than the endgame they are offering with the original release. £34.99 for the first 2 DLCs is a vast amount of money though - I would expect the pair of them combined to be at least the size of the original game for that money as they aren't having to pay programmers to create the game engine anymore.

Bottom line is the game was overhyped and the DLC needs to deliver. They could do with releasing some free updates fast as well if the endgame really is doing the same levels over and over for better loot.