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No pain, no gain: Bungie on cross-platform development
Bungie has pushed live another lengthy edition of its long-running Mail Sack feature, this one covering questions from the community about board games (the team likes them), podcasts (Bungie's shall return), Destiny's best moments (all too spoilery to reveal), and the reveal date for the release date of the studio's upcoming next-gen shooter-MMO hybrid (totally sometime in the future, maybe). Also discussed? The reason Bungie built Destiny as a multi-platform release. According to the studio, creating a game that isn't exclusive to one console gives the Bungie community an opportunity to "welcome new players who may have never experienced a Bungie game before." Bungie contends, "Developing a cross-platform game is hard, but the perks outweigh the pain." The other likely bonus of going multi-platform, in which a developer practically doubles the potential install base of a title, was left unsaid.
Bungie talks Destiny, evades RMT question
Bungie's latest Mail Sack column is up, and the bulk of the conversation centers on its upcoming open-world sci-fi shooter, Destiny. Revealed (or clarified) in the post: fireteam sizes (three), total player allowances for public events (a lot, but not too many), and which month the team is most looking forward to in 2014 (the one in which Destiny comes out). Also discussed were real-money transactions, though the response from Bungie is about as PR-fluffy as it gets. When asked to what degree real-life money will be used in the game, this was the response: What we can tell you right now is that the rewards you will gain by playing Destiny – and playing it well – will be earned. You will carve them from the hides of your enemies, after you stomp them into the ground of your favorite destinations. It makes sense that the folks at Bungie would play that one close to the chest; Destiny is still in a pre-alpha state and anything could change about the game at any time.
Bungie not concerned about Destiny's always-on connection requirement
In a new Mail Sack blog post, developer Bungie has responded to concerns about its always-on requirement for Destiny, the studio's upcoming multi-platform shooter. The developer says it's not worried about a SimCity-style server outage for Destiny when "the massive onslaught of players" arrive on launch day because it's dealt with high-demand in the past. "This isn't our first rodeo," the post reads. "Bungie is no stranger to anxious mobs of players who rush home after a midnight launch and put our best-laid plans to the test." Bungie says it plans to "focus on some less frightening but equally important challenges" for now, worrying about release day problems at a later time.Elsewhere in the Sack, there's also a question about whether or not the alien races will be playable in the game, and Bungie mysteriously teases that it's "barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options." When graphic designer John Stvan is asked to tell a tale about playing the game, he says he once "loaded a build, shot a gun, killed a dude." Sounds riveting!
