James Sawyer Ford
Banned
Definitely the game that Cliffy was talking about when he said a next-gen new IP needed 10 million sales to break even
I sure do hope the final product is amazing.
I sure do hope the final product is amazing.
Destiny's team size is now around 500 people
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
NullPointer
Member
Or that if you get nine women pregnant you can have a baby in a month.
I used that line once on my boss and I've never gotten such a "fuck you die" stare as was cast my direction on that day. Holy shit.
/still-worth-it
Haint
Member
It seems to be going for Halo, Borderlands, and Elderscrolls rolled into one. The pieces on their own could be seen as derivative, but the combined package has never really been done. Nothing's guaranteed, but the potential for breakout mass appeal is definitely there.
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
You don't need to quadruple your team size to port a game to another platform.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
To me that is what is special about Bungie, the sum of it's game parts exceed it as a whole. Bungie's presentation layer is top shelf and I'm guessing when it's all rolled into one with Destiny at launch the seamless matchmaking, the lore, environments, the loot, animation, graphics, audio, the social friends etc etc is going to become a new standard (again).
It's what I hope for from them anyhow.
Take a look at CE (console FPS with a controller), Halo 2 (matchmaking online with Xbox Live OG), Halo 3 (theatre & Forge). So Destiny is aiming for a complete package to exceed the FPS/RPG/MMO or mash up genre. If it's executed right it could very well be the next massive thing for 10 years. If it's parts don't gel it could be quite generic, although giving the "real" solar system centre stage has me giddy already.
Wonder this all the time myself.
500 people for what amounts to what's been shown so far sounds like a massive misuse of resources.
That's the only problem I have with Destiny. It's by far one of my most anticipated games of 2014, and yet I really don't actually know how it's going to play. I guess I have an idea in my head that I've pieced from what they've said but not from what they've shown. Time will tell I suppose. They really need to pump out more ViDocs and new gameplay vids so we can finally see what Destiny actually is as a whole, instead of having flurries of ideas that they've talked about which we don't know how will come together.
That...makes me kind of worried actually. Projects of that scale are unbelievably difficult to land. What makes it surprising is how poor a job Bungie has done demonstrating the scale of Destiny. On paper it sounds vast, but we have yet to see any of said vastness. Here's hoping.
chicko1983
Member
totally agree. If it is as vast as the whole solar system plus a dozen moons being instantly traversable and explorable, I would understand the 500 people.
So far it is only the earth and the moon shown, and four different races. Not very big at all and not really grabbing my attention.
I am passing this game at the moment, but hope more is revealed soon.
HiredN00bs
Banned
I know people want to keep their anticipation in check, but this thread is kind of overdoing it with negativity.
1) We know what type of game Destiny is. It is an action shooter. Go play Halo: Reach if you need a frame of reference. You'll be able to walk, run, jump, crouch, slide, glide, shoot, punch, lunge, throw, drive, et cetera. If you're wondering about meta-game mechanics, those haven't been as clearly defined, but they're out there, like in Game Informer, for instance.
2) Bungie has steadily released larger and larger projects since their inception. They have adapted and learned how to operate as a large studio over the years, and not without major growing pains (Halo 2, which some hold on a pedestal, by the way).
3) One of the biggest press items that preceded Destiny's E3 reveal was the world creation tool, Grognok. This is an internally-developed tool that speeds up their ability to mass out and test environments within the game. Basically, it is a huge fucking pipe for content, and they ramped up studio size to create said content. The GI article said 150 of the 500 were specifically artists.
1) We know what type of game Destiny is. It is an action shooter. Go play Halo: Reach if you need a frame of reference. You'll be able to walk, run, jump, crouch, slide, glide, shoot, punch, lunge, throw, drive, et cetera. If you're wondering about meta-game mechanics, those haven't been as clearly defined, but they're out there, like in Game Informer, for instance.
2) Bungie has steadily released larger and larger projects since their inception. They have adapted and learned how to operate as a large studio over the years, and not without major growing pains (Halo 2, which some hold on a pedestal, by the way).
3) One of the biggest press items that preceded Destiny's E3 reveal was the world creation tool, Grognok. This is an internally-developed tool that speeds up their ability to mass out and test environments within the game. Basically, it is a huge fucking pipe for content, and they ramped up studio size to create said content. The GI article said 150 of the 500 were specifically artists.
You are going to be force-fed crow until your gut explodes. You'll then be revived by a fellow Guardian and continue on your quest to become Legend.
Not sure if that automatically = a good thing.
Unless their core development structure is rock-solid and perfectly organized, games like these tend to lack the love a smaller, more focused team could potentially provide. The end result could end up being lots of ambitious ideas and concepts thrown out there, but few rarely come together as envisioned. That's always a concern when too many hands stir the same pot.
If the quality of the game is high, then it also needs to sell a few million. Another tough challenge, especially for a new IP! I'm sure they'll market the heck out of it, but that adds to the risk of not making enough money back.
I wish these guys the best of luck.
Unless their core development structure is rock-solid and perfectly organized, games like these tend to lack the love a smaller, more focused team could potentially provide. The end result could end up being lots of ambitious ideas and concepts thrown out there, but few rarely come together as envisioned. That's always a concern when too many hands stir the same pot.
If the quality of the game is high, then it also needs to sell a few million. Another tough challenge, especially for a new IP! I'm sure they'll market the heck out of it, but that adds to the risk of not making enough money back.
I wish these guys the best of luck.
NullPointer
Member
Have been worried since the moment they signed a long term contract with Activision.
And the rule of thumb seems to be: bigger the budget the fewer risks.
I so want Bungie to get this right though. At their design core I think they agonize over the right things.
I'm honestly expecting it to be on the level of Halo Reach. So not bad, but not remarkable either, and the ideas they talk so long on end up not being all that special when its said and done.
That is very impressive after seeing how cohesive and successful the art direction is thus far.
ChawlieTheFair
pip pip cheerio you slags!
Really? The art/characters to me seem very mix-matched and they don't blend well IMO.
Vinterbird
Member
With yearly releases going forward (alternating between expansion and full sequel) for the next ten years, plus DLC, I doubt Bungie will ever go down to 100 employees.
And while the number is huge, I think it is largely due to the amount of art assets they want to make. They don't see big on reusing assets everywhere, and if that means generating unique stuff for every single area, then they sure as hell need the people to generate the stuff.
Evil Rabbit
Banned
I want this to be good but i'm skeptical. It looks like Halo with RTS aspects thrown in.
It's mindblowing that such a huge studio can work on a single project for years and just live off cash reserves. This seems like a huge risk but I'm sure Activision is carrying most of it.
Had that game preordered as soon as it was available on Amazon. It's the game my friends and I are waiting for. Finally a coop PvE shooter we can play online.
Had that game preordered as soon as it was available on Amazon. It's the game my friends and I are waiting for. Finally a coop PvE shooter we can play online.
Monocle
Member
Doesn't Bungie work best with a culture of lively collaboration? How do you maintain that with more people than anyone can possibly get to know across a development cycle? I guess individual departments could swing it, but then wouldn't that lead to a kind of creative fragmentation or whatever? (The issues I heard 343 had when they were making Halo 4 come to mind.)
Halo 1 was built by a minuscule team and it's still Bungie's best game overall. I tend to think too many cooks spoil the broth.
Halo 1 was built by a minuscule team and it's still Bungie's best game overall. I tend to think too many cooks spoil the broth.
This was my exact thought after coming into this thread after reading that Next-Level Games interview.
Created LM2 with just 70 people and it was fantastic.
Risk Breaker
Member
Gotta meet that deadline!
There will always be successful new IP's and unsuccessful ones. Always has been that way, always will be.
I don't think Destiny needs to be ground-breaking, it just needs to make an appealing premise(check), deliver on the promise with quality execution(its Bungie, so this is likely), and market it extensively(with 500 people working on it, I'm guessing the budget will be there to do this and hype is already successfully being built). There's still an element of risk involved, but I'd say they are well on their way to having a success on their hands.
AHA-Lambda
Member
dat ballooning AAA budget. I know it's incredibly unlikely but imagine if this thing bombs :/
Not really sure that's accurate, seeing as how Bungie seemed to want to break it off and do their own thing. I'm pretty sure they felt they'd outgrown Microsoft.
These kind of project always make me wish they had like an indepth dev diary.
Not the promo things you usually get with making offs, but real in depth.
I liked the God of War one and the Last of us, informative, some real reasoning why they made some choices and some drama.
Why don't studios do this more?
Wouldn't it also lessen they whining that some games unfairly get? If they just show why they made some choices.
I would really love to see how they keep 600 people on the ball and focused in 1 direction.
Not the promo things you usually get with making offs, but real in depth.
I liked the God of War one and the Last of us, informative, some real reasoning why they made some choices and some drama.
Why don't studios do this more?
Wouldn't it also lessen they whining that some games unfairly get? If they just show why they made some choices.
I would really love to see how they keep 600 people on the ball and focused in 1 direction.
If that's your case maybe this game is not for you. Just saying.
The only thing that has me hyped for this game is the studio that's making it, because none of the videos I've seen made me go "WOW I NEED THIS GAME". I hope they can manage sucha large team and make something good. It would hurt me to see this game bomb.
digoutyoursoul
Member
Prince Vultan
Banned
Luckily it's probably a safe bet.
Also: lol at zoobler3. Ya done, son.
Also: lol at zoobler3. Ya done, son.
walltowall
Member
I feel you but where is, or rather how much, is that core influencing a 500 person dev team? That's what's worrying to me.
gamerforever
Banned
Cannot wait to play this on the PS4!
walltowall
Member
Didn't MS have first rights of refusal on Bungie projects post break up?
CyclopsRock
Member
Why do you assume this is inefficient? You can't really know that without knowing what the output is.
Are you a programmer? Even fairly simple programs require a lot of code. I can't imagine how many people it takes to write gigabytes of code.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
Will be interesting to hear what Pachter estimates the sales of Destiny to be.
Not because he is a tome of knowledge or anything. Much the opposite in fact. But as a comparison.
Not because he is a tome of knowledge or anything. Much the opposite in fact. But as a comparison.