With Bungie’s Destiny officially confirmed to have a split-gen launch across the PS3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 4 (at least), many gamers have started to question if there will be major differences between the current and next generation versions. Bungie has attempted to alleviate any fan concerns in a recent Q&A, by confirming that their “full vision” for the persistent-world first-person shooter will be the same across all platforms.
“We’ve been planning for multiple hardware platforms from the very beginning, and while we can’t get into the minute technical details of each console, we’re fully committed to delivering our full vision for Destiny on every console we ship on. Currently, that list is PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.”
“Destiny will be a profoundly Bungie experience, no matter which platform you choose to play it on. It will be made better by the independent, but connected communities that rise up to support it and shape it and make it sing… We’re going to do our absolute best to live up to your lofty expectations.”
Bungie’s response certainly seems to suggest that Destiny will largely be the same across each platform, however, I can’t help but wonder exactly what the “minute technical details” on each console will actually be. The devil is always in the details, especially when those details in question are minute.
Still, I suspect that Bungie will deliver a full-fledged Destiny experience on the PS3 and Xbox 360 as promised, simply because the game is being released during what is sure to be one of the roughest console transitions in history. Regardless of how Microsoft and Sony ultimately end up positing their next generation consoles, I have a hard time seeing anywhere near a majority of consumers making the switch anytime soon. Most people are happy with the Xbox 360/PS3, and publishers like Activision are still going to want to provide quality content for those large install bases.
At any rate, we still don’t know exactly when Destiny will launch, however, Activision has made it clear that we will not see the shooter on retail shelves before 2014. We will keep an eye out for any further announcements and let you know as soon as anything pops up.