Destiny Budget ‘Nowhere Near’ $500 Million, Alpha Voice Acting Wasn’t Final

In an update on Bungie's website, the developer has stressed that Destiny's budget is far below the reported $500 million production. 

Staffer Urk wrote that, "the budget for Destiny, including associated marketing costs and pizza Wednesdays, is nowhere near $500 million" but conceded that you would need to ask publisher Activision for the exact amount being spent on marketing the game. 

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick last month described Destiny as a "$500 million bet".

Players of the recent PlayStation exclusive alpha found the voice acting of Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, who plays your AI companion ghost, to be rather lacklustre but Urk says we can expect a better performance in both the beta and the final game. 

"In fact, the Ghost dialog has already been updated for beta. It will be updated again for launch on September 9th, as well. Funny thing about alpha builds…they’re not done."

Dinklage's most infamous line from the alpha, "that wizard came from the moon," has been stamped on an official Bungie t-shirt with all proceeds going to charity. 

Whatever Destiny's ultimate budget is, it seems Activision can expect a sizable return on its investment with VentureBeat reporting analyst predictions of between 10 and 15 million copies sold – potentially making it the year's best selling game. 

The Destiny beta begins first on PS3 and PS4 next month before landing on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It releases on all platforms on September 9th.