Destiny launches next week but according to developer Bungie, players may never "finish" the game such is the scope of the project.
The open shooter is Bungie's biggest game ever and each area is said to be as big as all of Halo: Reach while the developer has plans to add new content for years to come.
Speaking on BestBuy's recent Google Hangout with Bungie, community manager David 'Deej' Dague commented:
"We saw people invest dozens of hours into the beta alone, and that was one destination These destinations are stitched together with our new tech so that there are so many different locations to visit. Expansive outdoor locations where you can just enjoy your personal vehicle; there are indoor dungeon-type spaces where you can really pick through the bones of our shattered civilization."
The alpha allowed players to access Old Russia and the beta was set in the same area except for a small window in which the Moon was accessible. The main game will allow you more fully explore these regions as well as Mars, Venus, and Mercury. In addition, players can take part in Strike mission with other players Deej remarked that those who solely play the story missions are set to miss out in a big way.
"If you're a speed-runner, and all you want to do is blaze through and complete one story mission after one story mission, you're really just scratching the surface, because the Strikes add such an extra level of complexity," Deej said.
Destiny also has a competitive multiplayer mode known as the Crucible which will never really end, "And as we said before, [there are] endless amount of hours of fun in the Crucible. Until you've kicked every single ass that plays this game, you haven't finished. And once you have, someone else just bought their first copy. So, fresh meat, Christmas noobs."
Meanwhile, The Guardian (which is to say the UK based newspaper, not your guardian character in the game) has posted a feature about the extensive lengths to which Bungie is going to ensure that the game has a smooth server launch next Tuesday. While many online-focused games initially struggle, Bungie is doing it can with the information it garnered during the beta.
The studio has chosen Las Vegas as the base of its data centre for keeping everyone online and CEO Pete Parsons noted:
“The interesting thing about Las Vegas is, you get a lot of natural disasters walking down up and down the strip, but you don’t get a lot of true natural disasters affecting the landscape. There are no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no floods – it’s perfect.”
Bungie’s Jonty Barnes added that the team has “well north of 100 engineers” establishing and maintaing the Las Vegas data centre and its links to the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and various rented data centres around the world. “It is the largest engineering team we could imagine,” he concluded.
Destiny launches on September 9th for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
