While there were no day-one Destiny reviews, most released since have been somewhat lukewarm on Bungie's first post-Halo effort and that could cost the Washington-based developer $2.5 million if their 2010 contract with Activision is still in effect.
Kotaku reports that Activision required an average review score of 90 on sites such as GameRankings 30 days after release, Destiny currently sits on 76.29% and with most outlets having already issued reviews of the game it seems highly unlikely that the game can make up the 14% difference.
In 2012 Activision were required to reveal details of their deal with Bungie during legal proceedings against Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West, who have since gone on to establish Respawn Entertainment and released Titanfall earlier this year.
The trial's public court documents include this segment:
"Activision shall pay to Licensor a quality bonus (the "Quality Bonus") in the amount of Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($2,500,000) should Destiny Game #1 achieve a rating of at least 90 as determined by gamerankings.com (or equivalent reputable services if gamerankings.com is no longer in sen/ice) as of thirty (30) days following the commercial release of Destiny Game #1 on Xbox 360."
It has been speculated that Bungie attempted to re-neogitate the deal since 2010 but Activision has declined to comment on the matter.
While Kotaku doesn't give review scores we do, and our reviewer awarded Destiny 5/10 saying, "What you're left with at the end of the day is vacuous leveling up thorough samey dungeons, a shockingly half-baked competitive multiplayer with only a few maps, and a weirdly confusing endgame gear grind. Destiny has the feel of a game that was torn down and rebuilt a few times, leaving us with an incomplete hodgepodge of Things To Do that we don't care about."
Destiny is available now for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
