Activision Blizzard has committed $500 million to making, updating and promoting its Destiny video game.
The games-maker boss, Bobby Kotick, revealed the cash commitment at an industry conference last week.
But industry analysts questioned whether an entirely new game like Destiny would prove a hit with fans.
The Sci-Fi themed game is scheduled for release on September 9 this year.
Activision Blizzard has committed $500 million to making, updating and promoting its Destiny video game
“If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP,” Bobby Kotick said during his speech at the Milken Institute’s global conference.
“The stakes for us are getting bigger.”
Destiny is being made by the Bungie studio which is best known for its work on the Halo series of games.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future 700 years from now, Destiny gives players the job of defending the last human city from invaders and, eventually, expanding mankind’s sphere of influence. Bungie has said the game will mix elements from both massively multiplayer games and single-player shooting games. So far, the game is a console-only title.
Activision has billed Destiny as a next-generation game that will constantly change over its predicted decade-long lifespan. The game will be an “open world” and place far fewer restrictions on what players can do than other titles.
Activision Blizzard is believed to be putting so much money behind Destiny to help compensate for the falling interest in some of the other game franchises it owns and runs. In particular, the 2013 sales of Call of Duty: Ghosts were lower than those in 2012 and subscriber numbers for World of Warcraft have been on a steady downward slide for some time.
With Destiny, Activision hopes to emulate the success of the well-known Grand Theft Auto game. The latest version- GTAV – sold more than 32 million units.
However, said analysts, the GTA’s long history and its dedicated fanbase contributed to its huge success. Neither of those would apply to a new title such as Destiny.
Details of Destiny, Bungie’s first game since quitting the best-selling Halo franchise, have been leaked online.
The gaming website IGN has obtained marketing materials revealing it is called Destiny, and aims to create a universe “as deep” as the Star Wars franchise,
The project had been one of publisher Activision’s most closely guarded secrets.
It has a 10-year exclusive arrangement with the development studio.
Activision has previously told investors that the game would be “genre-defining” and prove to be one of its two “largest growth opportunities” over coming years, alongside the Call of Duty series.
Following IGN’s exclusive, Bungie reproduced one of the images on its own site and confirmed the leak’s authenticity.
According to IGN the game will be set 700 years in the future, and feature battles with aliens to protect the “last city on Earth” after the collapse of mankind’s efforts to colonize the Solar System.
A screenshot suggests the first title in the expected series will run on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Bungie’s most recent releases had only run on Xbox systems.
Details of Destiny, Bungie’s first game since quitting the best-selling Halo franchise, have been leaked online
A decision to build another sci-fi franchise will see Destiny compete with the developer’s original series.
Microsoft has said it has plans for at least another two Halo games. Its most recent sequel, Halo 4, was created by its own subsidiary 343 Industries. The series as a whole has generated more than $3.4 billion in revenues to date.
“You can never have sure bets and the risks involved with creating new IP [intellectual property] are always relatively high, but to have a studio like Bungie involved reduces the risk considerably for Activision due to its incredible track record,” said Pier Harding-Rolls, head of games research at IHS Screen Digest.
But he added that the publisher was unlikely to be happy about the way news of its game had become available.
“I don’t think any company that wants to manage and control the promotion of their material would want to see it leaked through the back door,” he said.
“But a lot of leaks do go on in the industry.
“I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of it at E3 [games conference] in June where games like this can be shown in a satisfying way.”
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