The 2014 smash hit may be getting a sequel, and this time PC gamers are invited to the party too.
With video game blockbuster Destiny now more or less complete -- the final expansion Rise of Iron launched September 20 -- attention turns to a fully-fledged sequel that's now said to be launching on PC as well as console.
One of the biggest games of 2014, certainly the biggest new franchise launch at the time, Destiny came from the studio behind Xbox system-seller Halo. Bungie, having left its Halo franchise at Microsoft, had entered into an agreement with giant publisher Activision, the same company behind action standard Call of Duty.
Litigation between Activision and the Call of Duty creators revealed separate, contractual plans for the Destiny franchise. Some of that framework is now being fleshed out, according to new reports. Acknowledged in 2012 as part of court proceedings, Destiny 2 was then primed not only for console but also for PC. Other details have changed since the contract was made public -- 2014's Destiny launched on Xbox and PlayStation consoles at once, for example, with PlayStation its marketing partner rather than Xbox.
But the intention to expand the Destiny audience from console to PC has made it from initial contract to production process. That's according to a report run by Kotaku, verifying and expanding on another source from video games discussion site NeoGAF. Destiny 2 is to feel like "an entirely new game... even if that means leaving old planets, characters, and activities behind," Kotaku's industry sources proposed. Comparisons were made to impactful Activision sequel, Diablo III, which "didn't carry over characters or content" from its predecessor.
Of related interest may be the history Activision has with bringing Call of Duty to a wider, computer gaming audience. Call of Duty Online was spun off from the main Call of Duty franchise and launched in China in 2015. As a free-to-play game, it encouraged players to contribute via optional microtransactions, opening the game up to the widest possible audience and the greatest potential income. World of Warcraft, another huge Activision title, had added a free-to-play tier back in 2011.
And as Eurogamer observes, microtransactions have gained increasing significance to Destiny since their introduction last year. Certainly, with the meteoric rise of League of Legends and Dota 2, competitive PC gamers are accustomed to funding games through microtransactions. So now that it's expanding to include computers as well as consoles, perhaps the Destiny franchise will eventually embrace a free-to-play option too.
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 "PC gaming, console gaming, Destiny 2, Destiny: Rise of Iron, Activision")
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