Destiny Set to Break Industry Records in Development Costs

Bungie’s follow up to Halo, the first person MMO Destiny, is set to break industry records in development and promotion costs.

Reuters is reporting that during the Milken conference in Los Angeles that took place last week, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick revealed that the company expects to spend over $500 million across Destiny’s development costs and its subsequent advertising costs.

Destiny is the first game to come from Activision and Bungie’s 10-year contract that was signed initially in 2010 that gave the publisher worldwide distribution rights and control over the Destiny franchise’s development.

“If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP,” Activision CEO told the Milken conference. “The stakes for us are getting bigger.”

Analysts claim that in order for Activision Blizzard to break even on Destiny’s substantial costs, somewhere between 15 and 16 million units would have to be sold across all platforms. All this being said, Activision still seems confident in Bungie’s vision, with Kotick saying that Activision expects Destiny to be the company’s “next billion-dollar franchise.”

Destiny is currently slated for release on September 9th for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

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