‘Destiny’ Xbox One Beta Video Leaks, Doesn’t Look Horrible

The first footage of the Destiny Xbox One beta leaked out Saturday. A beta tester apparently forgot that they were automatically sharing their Xbox One recordings and two 30 second clips were quickly picked up by the likes of Reddit and NeoGAF. As the title of this article snarkily suggests, it doesn’t look all that different from what was seen during the PS4 alpha test.

The first video is set at the Tower, which serves as the hub world for Destiny, and you’ll see that both the player who made the recording and others are named “DestinyTiger” followed by a number. This suggests that this is a developer testing account or possibly a press preview account. Meanwhile, the second video takes place in the familiar confines of the old Russia missions.

The videos themselves are remarkable for how wholly unremarkable they are. While it’s hard to judge from video captured and uploaded by the Xbox One, the footage does not look all that different from what was shown during the Destiny alpha test on the PS4. At worst, there may be a little more aliasing in the Xbox One version of the game.

The frame rate did drop significantly at the end of the Old Russia clip, but it is nearly impossible to tell if that was from the game itself, the result of internet lag, or just a bad capture on the Xbox One. I experienced similar lag when I played the Destiny PS4 alpha, so that also makes it hard to knock the Microsoft console here.

Destiny is set to run at 1080p and 30 frames per second (fps) on both the PS4 and Xbox One, according to Bungie. The developer is using the recent Xbox One software development kit update that allows developers reserved for Kinect so that the console can match the PS4.

As for why the game is not 60 fps, senior environment artist Jason Sussman told Venturebeat last month it’s due to Destiny being a cross-generational title along with all of the effects that are going on in the game.

“A lot has to do with performance. We’re cross-platform, so we had to be very delicate with all four consoles, making sure they have the same experience, that it looks as good as it possibly can on all these consoles. A lot goes into that, from geometry to textures to post effects to particles to how many players you get on the screen. We’re always balancing that out to make sure everyone gets the same experience,” Sussman explained.

This also applies to the competitive multiplayer portion of the game, dubbed the Crucible.

“When you’re playing in the Crucible, yeah, absolutely. Same thing when you’re in a public space and a public event’s going off, with other players all running to one area that’s blowing up,” Sussman said. “Everyone’s throwing their supers, tossing grenades. You talk about everything going off at once, that’s where it happens.”

The Destiny beta will launch first on the PS4 and PS3 on July 17 followed by the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on July 23. The beta dates plus some timed-exclusive DLC within DLC has left some Xbox fans unhappy with Activision’s business decisions.

[Image via Bungie]

[Video via 1MG]