‘Destiny’ Makes $500 Million At Launch, Biggest New Game Franchise Yet
Destiny finally launched to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Tuesday as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sci-fi shooter with MMO-like elements is easily one of the most hyped releases for the latter half of 2014. This hype only intensified following a beta test that was made available in July. We don’t know yet if the game meets the hype in the review column, but it certainly gave Activision something to crow about for its account books.
Activision announced today that Destiny sold more than $500 million on its launch day via a press release. Note though that this number is for money earned selling copies to stores and first parties and not to customers. We likely won’t get an idea of the number of copies sold to customers until the NPD results for September are released or another Activision press release.
Activision Sells in More Than $500 Million of Destiny Worldwide as of Day One http://t.co/i83SfkgQUz
— Activision (ACTI) PR (@ACTI_PR) September 10, 2014
Still, the results make it the largest new video game franchise launch in history, according to Activision. It’s also on track to become another billion dollar franchise under the publisher’s umbrella, joining other titles like Call of Duty and Skylanders. As we mentioned before, Activision wins either way if Destiny or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare becomes the best-selling game of 2014.
“Based on extraordinary audience demand, retail and first party orders worldwide have exceeded $500 million for Destiny,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “This industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world. The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone, is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up.”
“Since the beginning, we’ve been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we’d be able to say it did so on day one,” Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing added. “Destiny is officially the biggest new franchise launch in our industry’s history. It’s also the highest-selling day one digital console release in history. We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation, and Activision’s next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it’s just a great game which we can’t stop playing. A big thanks to our incredibly talented team and partners who helped make this happen, most importantly, our partners at Bungie.”
Activision and Bungie have a 10-year contract for the Destiny franchise, so this is just the beginning for what is likely to be at least three games plus DLC expansions. There’s also the question of the PC version of the game. There’s no official announcement yet, but Activision appears to be treating it much like Take-Two did the Grand Theft Auto V PC announcement by implying Destiny will eventually come to PC.
Did you pick Destiny up on day one? What are your thoughts on the game so far? Share them in the comments below.
[Images via Bungie]
