After the release ofHalo 3in 2007, many expected developer Bungie to move on to something new — but soon after, the studio would announce both the single-playerODSTexpansion and aprequel subtitledReach. Now, it has emerged that the latter project served as something of a training ground for staff before work began onDestiny.
Bungie started pre-production onDestinywhileHalo: Reachwas in its final stages of development. Management knew that the project would be a huge undertaking, so with one eye on the future, decisions were made that would hopefully benefit both projects.
“Halo was a high production cost, but this was epic. From that moment, [we realized] we needed to bring extra people on toHaloto train them up, ready [them] forDestiny,” said Bungie executive Jonty Barnes in a recent interview looking back at the studio’s recent history.
Certain parts of theReachteam were actually overstaffed, because Bungie was already thinking about the resources it would need available once the development ofDestinygot into full swing. Looking at the finished product, both games would seem to require plenty of staff with similar skills, but this wasn’t necessarily the case along the way.
Barnes also reveals that, at one point,Destinywas being conceived as a third-person shooter. This would certainly have been a major diversion from the game that finally saw release, and it’s difficult to say whether the project would have enjoyed theenormous successthat it has over the past few years.
However, it was soon decided upon that the decision to make the game third-person was largely inspired by a desire to do something different, after years on the Halo series. Given that many of the staff at Bungie had joined the studio explicitly because of their desire to work first-person shooters and their abilities in that arena, management decided to play to their strengths.
Destinyis available now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
