Giving us a clear-cut idea on just how much Destiny will cost to get out the door, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed at the Milken conference in LA last week (via Reuters) that it will be around $500 million. An Activision spokesperson then clarified to Eurogamer that the $500 million includes “marketing, packaging, infrastructure support, royalties, and other costs.”
That spokesperson then added, “Bungie’s very ambitious plan is designed to unfold over a 10-year period. The depth of creative content, scope and scale is unprecedented and is required to bring Bungie’s vision to life.” As time progresses with that 10-year lifecycle, Activision expects “the ultimate product costs to be roughly in line with other AAA titles” since there are upfront costs associated with Destiny’s backend infrastructure.
Getting back to Kotick, he said in February that “we expect Bungie’s Destiny, an innovative shared-world, first-person action game to be Activision Publishing’s next billion dollar franchise” and “the best-selling new video game IP in history.” During the Milken conference, Kotick said, “If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP. The stakes for us are getting bigger.”
According to analysts, Destiny is expected to sell 8 million copies, but it’s said that it would need to move 15-16 million copies to break even.
Destiny is set to release on September 9th.
