In a new interview with Eurogamer, Bungie investment lead Tyson Green revealed that the multiplayer mode for upcoming multiplayer shooter Destiny won't be available right out of the box. Instead, you'll need to unlock it, which could take "a couple of hours," Green says. But once you do unlock Destiny's multiplayer mode, all of your characters can play without restriction, Green says.

This is a departure from Bungie's famous Halo series, where users could--and often did--jump right into multiplayer the day they got their copies. So why require players unlock Destiny's multiplayer? Green says it's because Bungie wants to make sure characters have the necessary equipment so they don't get throttled on the battlefield.

"We found early on that people here in the studio, when they jumped on the game--these were people who were already really familiar with the game mechanics--they would roll a new character, play through the first mission then go right into PvP, and they would just get really beaten up by the other players because they didn't have a super ability yet and they'd only got an auto rifle from the first mission," Green said.

That's another major difference between Halo and Destiny. In the multiplayer modes for past Halo games, all players enter each match on a somewhat level playing field. They can find better weapons on the map, of course, but there wasn't much in the way of progression. This isn't the case for Destiny, as you'll discover unique weapons, equipment, and abilities during campaign that will carry over to multiplayer.

Destiny's three classes (Hunter, Titan, Warlock) each have their own "focus," which carries your abilities--including a super ability--within it. Each class will have two focuses to start with, and new focuses can be unlocked over time through standard gameplay progression.

By the time players finally do unlock Destiny's multiplayer mode, they will have already completed one or two campaign missions and gained a special weapon and a super ability. This should prepare them for multiplayer, Green says.

This approach may be different than the route Bungie took with Halo, but Green says he thinks most players will understand and agree with the decision. "I think most people are going to say, 'I want to have my super ability, I want to have my Golden Gun before I go into a PvP match against other players.'"

Destiny launches September 9 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. A beta for the game launches this summer, first on PlayStation platforms.