Feb 22, 2013 - DeeJ

Jason Jones said it best. Standing in front of the gaming press corps for the first time in what might as well be forever (Gamestock 2001 if you’re keeping track), he distilled years of work into three simple statements.



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If you remember anything about Destiny coming out of our reveal, remember these three things:





1. Destiny is an action game set in an amazing and mysterious new universe. If you love first person shooters – if you enjoy Bungie action games – then you’re going to love Destiny.

2. Players are the center of our world. You create a character, and you grow and customize it over time.



3. Destiny is designed from the ground up to be better when you play it with your friends. You can have solitary cinematic experiences, but Destiny is built from the ground up to be cooperative.







This is the next first person shooter from Bungie. If you know what that means, buckle up and enjoy the ride. If you don’t know what means, stick around. We’ll have more to share in the months to come.





We’ll water all the little seeds we hope are tumbling around in your brain now that we’ve begun to pull back the curtain, ever so gently. We’ll tell you about Earth and the City and the Tower and the Guardians sworn to protect it. We’ll tell you about our new frontier and the enemies scouring the bones of our long-forgotten worlds. We’ll show you how incredible it feels to see a Fallen Captain’s ethereal soul rip from its body after you’ve dusted his crew with your Gravesend Mk. 28 Heavy Machinegun, shattered his absorption shield with a perfectly-placed pulse grenade, and delivered a final, thundering shot with your beloved hand cannon. We’ll show you how satisfying it is to tactically carve through the suppressing fire of a fortified Cabal war base with your fireteam, gouts of oil, geysers of steam, and shimmering loot punctuating your victory as you go.





But all that is for another time.





For now, let’s open the sack.









Everyone on the Internet What in the world was up with those four Bungie guys on Sony’s stage?

I know, right? We’ve been chasing the answer to the question from the moment we picked ourselves up off the floor and stopped laughing. Details are still murky, but from what we can gather Marty may have instructed our four friends to “keep their hands out of their pockets.” We also may or may not have a Men’s Warehouse directly below our studio.





You’re going to love the way we look into the void.









From their idle hands ushered forth an invitation to a new community of gamers. Though this foursome clearly didn’t appear enthusiastic – or capable of experiencing any human emotion – we are super stoked and incredibly fortunate to be able to welcome a whole new group of gamers into the Bungie fold.





GrandmasterNinja Will you guys make a Harlem Shake vid?



Nah, we’ve danced enough for one week.





westpointusma15 When will the Weekly Updates return?

Honest answer: We don’t know yet. There’s a lot of Destiny left to unpack. So much so, that we’re not sure the old cadence for that march will be good enough to get the job done. In the meantime, we’re going to continue to ask you to drive the conversation with your questions in the Mail Sack. That’s something we are willing to commit to, and now that we can be a little less cagey, we should be able to answer a lot more of your pressing questions. Not all, of course.







Croaton When will the podcast come back?!



Same answer as above, but with an additional wrinkle. We lost the podcast gear to one of Marty’s newer audio team members.







Unisaur 64 Your page for preorders on the homepage tells of "...some exclusive incentives available now to reward the first players who reserve their copy of the game.". What kind of incentives are these, in-game or otherwise?

There are three pre-order incentives currently available at select, participating retailers. There’s a two-sided poster available at GameStop and EB Games Canada featuring artwork of the Traveler over Earth on one side, and the Fallen on the other. Select retailers outside of the US also have the Traveler art, but the B-side is occupied by the Cabal. We’re working to get the full list of non-US participants, but if you ring up your local shop, they should be able to confirm whether or not they’re on the list.







If you pre-order through Amazon.com, they’re currently offering a digital wallpaper featuring the Destiny logo and the inky, black starfield backdrop you’re probably well familiar with.





On the undisclosed front, we’ve also been keeping tabs on those of you who have kept us company during our dark phase, and we fully plan on rewarding our loyal fans in some small, but hopefully meaningful ways in the future. Signal received?





Hipi07 What differences will there be between current gen and next-generation versions of the game?

We’ve been planning for multiple hardware platforms from the very beginning, and while we can’t get into the minute technical details of each console, we’re fully committed to delivering our full vision for Destiny on every console we ship on. Currently, that list is PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.







Guteh What was Bungie's response to the public announcement of Destiny and to the welcome of PlayStation 4 players?



Well, we sort of saw it coming, so we had you at an advantage. It’s a new and exciting time for everyone Bungie; just as we hope it’s an exciting time for the Bungie Community. Though we have shipped PlayStation titles in the past, it certainly feels like we’re breaking new ground, and that gets us very hopeful for the future.







ZER0COOL Who do we thank for the new mobile site?



Our web team, of course. Right now, they’re implementing a few tweaks and upgrades – nothing too major – but just like Bungie.net on the web, they’re committed to a pretty ambitious calendar of upgrades to coincide with the road to Destiny’s launch.







It’s the same core crew that built the “New Hotness” all the way back in 2004 to support Halo 2, only now they’ve been augmented with some new blood, some new technologies, and a new philosophy that we think will blow your mind. They’re going to be kicking things off prior to launch this time around, as well. We look forward to the day when you’ll get your hands on it.





THORSGOD How cooperative has Activision been with Destiny and Bungie?



Their passion for games has been apparent every step of the way, but it’s not our job to sell you on the merits of Activision. Our priority is shipping the best experience we can. Activision is fully aligned with that goal.







SG Tumnus123 Who else besides DeeJ is sporting secret extra appendages that we don't know about?



Well, there is this guy.











TheGreatBrownie What was the general consensus at Bungie about the reaction to the unveil of the new universe?

This week, you would be hard-pressed to see a single one of us who wasn’t excited to see our work out in the open, officially for the first time. It’s nice to be able to say “Destiny” out loud. It’s also very nice to know that one of the biggest complaints is that people want to see more. We can do that. There’s so much more to come.







DesertStormer27 How annoyed are you by all the Destiny questions?

Are you kidding? We’re not annoyed in the slightest. It’s frustrating not being able to answer your questions. Some of us have been waiting for years to be able to talk about Destiny openly. We’re going to be able to answer more and more questions in the months ahead. Stay tuned.







Gunny 186 Has Bungie set a release date for Destiny?



That’s definitely one of those questions we can’t answer.







xHanKxMardukaSx My wife says Bungie is my mistress, how does that make you feel?

Kinky. Tell your wife that she’s not alone. Some of us keep pictures of our families on hand so that we don’t forget what they look like when we’re crunching.







Bonker828 If I walked into the Bungie office today, could I get a high five?

Sure thing! But it would be delivered by Jerome, who often mistakes people’s faces for their upheld hand.







TheDeisman When will we be hearing more about Sir Paul McCartney's contributions to the music of Destiny?



Marty, Mike, and Jonty fielded questions on this front for the press last week. If you scour the internet, you should be able to get some additional details about the partnership. You can also hear the fruits of their blossoming friendship in the music Marty has already released.







We’re already listening to nearly an hour of orchestral music. We’re biased, but it doesn’t feel at all a stretch to say that this is Marty and Mike’s best work to date, by far. It’s wonderful in the most literal sense of the word. We hope you enjoyed the few minutes you’ve already heard.





That’s it for now. This is only the beginning, and we have a long way to go. We hope you’ll continue to join us for the ride. If we can promise you anything, it’s that it will continue to be unabashedly unorthodox, embarrassingly core-focused, and remarkably different.





Destiny will be a profoundly Bungie experience, no matter which platform you choose to play it on. It will be made better by the independent, but connected communities that rise up to support it and shape it and make it sing. It’s heart-warming to see old, familiar friends once again dreaming and speculating about what might be in a brand new world. It’s great to see new voices join the party - people eager to see what all the fuss is about. We’re going to do our absolute best to live up to your lofty expectations.





And speaking of being unorthodox, embarrassing, and remarkably different:









Ain’t we handsome?