Is your copy of the Destiny beta already pre-loading? Are you scouring the news sites for every juicy morsel of beta information? Did you make sure to stock up on Mountain Dew and gamer snacks? Have you taken the end of the week off work so that you can bask in the glorious gaming glow of this hot new game? Are you ready to see the MMO genre redefined?!
If you answered yes to these questions, you may be too excited about the Destiny beta.
It’s hard not to be excited. Bungie has been on a media blitz this week making sure that everyone knows that the Destiny beta is happening Thursday. And Sony, giddy that the Playstation is getting it a week before the Xbox, has been right there beside them. This is a launch that people are talking about.
And you can’t blame Bungie for promising the Moon (and Venus, and Mars) with Destiny. Bungie has a lot riding on Destiny right now. This is the first non-Halo game they’ve released since 2001, and the first since separating from Microsoft. They have a lot to prove here. No doubt, what we see in Destiny will be the absolute best that the company could put out. If it fails, it won’t be for lack of effort.
Besides, there was definitely positive buzz from the Destiny alpha. Reports of smooth gameplay, well-designed levels, and stellar graphics made those of us not in the alpha turn green with envy. And that was the alpha! Imagine what the beta will bring!
So yes, Destiny is the new game from the makers of Halo, a franchise-establishing killer game. Yes, by all accounts they’re aiming to do the same thing with Destiny and possibly even succeeding. Yes, Thursday’s launch of the Destiny beta will be the biggest day in console gaming so far this year. But none of those things is a guarantee that Destiny is going to be great.
If Destiny ultimately does turn out to be mediocre, it wouldn’t be the first major console game to overhype and underwhelm. Do you remember Haze? Spore? Too Human? Daikatana? Duke Nukem Forever? The history of videogames is littered with stories of marketing hype overselling mediocre titles that are nowadays forgotten. It certainly wouldn’t be the first flop I spent good money on. [That would be Enter the Matrix.]
Heck, look at the very recent release of Titanfall. Titanfall was supposed to be Xbox One’s Halo, but it isn’t. Sure, it’s pretty, and sure, it’s fun to play, but at the end of the day it was a game with no plot to speak of and a single gimmick that made it stand out: getting into and out of mechs. And yet Microsoft kicked their hype machine into overdrive promoting it, and they sold a lot of copies because of it.
So is Destiny the next Halo, or the next Titanfall? Don’t get me wrong — I am excited to get my hands on the Destiny beta, and I am optimistic about the game’s potential. But I’m going to keep two things in mind when I grab my Dualshock 4 on July 17: that this in only a beta, and that it’s only a game.
