The Essential: Destiny

Activision’s betting big with sci-fi epic Destiny, the most ambitious and expensive shooter ever made. But can it live up to a $500 million price tag?

Inside the most expensive video game ever

We’ve all pored over the dripfed screenshots, gasped at the half-a-billion-dollar development-cummarketing budget, rinsed the PlayStation 4 beta and tried not to smirk at Peter Dinklage’s worst-supporting-drone delivery. If you have even a passing interest in video games, you know that spring belongs to Destiny, a hulking, Star Wars- esque space opera in shooter trousers from Halo creator Bungie that’s been touted, praised, promoted and demoed for the better part of two years ahead of release.

The latest mammoth undertaking from Call of Duty publisher Activision, Destiny isn’t just a new game but a 10-year business plan that spans the planned life cycle of this new generation of consoles. Indeed, the breadth of its proclaimed scope is only matched by the scale of its ambition.

Riffing off MMOs like publishing stablemate World of Warcraft and co-op plunderers a la Borderlands, it’s a “shared world” first-person shooter that funnels hundreds of players through an evolving narrative, with competitive