Destiny has been surprisingly popular. Traditionally, online shooters don’t do very well compared to their expectations; Titanfall couldn’t even move a million copies at retail the first month it came out. But the game has overcome unenthusiastic reviews and the limitations of an online shooter to be a huge hit with consumers. And yet, Bungie is still getting screwed.
Essentially, as Kotaku explains, they signed a contract that gives them a $2.5 million bonus if they hit 90 on Metacritic. Considering the reviews, that would take a miracle on the order of the Traveler actually existing to happen; the highest it’s pulling is a 79 for the Xbox One version.
To be fair, the reviews aren’t vitrolic so much as, well, honest and disappointed. It’s become clear that either Bungie expected the multiplayer aspect to carry the game through its shortcomings, or that gamers will play any FPS/RPG with finely tuned mechanics. Which, well, they will, but it’s hard not to compare the game to the state of the art and wonder why Bungie couldn’t have done just a little more with it, especially with an enormous development budget and years of hype behind it. The game itself is great, but the story and the voice-acting are lackluster, which is a huge problem when most people compare your game to a densely wacky series like Borderlands.
The game’s still selling incredibly well, and if playthroughs are any indication, there are plenty of people digging into the game. There is, once you hit a certain point, a lot of depth; firestrikes are insane co-op missions with hardcore murder rooms and tough bosses, and that has a certain appeal, and the strike playlists are a hoot. But still, for the next game, Bungie had better up their game and hire a real writer; apparently, that writer will be worth at least $2.5 million.