-Massively multiplayer style, sci-fantasy action shooter series codenamed Destiny with expansion packs codenamed Comet. -Four games releasing in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. -Four expansion packs releasing in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. -The main games will be retail. -There will be other DLC, subscriptions, microtransactions, and value added services. -The first game will be an Xbox 360 and "Xbox 720" timed exclusive. -Activision and Bungie are considering a PS3 version of the first game in 2014. -The second game is targeted for 360, 720, PS4, and Windows PC, though the contract notes that some of those SKUs may be dropped if they decide they are not worthwhile or not technically feasible. -Activision can terminate the contract without penalty if Destiny doesn't sell at least 5 million units in the first six months, or for any reason they please after the second expansion pack releases. -Bungie is also working on a Marathon game, but currently no more than 5% of their staff (nor more than 5% of their key staff) can work on it, and the amount of employees that can work on it goes up slowly as they hit cumulative profit goals. For specifics on this see the last two contract images since it's pretty lengthy. -A maximum of 7 Bungie employees and 10 contractors are allowed to work on Bungie.net. -Bungie will get a $2.5 million bonus on the first game if it reaches a 90 on gamerankings.com. "
With actual MMOFPS games like Planetside 2 and Dust 514 coming out with F2P models, this new Bungie game won't last. It will flop like SWTOR did when Bioware charged a subscription fee in a F2P dominated landscape.
Activision can terminate the contract without penalty if Destiny doesn't sell at least 5 million units in the first six months,or for any reason they please after the second expansion pack releases.
The first part is kinda crazy, since it's going to be a timed exclusive. That won't help them guarantee 5 million units.
The second part is just as weird, why even have such a contract.
Act - "Sell us 5 million units!!!" Bun - "We did!" Act - "Well we don't like the box art. CONTRACT TERMINATED" Bun - "WHY DID WE AGREE TO THESE TERMS?!?! D:"
The part of the contract is fairly standard for this situation. Reserving the right to terminate the contract without penalty is not the same thing as saying you are going to do so. Those numbers are always high balled on the off chance something catastrophic happens to the market. In addition, just because they can't break the contract without penalties doesn't mean they can't break the contract. Companies do it all the time when the penalties are less harmful than actually fulfilling the contract. Destiny could sell 10,000,000 copies and Activision could still shut it down if they really wanted to.
Comparatively speaking, if you read the fine print in your contract with your employer, odds are they reserved the right to fire you without notice for any reason whatsoever. That doesn't mean most employers will randomly fire you, but it gives them wiggle room to downsize in the event they start operating at a loss.
The deal is actually far more in Bungie's favor than Activision. I don't think most people are aware of how bad the average developer contract actually is. The only negative parts are fairly standard contract clauses that Activision isn't going to invoke without extremely unlikely scenarios occurring.
Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, most companies aren't stupid. The main difference between consumers and companies is that companies have to think about profits because that is what investors look at. Even non-profit oriented companies need investors. If this game is making a reasonable profit, Activision is not going to cancel it, regardless of whether or not they can without penalties.
With actual MMOFPS games like Planetside 2 and Dust 514 coming out with F2P models, this new Bungie game won't last. It will flop like SWTOR did when Bioware charged a subscription fee in a F2P dominated landscape.
SWTOR didn't flop. Not being at WoW's subscription levels does not mean failure. STWOR has one of the largest player bases of any MMO in existence and one of the best player retention rates for the length of time it has been out (actually, it's much better than WoW was at this point in that regard). If you read the industry material (not the same as the the gaming press), they are quite happy with how it is doing.
The landscape also isn't "F2P" dominated. P2P games make more profits if they are successful. F2P games are more resilient to reaching the point of being completely unsustainable. The reason there are so many F2P games now is because the model actually works very well in Korea (but not on the same level anywhere else) and many P2P games changed over when faced with running down players to the point they couldn't continue as P2P, but could still function as F2P.
Planetside 2 and Dust 514 are also terrible examples. Dust 514 is not an actual MMO, despite what they would have you believe. It is a multiplayer FPS masquerading as one. The matches are 24 vs 24 with 64 vs 64 being the maximum possible by the engine. For reference, the PC version of Battlefield 3 is currently 32 vs 32 and the engine is capable of 128 vs 128. So, there is nothing "massive" about Dust 514. Planetside 2 is using established technology and being developed by a company that has consolidated the operating expenses of numerous MMOs together. The cost of that game for them is disproportionately low by industry standards, which is why it is a good choice for them to experiment with.
SWTOR didn't flop. Not being at WoW's subscription levels does not mean failure. STWOR has one of the largest player bases of any MMO in existence and one of the best player retention rates for the length of time it has been out (actually, it's much better than WoW was at this point in that regard). If you read the industry material (not the same as the the gaming press), they are quite happy with how it is doing.
The landscape also isn't "F2P" dominated. P2P games make more profits if they are successful. F2P games are more resilient to reaching the point of being completely unsustainable. The reason there are so many F2P games now is because the model actually works very well in Korea (but not on the same level anywhere else) and many P2P games changed over when faced with running down players to the point they couldn't continue as P2P, but could still function as F2P.
I don't want to turn this into a SWTOR debate, but by March the subscriber numbers had dropped by over 400,000 over January numbers, and since March the server population has drastically dropped. The next batch of subscriber numbers will be well under a million, and it will probably continue dropping until it settles at a much smaller number than it has now. Bioware just let off 200 people associated with SWTOR development and support (including the entire QA team, all 3 people). SWTOR isn't doing well. When history remembers it they'll probably remember it with the likes of Warhammer online.
As for F2P not being that big of a business model, it is. It is huge. You may think that companies in the US/Canada like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft are at the top of the foodchain in the gaming industry, but they pale into comparison to F2P MMO publishers in Korea. That's why EA almost got bought out by one. The F2P model in Korea (and beyond) is a VERY successful one. Companies who make the switch to F2P generally see income increase by 4 digit percentages. It's crazy. Why anyone launches P2P games anymore is beyond me when F2P is so successful and is at this point the industry standard (minus a few exceptions like WoW and Eve Online).
