It is with those two ideas in mind that we bring more news regarding Destiny, Bungie’s forthcoming multiplatform, multiplayer-focused title. Specifically, we have new details regarding the game’s seamless multiplayer interactions, on both the cooperative and competitive fronts.
While many games use a centralized server with a player limit to support multiplayer experiences, Bungie is going a different direction with Destiny. Instead, the developer is using what they are calling “mesh networking” to populate the game’s various play areas.
Using these mesh networks, players will always have companions to interact with regardless of where they are in the world of Destiny. In an ideal world, players will never encounter an area that feels empty.
How Bungie plans to execute this seamless multiplayer experience isn’t entirely revealed, but, as Technical Director Chris Butcher explains, the next-gen consoles do a substantial amount of the legwork for Bungie.
However, although Bungie is playing to the strengths of the Xbox One and the PS4, that doesn’t mean the past-gen versions will be slouches either. As Butcher explains, Bungie has optimized the Destiny engine very well, to the point they can still generate a comparable experience on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Granted, they are using almost every ounce of those machines, but those gamers who have yet to upgrade to the next generation will be pleased to know their experience won’t be diminished.
While most of the talk regarding Destiny was focused on the game’s cooperative elements, there were also a few competitive multiplayer details revealed as well. For example, Butcher explains that although some players might be mismatched with stronger, or higher level, players, there will always be an incentive to finish a match. That might be in the form of better rewards or simple recognition that you can hold your own against higher level players.
Ultimately, Bungie wants the competitive multiplayer matchmaking to keep things even, but if there are mis-matched opponents it’s nice to know there are still incentives to see the game through.
With one of the largest development teams on record, Destiny is poised to make a huge splash in September of this year. Yes, the game took some time to finally coalesce into something real — in fact, the game was at one point envisioned as a third person shooter — but what Bungie settled holds a ton of promise. But more importantly, the game is trying to push the boundaries of the multiplayer experience - to give players something that, if it works, will be practically seamless. We can’t wait for the beta, which hits Sony platforms first.
What do you think of Bungie’s approach to matchmaking in Destiny? Do you have any concerns?
Destiny releases September 9, 2014 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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Source: Game Informer
