We may be very close to knowing much more about what Bungie is up to next, as the studio has acknowledged leaks reported on Kotaku and IGN regarding its new game, reportedly called Destiny.

Bungie left Halo behind with 2010’s Halo: Reach, and signed a 10-year deal with Activision for a new, ambitious, multi-game franchise that would finally take Bungie beyond the Xbox platform.

The story goes that someone found a USB key at a coffee shop, and it included concept art and bullet point features regarding Destiny. These images and documents, sent to multiple outlets, come conveniently just a week before the Spike Video Game Awards, where numerous games receive their worldwide debut.

According to the documents, Destiny tells the story of a torn and tattered Earth that’s devastated--once again--by aliens. An enormous alien ship descends over humanity’s last major outpost, seemingly in protection of humanity. Why? No one knows, but it doesn’t matter: Earth has a protector. Players assume the role of “knights” assigned to fending off the surrounding threat and finding a solution.

The rumor’s always been that Bunge’s creating a sci-fi shooter MMO--PlanetSide done right--and while these documents hint at a large “social” aspect to this new game, it doesn’t make it explicit.

Bungie acknowledged the leak on its website, and even posted one of the leaked pieces of artwork.

“Go ahead,” said the company in a statement. “Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to. Stick around, we haven’t even started yet.”

Seems like something a studio would say if it had more to show awfully soon, huh? That’s just me speculating, though--I have no inside information of a Spike TV reveal. It just seems very suspicious and well-timed.

We may be very close to knowing much more about what Bungie is up to next, as the studio has acknowledged leaks reported on Kotaku and IGN regarding its new game, reportedly called Destiny.

Bungie left Halo behind with 2010’s Halo: Reach, and signed a 10-year deal with Activision for a new, ambitious, multi-game franchise that would finally take Bungie beyond the Xbox platform.

The story goes that someone found a USB key at a coffee shop, and it included concept art and bullet point features regarding Destiny. These images and documents, sent to multiple outlets, come conveniently just a week before the Spike Video Game Awards, where numerous games receive their worldwide debut.

According to the documents, Destiny tells the story of a torn and tattered Earth that’s devastated--once again--by aliens. An enormous alien ship descends over humanity’s last major outpost, seemingly in protection of humanity. Why? No one knows, but it doesn’t matter: Earth has a protector. Players assume the role of “knights” assigned to fending off the surrounding threat and finding a solution.

The rumor’s always been that Bunge’s creating a sci-fi shooter MMO--PlanetSide done right--and while these documents hint at a large “social” aspect to this new game, it doesn’t make it explicit.

Bungie acknowledged the leak on its website, and even posted one of the leaked pieces of artwork.

“Go ahead,” said the company in a statement. “Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to. Stick around, we haven’t even started yet.”

Seems like something a studio would say if it had more to show awfully soon, huh? That’s just me speculating, though--I have no inside information of a Spike TV reveal. It just seems very suspicious and well-timed.

It looks interesting from what little we have to go on.

Love those concepts!

Interesting stuff!

Cool

Ho-hum. More FPS Shooters that want to be MMOs. I couldn't possibly care any less than I already do.

I like that concept art

In Bungie we trust.

Yeah, it's totally going to be present on the damn VGAs.

I hope we get to play as the aliens for once.

"Planetside done right", wtf?

It's literally impossible for me to get excited about aliens vs. Earth stories anymore. Maybe they'll throw some zombies in for good measure.

Looks interesting, and good on Bungie for not throwing a shit fit about the leak. It almost seems like it was intentional.

cool Robot

Random thumb drive at a coffee shop?

Smells like Trent Reznor to me.

Nice "Leak" of appropriately selected concept art pieces Bungie. -wink wink-.

What would Planetside done right look like Patrick? Kinda of a stupid comment.

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Seriously, wtf.

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Planetside done right? That sounds amaz-wait what?

An MMO shooter done right could be fantastic.

Wasn't Halo, in its very early stages, intended to have some MMO elements, back when it was going to be a Mac game?

@JesterPC238 said:

Looks interesting, and good on Bungie for not throwing a shit fit about the leak. It almost seems like it was intentional.

It was. Here's one of the other pieces of art compared to the C&C Tiberium cover from 2007. Link

Notice not only is the pose and feel of it the same, the guns are identical. It's not all real concept art, its an intentional PR leak using some recycled assets. I'm sure a lot of the art is real concept art being used, but this specifically isnt and points to very intentional "leak."

First concept shot reminds me of the Didact's cryptum from Halo 4.

Looks like the Didact decided to paint his ship white.

@camwil: Seriously, wtf?!

Planetside 1 wasn't exactly great at the shooting bit.

Also I have very little interest in MMO-anything.

@camwil said:

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Seriously, wtf.

See, Planetside isn't a very good game, so...

I like how on bungie's website the concept art is titled... "thirdtimesthecharm.jpeg"

They went and placed the USB there for people to find, its a classic. They do it with iPhones and other stuff too nowadays.

“Go ahead,” said the company in a statement. “Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to. Stick around, we haven’t even started yet.”

LOL.

They're saying the universe is going to be fleshed out, and they name-drop Star Wars as a similar universe. Why can't Bungie make a Star Wars game, a Battlefront/Planetside hybrid? I'd be thrilled about that.

@a5ehren said:

@camwil said:

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Seriously, wtf.

See, Planetside isn't a very good game, so...

I feel like some people are taking that comment personally... shocker!

I don't think Patrick meant it the way you think he meant it.

@Xeirus: Yep. In any case, more Planetside'esque games can't hurt!

That concept art looks like something out of the snow levels in Killzone.

I've got a friend doing concept art on this. He's been super excited from day 1. Sounds like a banger!

@Xeirus said:

@a5ehren said:

@camwil said:

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Seriously, wtf.

See, Planetside isn't a very good game, so...

I feel like some people are taking that comment personally... shocker!

I don't think Patrick meant it the way you think he meant it.

How did he mean it? I don't see how you can interpret this any other way than that he thinks Planetside is not done right. Which is kind of a silly statement to me, especially since we have Planetside 2 now. So he is comparing this to a very old game with some revolutionary concepts at that time, while not mentioning the new one.

Original Planetside fans (BR20, CR3 over heah) should be open to the concept of Planetside done BETTER, at least.

If they weren't making such good changes at the pace they are making them, I'd be looking for a PS2 done better around now as well. And the hardware specificity of it being a console game? There's potential there, regardless of whether or not you'd like there to be.

why does everything always leak. unless it's intentional..then it should be called strategic preemptive hype drops.

I'm not big into multiplayer games, but I like the look of the concept art and the sci-fi element when done right always appeals to me.

Another aliens taking Earth story...boy oh boy oh boy. At least the art design looks interesting.

I'm not the biggest fan of mixing sci-fi and fantasy. I like both genres, but I don't want knights with flowing robes in my futuristic fiction any more than I want Johnny Mnemonic running around with wizards and goblins.

I love Bungie though, so hopefully whatever they're doing turns out good.

@jozzy: Did you ever throw a grenade in Planetside? Use a lasher? I don't agree with Jeff's sentiment that shooting was fine in the old one, and no one is being egregious saying there's a lot of ground to make up. PS2 hasn't fully resonated with everybody yet. Would you rather he make a blanket statement about a game he hasn't played?

Bungie doesn't even let most of its employees use thumb drives, so the likelihood of a random thumb drive being left at a coffee shop that the perfect someone just happened to stumble upon, deduce what it was, and spread to all major news sources is bullshit.

Yes, VGAs for sure. That would explain this tweet from Geoff Keighley. It does not seem to be an "intentional leak" or maybe Bungie was upset with Keighley and the whole Doritos thing.

@jozzy said:

@Xeirus said:

@a5ehren said:

@camwil said:

@JDillinger said:

"Planetside done right", wtf?

Seriously, wtf.

See, Planetside isn't a very good game, so...

I feel like some people are taking that comment personally... shocker!

I don't think Patrick meant it the way you think he meant it.

How did he mean it? I don't see how you can interpret this any other way than that he thinks Planetside is not done right. Which is kind of a silly statement to me, especially since we have Planetside 2 now. So he is comparing this to a very old game with some revolutionary concepts at that time, while not mentioning the new one.

whatever you like it or not, you can't say planetside was done right enough to grab mainstream appeal. Which is what bungie is clearly aiming for.

Looks great. Can't wait to see what it actually is.

So, you're saying there are aliens... and there's an elite group of people that protect humanity against these aliens? Sounds familiar.

I don't judge games by metacritic, but Planetside has an 81 rating with 31 reviews. Clearly not perfect, but far from bad. #justsaying

Regardless of what the game turns out being, that is one fine piece of concept art.

So wait...lemme get this straight, you are a dude, on an earth that is struggling to keep itself together, that fights aliens?

hmmmmm..where have i heard of that before?

So now that the free PR has planted the seeds of interest, Bungie has now started developing this game? When can we expect it? 2015?

edit: They did have to pay the concept artist and for the USB key though.

Cool shots. I'm definitely curious.