Vex appeal.
The original Destiny never made it to PC, but the shooter-MMO may not stay locked to PS4 and Xbox One for much longer. Some crafty modders have been working to get the game running on PC, and their efforts recently caught the eye of Bungie, which surprisingly didn't result in a take-down - not yet, at least.
YouTuber Flummoxed has been sharing progress updates, and recently showed footage of various parts of Destiny 1 running on PC at 4K resolution at well over 60fps. The footage has a wider FOV than the one on console, meaning the build has been upgraded compared to consoles.
The latest video got shared widely among the Destiny community, and surprisingly got something of a nod from Bungie. Josh Deane, studio head of product and Marathon general manager, commented on the footage on X, jokingly writing, "Seems like a pretty game, wonder if it will do well…"
It is worth taking Deane's nod for what it is and not jump to conclusions. This is not confirmation of a Destiny 1 revival within Bungie, and I'd be surprised if Sony doesn't issue DMCA take-downs soon.
You may remember Deane from the recent Bungie apology video in which the studio's new leadership, Deane included, vowed to restore Destiny 2 content that's been removed over the years.
Considering how understaffed Bungie appears to be, and how it also has to split its attention between Destiny 2 and Marathon, a Destiny 1 release on PC is not likely to be on the studio's current list of priorities.
As for the project itself, it's dubbed Project Golden Age and it works backwards from client and server requests and responses to essentially rebuild the game. Fan projects have utilised similar techniques in the past to keep servers running for online-only games after their shutdowns, such as Anthem. Golden Age does, however, appear to use generative AI, with Claude's markdown tool mentioned on the project's GitLab page. The end result is not perfect yet, with a few physics and rendering issues, but it's the closest thing we have to Destiny 1 on PC.
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