As Activision ramps up to release Bungie’s Destiny next week, the publisher is moving to maximize the game’s retention rate by offering a free digital copy of the game on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 to people who purchase it digitally on the corresponding last-gen consoles. The advent of digital distribution makes this sort of cross-gen promotion possible, and it’s worth noting how rarely we see it utilized in contemporary console game development — Sony’s cross-buy and cross-save PSN systems being the notable exception. Under the terms of the promotion, anyone who purchases a digital copy of Destiny or its expansion content for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 will be able to redeem a voucher for the same digital content on the next generation of their respective console through January 15. Nothing is lost in the transition, either; redeeming a voucher for a PlayStation 4 digital copy of the game won’t prevent someone from playing their original PlayStation 3 copy, and characters remain playable across versions with the same console family since Bungie syncs Destiny player data to external servers. Activision is betting the game will hit big when it launches later this month — CEO Bobby Kotick called it the “biggest new IP in our company’s history” in a recent call with investors. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg painted it as a “10 year franchise” during the same call, and this new marketing maneuver seems designed to ensure that last-gen console owners willing to upgrade will remain within the Destiny ecosystem for the lion’s share of that decade.
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2014