Load the Game

Paul McCartney’s contribution to Destiny’s soundtrack was ‘on the house’

• Crisan Mircea
• September 12th, 2014

According to Bungie’s community manager Eric Osbourne, Paul McCartney helped Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori compose the Destiny soundtrack without requesting any financial compensation. According to Osbourne, McCartney decided to contribute to the soundtrack for free in order to reach audiences that would otherwise not be interested in him and his music.

Paul McCartney contributed with orchestral elements to Destiny’s soundtrack and composed a new single for the game. McCartney’s song, titled “Hope for the Future”. Osbourne also praises the other members of the sound department for their compositions. He states that they have worked hard to ensure that the story and gameplay of Destiny are accompanied by a great soundtrack.

In the same interview, Osbourne explained why Destiny doesn’t have an offline mode. He stated that, at Bungie, they believe that people add the most rich, dynamic and unpredictable elements to a game. Basically, you get a different experience every time you are playing because different people are playing all the time. According to Osbourne, this adds a level of richness to the game, that you don’t get when you are playing alone. About their servers having to hold up under so many people playing the game, the Bungie official says that they have considered the issue and tested their servers. During the alpha test of the game, Bungie had a thousand people play and they have been running behind the scenes tests ever since to ensure that the servers are still up and running.

Osbourne also dismisses the rumor that Activision gave Destiny a $500 million budget for development and marketing. He states that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s statement (which started the rumor) was misunderstood and that, by the large sum, he meant what the publisher was willing to invest in Destiny over the project’s life. He assures that, despite the fact that Destiny is Bungie’s biggest game, there is no check written for $500 million.