'Destiny' Game Release Date This Fall: PS4 Game Will Introduce Preload Feature

The upcoming action RPG “Destiny” will be the first PlayStation 4 game to support the console’s recently added preloading feature.

Update 1.70 for Sony’s PS4 launched at the end of April, adding a list of new features, including the ability to adjust the brightness of the DualShock 4 light bar, increased broadcasting resolution and archiving support and the ability to preload games that are bought digitally.

As part of this week’s PlayStation store update, a downloadable version of “Destiny” became available for preorder. The title will be playable at 12 a.m. PST on Sept. 9, which is when the first-person shooter will hit store shelves.

Preloading the title will also give users access to the “Destiny” beta, which will launch this July on the PlayStation platform first.

“We believe Destiny could be Activision Publishing's third billion-dollar franchise, and we're working hard to make it the biggest new IP launch in video game history," CEO Eric Hirshberg said during an Activision Blizzard earnings call in February. "Together, we are bringing gamers an ambitious and innovative game which combines the intensity of great first-person action, with the character investment and social connections of an RPG in an immense connected universe. We believe the game is on track to deliver record pre-orders for a new franchise, a public beta is planned for summer and we expect to launch the game on September 9.”

The game was originally planned for an early 2014 spring release on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3, but its launch date has been pushed back to this fall.

“Destiny” will take place 700 years in the future in a postapocalyptic setting following a lucrative and successful period of exploration and peace called the Golden Age. The game is set in a universe where humans have colonized a number of livable planets in the solar system. However, a disastrous event known as “the Collapse” saw the mysterious destruction of these colonies, leaving mankind nearly extinct. When humans attempt to repopulate and recover after the Collapse, aggressive and dangerous alien races are discovered in various towns and cities. Players will have the task of investigating and destroying the aliens before the human race is entirely wiped out.