NetEase has revealed its much-rumoured Destiny spin-off for mobile, subtitled Rising.
A closed alpha begins on November 1 in the US and Canada, but there’s no release date yet. Destiny: Rising is developed and published by NetEase, and officially licensed by Bungie. In an accompanying developer video (below), NetEase describes the game as “quite early” into development.
It will be free to play and is described as a brand new adventure in the franchise, set in an alternative Destiny timeline that explores a narrative in the “post-Dark Age era”.
NetEase says Destiny: Rising features new and “familiar” playable characters with different abilities and stories, a shared world, plus single player, coop and competitive gameplay, including “beloved game modes familiar to Destiny players”. The firm also promises “new ways to play Destiny” including clans, casual party game modes and customisable shared spaces.
The game features an “entirely new Destiny narrative”, campaign missions, six-player co-op strikes plus new and replayable PVE and PVP modes. It is playable in firstperson and thirdperson modes, and either with a touchscreen or with a controller.
“With Destiny: Rising, NetEase Games is honored to partner with Bungie to deliver a Destiny-caliber experience to mobile devices,” said NetEase senior vice president Ethan Wang. “Destiny is an incredible franchise with a passionate and dedicated global fanbase. As huge fans ourselves, we are humbled and thrilled for the opportunity to bring gamers an action-packed RPG shooter set within the Destiny Universe.”
Bungie creative lead Terry Redfield added: “For over a decade, we have built this universe to contain many unique and wonderful stories, and we are excited to see mobile gamers be able to experience this new take on the Destiny universe from the creative team at NetEase.”
In the developer interview video released today, NetEase also describes Rising as the “perfect on-ramp into the Destiny universe whether or not the player is familiar with the franchise.”
Reports of a mobile Destiny game have been floating around since NetEase was spotted hiring for the project by local press back in 2022. The Chinese giant had also previously invested $100m in Bungie back in 2018. Sony bought Bungie for $3.6bn in 2022 when NetEase’s mobile edition was (presumably) already in development, but there’s no mention of PlayStation’s mobile arm in the announcement. It all seems to have gone rather quiet for PlayStation Mobile, after it acquired Savage Game Studios (now rebranded as Neon Koi) and made a flurry of high profile hires in 2022.
NetEase, meanwhile, has experience bringing big western game franchises to mobile through its work with Blizzard on Diablo Immortal – though it got a fiery response from hardcore fans back when it was released in the summer of 2022.
