It means they have $500M to create, market, and upkeep what could've been the greatest game franchise ever, does it not? Don't try and tell me that $500M isn't what I think it is. $500M is $500M, pure and simple. Yes there are costs to consider, but this is way more than any other game has ever had at its disposal and frankly, I've played much better games whose budgets were far smaller than that of Destiny. So the question still stands, if the "extraordinary" budget did not go towards building and "extraordinary" game (because we all know this game is far short of that), where did it go?

500 million was rewarded for the contract life of the game (10 years). Bungie was not given a blank check to just do whatever they want with the money. Activision has set aside up to 500 million dollars for use on the lifetime of this game. Bungie needs money for something? They send a request to Activision for an allotment of the budget for "X reason." That request is subject to approval, and may be sent back, or modified before any funds are given. Also, we haven't seen the contract so we don't know what is and what isn't covered in the contract. Activision is notorious for P2P connectivity. So it is not unlikely that additional network equipment was out side the scope of the contract. I work in government contracting. I hear "X billion dollar budget" all the time. Does it mean I have nearly unlimited funds to complete a project? HHHeeeecccckkkkk no. Regardless of amount available the middle man (me, Bungie) has to get approval before ANY use of the budget.

Since when did the government know how to manage money? This nation is hemorrhaging cash haha. I understand how the system works. You're again missing my point. The point is no matter how the system works, where the money comes from, or by what scale you measure the legitimacy of the needs that Bungie presents to Activision, the equipment you run the game on is paramount, and thus deserving of all the resources it takes to ensure that that equipment can handle what it is going to be put through. It makes no sense to spend money on anything extra if the hardware you have limits what you already have. You have to agree that Destiny, being a game based purely on online interaction/cooperation between players, MUST have equipment backing it that can efficiently and reliably transfer data between any two people at any given time or else the game is going to be more frustrating than fun. You say it's all Activision's fault for hogging the cash, but it's Bungie's responsibility to prioritize and present cost needs to them. If Bungie cannot even communicate the need for better internet equipment for their internet-based game to Activision effectively enough to get money for it, then the guy in charge of presenting the needs should be fired, because that's the single most important thing. Should've been number 1 from the beginning. I'd question the sanity of everyone on Bungie's senior staff if they let this go unnoticed, but there's no way they did. Therefore we are left with but two conclusions: 1. Bungie's staff realized that top-of-the-line equipment is needed to run their top-of-the-line game and failed to convince Activision of the true severity of the issue. Or 2. Activision is a greedy corporation that won't let a single penny go to improve this game despite the clear efforts of Bungie to convince them otherwise. Now we know the second one isn't true, they've approved money going to big names to be a part of Destiny, like Dinklage (even though he sucked), this Nolan guy, and the leader of dead orbit who I don't remember, so they obviously care. This of course leads you to wonder if they were just dumb and wasted all their money getting these people in the game, but you can rule that out by assuming that no company who would be dumb enough to waste money on names would ever be as successful as Bungie or Activision. That just leaves option 1. And I'm sorry, I've been a huge fan of Bungie's for a long time now, but I don't see them making the effort to fight for their own game anymore. They've rolled over and let themselves be pushed around by a bigger dog.