Voice control is taking over the world and if you’re one of the many who has fallen for the skills of Amazon’s Alexa, then you’ll quite possibly be interested to hear more about its latest skill – a Destiny 2 related skill!
Announced today by Tom Taylor, senior vice president, Amazon Alexa and Byron Beede, Activision’s senior vice president of Product Management for Destiny at the AWS re:Invent 2017 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Destiny 2 Ghost Skill, voiced by the in-game Ghost’s voice actor Nolan North, can be enabled right now for free via the Alexa app.
It’ll give you the opportunity to speak to Alexa in order to get in-game tasks performed and it serves as a more than delightful companion for those who have been engrossed in Destiny 2.
Once enabled you’ll be able to interact with the game by saying, “Alexa, ask Ghost to…” with a variety of utterances — from “…tell me which friends are online,” to asking “…what should I do next?” giving recommendations for what to play next based on players’ real-time current progress, to “…call for back up,” which offers an easy way to interact with friends in their clan to enhance the social experience of Destiny 2, to “… equip my Raid loadout,” equipping players’ favourite weapons and armour for a number of different gameplay activities, to learning more about the world and characters of Destiny 2 with a request like, “…tell me who are the Red Legion?”
“The Ghost serves as your guide and companion in Destiny 2 the game, and now players will be able to bring that experience into the real world with them through Alexa,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision. “The Destiny 2 Ghost skill is the first of its kind and the most innovative and immersive gaming experience to date on Alexa. We’re excited to give our community of players, who are among the most-dedicated fans in the world, new ways to play Destiny 2 with the Ghost skill and Limited-Edition Destiny 2 Ghost. The lines between in-game and out-of-game have been blurred in an incredible new way.”
“Alexa is now part of the Destiny 2 experience, and we’re excited for what that means for Destiny 2 players and the future of games and voice technology,” said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa. “Gaming is an example of where voice can create a more engaging experience in a natural and delightful way for customers. Rather than interrupting gameplay to navigate menus, players can just ask Ghost through Alexa to help with certain tasks. Players love the Destiny 2 experience, and now Alexa can make it even more immersive and fun.”
“Destiny 2 players being able to interact with a physical Ghost paired with an Amazon Alexa is just a really fun and unique idea,” said Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie. He added, “With our partners at Activision, it’s been exciting to develop this project into a rich, useful skill worthy of Amazon’s Alexa.”
But that’s not all and also announced today is the Limited-Edition Destiny 2 Ghost. This WiFi enabled speaker which is compatible with Alexa devices, brings the look and sound of the Ghost from inside the game into the real world.
The Limited-Edition Destiny 2 Ghost and Echo Dot speaker bundle is available for pre-order right now for £129.89, or can be purchased separately as a companion to Alexa devices for £79.99. It’ll become available on the 19th December, 2017.
This is both pretty cool and also kind of depressingly ironic. Cool because I have got a house full of Alexa devices and this seems like an interesting augmentation to the game experience. The irony comes from the fact that I also have a device that pre-dates Alexa by a good few years and could have done exactly the same thing. What is it I hear you ask? Kinect of course! RIP.