Bungie and Activision unveiled the first official details regarding Destiny at last week’s event at Bungie headquarters and, now that the embargo’s up, we’re now officially able to talk about everything we know about this incredibly ambitious title.

Destiny, as it’s being called, is a unique shooter that allows you to interact in a shared world with other players. Much like a MMO, the world will be open and persistent and, if the video documentary is to be believed, one that’s been planned to span the next 10 years. While we weren’t really shown actual gameplay, we were shown the company’s brand new engine, some of game’s character models, and a sample of the music, which are all contained in the video below. The company additionally confirmed that Destiny is headed for release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The game is set in the last remaining safe haven on Earth, protected by a being known only as The Traveler. You’ve probably seen this entity in previous concept artworks, depicted as a huge white orb hovering around an area of the world. You play as a Guardian, an envoy of sorts for The Traveler, tasked with learning what brought forth mankind’s demise and to protect your fellow men from ruthless alien creatures. Players will explore the solar system, and perhaps beyond, and are able to customize their character’s appearance with items that they’ll pick up during their adventure. Much like in a MMO, your Guardian will have a player progression system that is described as rich and rewarding.

Wait… a MMO? Perhaps not. While Bungie did say that Destiny will require an internet connection due to its persistent nature, there are no plans to charge a subscription fee for the experience. “We’re really putting players at the center of the world and giving them control of their experience. From the ground up, we’ve built this game to be social and cooperative. We’ve learned a bunch of lessons from MMOs and Facebook games… but Destiny is a console shooter,” explains Jason Jones, Bungie’s co-founder and Destiny’s project director.

While the company talked a little bit about the various cooperative and competitive modes, Bungie claims that these will all seamlessly tie in with the user’s personal experience of the storyline, not unlike games like Journey or From Software’s ‘Souls series. Bungie wants to have something new and emergent happening every single time players sign on to the game, encouraging players to participate in events as often as they want and, naturally, the more active players get better rewards.

In addition to this, players can interact with Destiny using mobile apps that are integrated into the game world through Bungie.net. Bungie adds that they’ll be able to let people know if there are new pieces of content available for the game, help connect players with each other, and allow players to be engaged in stories that are shared through the service.