Moving on from Halo to Destiny was a “liberating” experience for Bungie, according to community manager David “Deej” Dague. Speaking with USA Today, Dague said the studio won’t soon forget about its Halo days, but stressed that shifting to a new franchise was an important move for the company.

“We’ll never turn a blind eye to the accomplishments that come from the Halo era at Bungie,” Dague said. “But as creators, as artists, as people with imaginations for how games can be new and different, and exciting, it was pretty liberating, actually, to start with a blank canvas and say, ‘What sort of story do we want to tell now?'”

Dague went on to say that Halo, from its start in 2001, was intended as a game that could “stand on its own.” That game proved to be a hit, and the series has since shifted more than 50 million copies, making it a juggernaut in gaming. That’s all well and good, Dague says, but he admits, “There wasn’t a lot of planning done well in advance to support that sort of thing.”

With Destiny, however, Bungie started development with a ten-year, Lord of the Rings-sized plan in place. “We are accepting that challenge in advance,” Dague said about Destiny and the way in which Bungie has thought about its future already.

Leaving Halo behind was an idea supported by many at Bungie, Dague says. “We had a lot of fun stretching our legs and challenging ourselves to explore some new territory [with Destiny]. And it’s been a welcome change for a lot of people on the team who had kept their imaginations rooted in that United Nations Space Command for so many years.”

Development on the Halo series is now handled by Microsoft’s 343 Industries. The next major entry in the series is this November’s Xbox One bundle Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which includes HD versions of Halo 1-4, as well as a beta key for this year’s Halo 5: Guardians beta.

Destiny launched on Tuesday for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. In its first 24 hours, it drove $500 million in revenue, and is poised to sell as many as 15 million copies this year alone, according to one analyst. For more, check out GameSpot’s review-in-progress, and some of our favorite screenshots in the gallery below. Clicking the thumbnails below will bring up full-size versions.

Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch

For all of GameSpot’s news coverage, check out our hub. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com