Destiny Approved

Upon Destiny’s release on September 9, college campuses nationwide found themselves confronting network problems. The game required access to thousands of network ports, many of which were currently blocked for security reasons. As a result, students couldn’t play the highly-anticipated game on their Xbox or PlayStation.

Destiny’s creator, Bungie, the maker of the Halo franchise, has become a household name, at least for anyone who’s somewhat recently held a controller. With their contract with Microsoft officially over, Bungie was free to create a new universe, one without Master Chief and Cortana. There were some that doubted Bungie’s new game, Destiny, but the more footage was released, the more buzz and anticipation grew.

Upon its release, Destiny instantly broke records, becoming the most pre-ordered game from a new franchise, the highest-selling day one digital console release in history, and the most successful new video game franchise launch of all time, pulling in $350 million in the first five days of its release. While this number may fall short to other major releases (here’s looking at you, $1 billion-in-a-day Call of Duty: Ghosts), it’s a large number for a new franchise game.

Following the game’s release, many college campuses reported they had blocked the network ports that the game requires. On Twitter, Bungie reported, “We’re aware of the issues with playing Destiny on college campuses. Stay tuned for information to share with your local network admins.”

UBIT decided to alter the way the network saw Internet traffic from the game so students on campus would be able to play. The traffic was coming through as peer-to-peer (P2P), making it look like it was for illegal downloading or file sharing activity, which violates the terms of service of UB’s network. Fortunately, UB’s network engineers were on top of it. “We contacted Bungie and they were able to provide a list of the servers they use,” said Brian Przepasniak, Network Engineer with Network and Classroom Services (NCS). “Once we had that information, we were able to allow traffic to those servers.”

UB students should have no problem playing Destiny on campus, but if you do, the CIT Help Desk is just a phone call or email away. So, go ahead, Guardians…full speed ahead!