Marketing materials leaked by way of IGN appear to have revealed some key details of Destiny, the mysterious new franchise in the works at Halo developer Bungie, and their first game since their departure from Microsoft.

The authenticity of the leak has since been confirmed by Bungie, who mention they "We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to", but encourage people to take a peek anyway, and have released their own piece of official concept art (via IGN):

According to the document, “Our story begins seven hundred years from now in the Last City on Earth, in a Solar System littered with the ruins of man’s Golden Age. A massive, mysterious alien ship hangs overhead like a second Moon. No one knows where it came from or what it’s here for, but only that it’s our protector. Meanwhile, strange, alien monsters creep in from the edge of the universe, determined to take Earth and the Last City. We are young ‘knights’ tasked with defending the remains of humanity, discovering the source of these monsters and – eventually – overcoming it.” Elsewhere in the document, the massive alien ship is referred to as “the Traveler.”

Destiny is further described as “fun and accessible to all,” aiming “to create a universe as deep, tangible and relatable as that of the Star Wars franchise.” Based on the language in the document, it appears that Bungie aims to create a universe accessible to multiple demographics, perhaps suggesting that Destiny will be less mature than Bungie’s efforts with Halo. A quote from Bungie co-founder Jason Jones says “Destiny is designed for your inner seven year old. We want to make it feel like a mythic adventure.”

Destiny’s gameplay is described by the document as “social at its core,” offering “a world to explore with friends, both old and new.” It’s unclear whether this confirms comments from Bungie in 2011 that the game is an MMO, which Bungie later called a joke. The document also includes a Destiny logo along with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 icons, as well as the URL Destiny.com. It’s worth noting that while Destiny.com is currently password-protected, if it is indeed a URL that’s been purchased by Bungie, it could suggest that Destiny will indeed be the game’s final name rather than a codename as previously speculated.

The accessible adventure theme, and marketing concept art found on IGN suggest a very Star Warsy vibe, but we won't know for sure until the official reveal, which VG247 suggest is likely to happen at the 2012 Spike VGA's on December 7th, due to a hinting tweet by G4's Geoff Keighly.

The Destiny franchise will be published by Activision across multiple platforms, starting with the first game on Xbox 360 in the 2013 holiday season, and followed with planned sequels, and expansions all the way through to 2020.