Bungie's hugely ambitious open-world shooter Destiny has been given a tentative date on when to expect their public beta, with Activision revealing an American Summer (our Winter) time frame during the recent publisher's earning call yesterday.

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg announced the news, adding that the publisher is expecting Destiny to be the company's "third billion-dollar franchise, and we're working hard to make it the biggest new IP launch in video game history."

"Together, we are bringing gamers an ambitious and innovative game which combines the intensity of great first-person action, with the character investment and social connections of an RPG in an immense connected universe. We believe the game is on track to deliver record pre-orders for a new franchise, a public beta is planned for summer and we expect to launch the game on September 9," added Hirshberg.

Activision has previously confirmed that the beta will be arriving to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 users first, though it is unknown exactly how early Sony fans will get the beta. Destiny is expected to launch on September 9th across PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.