‘Destiny’ Features Free Song From Paul McCartney, It May Disappoint You

The phrase “you get what you pay for” seems sadly applicable. Paul McCartney wrote and performed a song for the hit game Destiny, but he didn’t even receive a check. Instead the work was made purely for creativity, though critics have panned it as “cheesy.”

The song is called “Hope for the Future,” and it plays during the end credits for Destiny. Some people wondered how Bungie was able to get the iconic Beatle and knight to lend his voice to the game. The assumption was that such an honor would involve a massive check, but Bungie’s community manager Eric Osbourne said there was no money exchanged. Paul McCartney did it for the creative challenge, and to reach people who normally would not listen to his music.

“He got a wonderful opportunity to reach an audience that wouldn’t typically be immersed in Paul McCartney. They might hear the name — of course he’s everywhere, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics, obviously he’s touring and recording nonstop — but he sees it as a way to reach a new audience that might not otherwise hear his music.”

I suppose it’s all the same to Sir Paul McCartney, whose net worth is about $650 million, according to Forbes.

Nevertheless, if McCartney’s goal was to reach a new audience, he might have failed. Critics who just got their first listen to the single seem less than impressed.

Entertainment weekly had this to say about the tune.

“It sounds like something Elton John would write for a sequel to ‘The Lion King,’ but in space and with everything that makes Disney soundtracks catchy thrown out the airlock.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, Kotaku seemed to agree.

“Now that ‘Destiny’ is out, we can hear that single in all its overproduced, cheesy/endearing glory.”

The disappointments comes after a long period of high expectations. McCartney first announced his involvement in the game’s development about two years ago on Twitter. More details came out in the New York Times, saying that he had been in collaboration with Marty O’Donnell, until his sudden firing, and Mike Salvatori on the game’s music score. The Times revealed that McCartney’s involvement began in 2010, meaning he had been working on the game for four years.

Despite all the time and effort put into the soundtrack, it looks like it received a luke-warm reception in the end.

The full ending theme song from Paul McCartney can be found here.