Support NeoGAF

[geary]

Source:
https://www.irwebmeeting.com/sony/fast/20240807/sA7GHnQS/202503_1q_02_en/index.html

Sony President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki gave some details on the restructuring of Bungie!

- Purpose is cost restructure and portfolio optimization
- "We have to enhance efficiency of the business"
- Bungie back office functions will be integrated into SIE
- Bungie head count and resources will be concentrated into Destiny 2 and Marathon
- Other title development at Bungie will be transferred to PlayStation Studios
- Optimize overall studio structure

 

[tmlDan]

I do not disagree with any of these moves, much needed for Bungie. The last thing would be to fire Pete and replace him with a competent leader.

 

[struggler_guts]

"Other title development at Bungie will be transferred to PlayStation Studios"

 

[LordCBH]

Fire that scumbag loser Pete Parsons.

 

[peek]

Needs more DEI.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

"Other title development at Bungie will be transferred to PlayStation Studios"

We already knew that. The 75 person team created a new studio with their game publishing under PlayStation Studios.

The idea of Bungie as their own publisher never made any sense. All that back office stuff is nice if you're killing it financially, but otherwise, you're paying for the same functions for no benefit. You probably don't need a community manager at every studio. Bungie doesn't really need its own legal, finance, e.t.c.

A lot of the functions individual studios have like QA don't make a lot of sense because QA isn't working on projects 7 years straight at the same level. By centralizing QA, you can be a lot more efficient for example.

Bungie needs to focus on maintaining Destiny and getting Marathon out next year at its highest quality. Anything else is a distraction.

Firewalk should be brought in to start the work on Destiny 3 or a campaign mode for Marathon.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Needs more DEI.

huh? I'm staring to think the term DEI is on some of you folk's brains more than it is on the minds of the people pushing the crap.

 

[Solarstrike]

But SONY spent 3.6 Billion dollars buying Bungie.

Edit: In other words, SONY now see's that it got ripped off, bamboozled, shafted, cornholed, shit-socked, Tennessee turnarounded, Mississippi curveballed?

 

[Punished Miku]

Totoki seems like one of the only rational people left in Sony upper management. All he can really do though is just attempt to correct gross staffing and budgetary disasters. He has no clue what to do creatively so Herman's running the show there.

 

[peek]

huh? I'm staring to think the term DEI is on some of you folk's brains more than it is on the minds of the people pushing the crap.

Yes, because DEI works.

 

[Darsxx82]

It leaves questions about what will become of Bungie once Marathon is released. It's like they have no plans for new future Bungie projects or Sony want wait until they appreciate the success that Marathon can achieve.

 

[lh032]

Bungie new IP X Aloy collaboration cant wait.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This is a good thing.

We all know Bungie excel under extreme pressure. Look at Halo. Look at Destiny. Just seems to be what really pushes the studio to do something massive.

So having this mounting pressure to "do or die" with Marathon on them (ironically also technically being the first 1P they made) could be the kick-in-the-ass the studio needs to produce a diamond. A lot of people thrive under pressure.

Totoki seems like one of the only rational people left in Sony upper management. All he can really do though is just attempt to correct gross staffing and budgetary disasters. He has no clue what to do creatively so Herman's running the show there.

Herman is managing the transmedia stuff with PS Studios. Hideaki is the one managing the gaming side of PS Studios.

 

[squidilix]

Bungie with a leash.

 

[Mr Hyde]

I wonder if Totoki spared the knitting classes? Seems like an essential part of game development.

 

[The_Observer]

Yes, because DEI works.

Indeed, gaming and every type of business was never as good as nowadays, thanks to DEI. Best thing that ever happened in the world. Before this, businesses had no idea how to get talent but anywhere you see nowadays you see nothing but talent.

 

[John Wick]

Better off getting rid of Pete and top brass. Will save a fortune. Keep the devs

 

[skit_data]

I'm honestly a bit surprised Bungie managed to survive those 2-3 years self publishing Destiny 2. I'm even more surprised how Sony went ahead with the acquisition, somebody did a really baaaad job at investigating their economic situation.

 

[Varteras]

Better off getting rid of Pete and top brass. Will save a fortune. Keep the devs

I seem to recall having read a while back that the plan was that by 2026 Bungie's upper management would be leaving anyways. It took me by surprise because I had the impression they were staying as long as things went well. Obviously they didn't, but it sounded like they were leaving eventually regardless. I could have misread it.

 

[IFireflyl]

adamsapple , it would appear that my hope was misplaced. Being under SIE, it is improbable that future Bungie titles will not be exclusive. And considering that Concord is also exclusive...

 

[Varteras]

adamsapple , it would appear that my hope was misplaced. Being under SIE, it is improbable that future Bungie titles will not be exclusive. And considering that Concord is also exclusive...

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

 

[Mossybrew]

Good, might hurt now but almost certainly best for the long term health of Bungie.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Are there any rare classic car pictures in that Tweet? I wanna see the collectable cars. Show the Cars!

 

[adamsapple]

adamsapple , it would appear that my hope was misplaced. Being under SIE, it is improbable that future Bungie titles will not be exclusive. And considering that Concord is also exclusive...

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

This is a good thing.

Herman is managing the trans

Fixed.

 

[Varteras]

Fixed.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

- "We have to enhance efficiency of the business"

This means: "You cost too much money each month and produce not enough content."

 

[Daneel Elijah]

adamsapple , it would appear that my hope was misplaced. Being under SIE, it is improbable that future Bungie titles will not be exclusive. And considering that Concord is also exclusive...

I have to admit that I believed the same back then. I prefer that because I think that being exclusive will allow more optimisations, but I understand that people who loved Bungie games on Xbox consoles will be unhappy about this.

 

[Perrott]

Herman is managing the transmedia stuff with PS Studios. Hideaki is the one managing the gaming side of PS Studios.

That's not accurate at all.

Hermen Hulst, as the CEO of the Studio Business Group, is the one in charge of both PlayStation Studios (first-party games) as well as PlayStation Productions (transmedia). No one other than him manages PS Studios at a top level.

What Hideaki Nishino does is act as the CEO of the Platform Business Group, which is responsible for the PlayStation hardware and accessories, PlayStation Network, technology R&D and third-party relations.

And they both report to Hiroki Totoki, chairman of SIE.

 

[diffusionx]

Needs more DEI.

Lightfall wasn’t enough? That murdered Destiny.

 

[GHG]

This means: "You cost too much money each month and produce not enough content."

"but I worked so hard" we hear them cry.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Sony was truthful to a degree. Bungie was independent for about 2 years (deal closed July 2022).

Sony Interactive Entertainment to Acquire Leading Independent Video Game Developer, Bungie

SAN MATEO, Calif., January 31, 2022 – Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (“SIE”) announced today that it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire Bungie, Inc. (“Bungie”), a premier independent videogame developer and long-time partner of SIE that has created some of the videogame...

sonyinteractive.com

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

huh? I'm staring to think the term DEI is on some of you folk's brains more than it is on the minds of the people pushing the crap.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

This means: "You cost too much money each month and produce not enough content."

Yes… that is a fairly accurate definition of the word, in this context.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This means: "You cost too much money each month and produce not enough content."

Totally.

It's like Intel gutting 15,000 people. I posted a chart I did in that thread doing my best using public data comparing SG&A and R&D cost ratios. Compared to 2019, SG&A (which is selling, gen, admin costs... aka employee costs) zoomed up I think 2-3% from 8% to almost 11%, and R&D costs doubled from 20% to 40% as a % of revenue.

When I did the math, gutting 15,000 people got SG&A back to about 9%. That assumes using avg employee wages they had. But the 9% can being more or less pending how expensive the employees are they fired.

Most companies like to keep SG&A ratios steady as % of sales..... 5% 10%, 15% whatever. Every company is different, but the key thing is nobody wants it getting higher and higher.

 

[Killer8]

Latinx is getting beyond parody. Tweet practically reads like:

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Same company employee pool who were pissed Bungie let go people last summer and also gutted their company paid cooking and knitting classes.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

At some point, any current Bungie employees working in back office roles who still have their job and are asked to assimilate into the Sony umbrella will likely be gassed to next wave of layoffs. Some will be kept. But as soon as Sony has smoothed things out, a bunch of those office jobs will be redundant.

No different than any company buying another. My company buys brands or companies every so often. Same thing happens every time. Some people get folded in, some people let go right away, and as soon as the company can effectively spread out the new work to existing people, they'll figure out which pieces of fat to cut off. Might take a year or so. But it'll come.

You dont absorb 100% of sales, finance, demand planning, marketing etc... as incremental head count.

 

[Embearded]

From my experience, anyone who was good at their job don't really care about this kind of events in the companies they work. They don't really care for any kind of social event.
The dedicated people always feel out of place in these events and they always talk about work, the next steps, what needs to be done and try to organize their coworkers.
Most companies rely on them and they would prefer firing entire teams of "cool and progressive" people who spend their time trying to make the place more inclusive.

Funny thing is, the first kind of people i described, the productive folk, don't really care about your color or sexuality, they only care about getting the job done.
This is the experience i had so far, working as an engineer with ~200 colleagues with an average age of ~32.5.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

From my experience, anyone who was good at their job don't really care about this kind of events in the companies they work. They don't really care for any kind of social event.
The dedicated people always feel out of place in these events and they always talk about work, the next steps, what needs to be done and try to organize their coworkers.
Most companies rely on them and they would prefer firing entire teams of "cool and progressive" people who spend their time trying to make the place more inclusive.

Funny thing is, the first kind of people i described, the productive folk, don't really care about your color or sexuality, they only care about getting the job done.
This is the experience i had so far, working as an engineer with ~200 colleagues with an average age of ~32.5.

Office life has been similar for me since I got out of unversity.

Holistically people want to do a good job, have a successful company and grow sales. Ya, some people are lazy and some products are dogs, but there's always a focus on being productive. Different roles have different tasks, so the sales people focus the most on sales, finance about overall numbers and costs efficiencies, marketing often on share pts or branding and even thankless jobs like the accounts receivables an payables clerks processing admin stuff and fixing errors etc...

Collectively, the entire floor tries to do their best so the company does well, keeps their job and gets as a big a bonus as possible.

Problem with media and gaming companies is they got a lot of employees who bring their personal lives into the product. And that fucks it all up. So even if sales projections for weird politically driven game are bad, somehow no management or employees care. Just make it. You dont see any companies selling canned fruit, power drills, or the H&R Block guy hoping you hire him to do your taxes intermix personal politics into selling you a product. Pretty hard to push politics onto a customer at Home Depot buying wood for their new deck.

But media companies give those weird people product lines which they can weave in their home life crisis issues into the final product where stories and characters match the people making the game.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

That's not accurate at all.

Hermen Hulst, as the CEO of the Studio Business Group, is the one in charge of both PlayStation Studios (first-party games) as well as PlayStation Productions (transmedia). No one other than him manages PS Studios at a top level.

What Hideaki Nishino does is act as the CEO of the Platform Business Group, which is responsible for the PlayStation hardware and accessories, PlayStation Network, technology R&D and third-party relations.

And they both report to Hiroki Totoki, chairman of SIE.

Ok so I was half-right, cut me some slack

Fixed.

WTF

 

[yurinka]

Herman is managing the transmedia stuff with PS Studios. Hideaki is the one managing the gaming side of PS Studios.

That's not accurate at all.

Hermen Hulst, as the CEO of the Studio Business Group, is the one in charge of both PlayStation Studios (first-party games) as well as PlayStation Productions (transmedia). No one other than him manages PS Studios at a top level.

What Hideaki Nishino does is act as the CEO of the Platform Business Group, which is responsible for the PlayStation hardware and accessories, PlayStation Network, technology R&D and third-party relations.

And they both report to Hiroki Totoki, chairman of SIE.

When Hermen was promoted to co-CEO of SIE, also became CEO of the new SIE Platform Business Group, which manages and is in charge of:

• PS Studios
• Bungie
• Non-gaming adaptations (movies, tv shows, etc) of the PS Studios and Bungie IPs

Hermen is now in charge of all their firs party games and related adaptations, now also including Bungie. The other co-CEO is in charge of hardware, accesories, PSN, PS+ or 3rd party relations, basically the things that aren't the first party games and related adaptations.

We also have to remember that Hermen or Eric Lempel (SIE SVP of marketing) are also part of Bungie's board of directors since they acquired the 100% of Bungie, which is now a fully owned SIE subsidiary.

Hiroki Totoki is President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation. SIE is a subsidiary of the Sony Group Corporation, so the SIE CEOs report to him.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

People who focus so much of their time on culture war stuff are weird. If a games doesn't have the stuff you like, why not just not buy/play it, instead of blaming everything bad in the world on DEI?

Bungie is cashing and burning

"It has to be the inclusivity and tweets that caused them to make such bad financial decisions!"

Destiny had two expansions that didn't sell well and it fucked Bungie. That simple.

 

[PeteBull]

People who focus so much of their time on culture war stuff are weird. If a games doesn't have the stuff you like, why not just not buy/play it, instead of blaming everything bad in the world on DEI?

Bungie is cashing and burning

"It has to be the inclusivity and tweets that caused them to make such bad financial decisions!"

Destiny had two expansions that didn't sell well and it fucked Bungie. That simple.

DEI hires, which means ppl got/kept their jobs there not coz of merit but coz of color of their skin or whats between their legs, on top that leads to focusing on promoting woke agenda as top priority, not making best possible game as top priority, which results in huge financial loss.
tldr:

 

[ReBurn]

This is what peak Bungie independence looks like.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

People who focus so much of their time on culture war stuff are weird. If a games doesn't have the stuff you like, why not just not buy/play it, instead of blaming everything bad in the world on DEI?

Bungie is cashing and burning

"It has to be the inclusivity and tweets that caused them to make such bad financial decisions!"

Destiny had two expansions that didn't sell well and it fucked Bungie. That simple.

DEI = diversity quotas instead of meritocracy.

Diversity hires are less talented workers.

Less talented workers make worse games.

Worse games sell less than good games.

DEI killed Bungie.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

DEI hires, which means ppl got/kept their jobs there not coz of merit but coz of color of their skin or whats between their legs, on top that leads to focusing on promoting woke agenda as top priority, not making best possible game as top priority, which results in huge financial loss.
tldr:

You're missing the point the poster you're replying to is making.

 

[Perrott]

When Hermen was promoted to co-CEO of SIE, also became CEO of the new SIE Platform Business Group, which manages and is in charge of:

• PS Studios
• Bungie
• Non-gaming adaptations (movies, tv shows, etc) of the PS Studios and Bungie IPs

Hermen is now in charge of all their firs party games and related adaptations, now also including Bungie. The other co-CEO is in charge of hardware, accesories, PSN, PS+ or 3rd party relations, basically the things that aren't the first party games and related adaptations.

We also have to remember that Hermen or Eric Lempel (SIE SVP of marketing) are also part of Bungie's board of directors since they acquired the 100% of Bungie, which is now a fully owned SIE subsidiary.

Hiroki Totoki is President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation. SIE is a subsidiary of the Sony Group Corporation, so the SIE CEOs report to him.

I know, that's literally what I said in my previous post, minus the Bungie part of Hermen's responsabilities because it was not relevant, since the clarification was mostly about his role in regards to PS Studios.

 

[PeteBull]

You're missing the entire point.

Lets check wiki what brought bungie most sales/fame, was it alphabet/transformers person or was it master chief?
and according to wiki thats his description:

the Master Chief is described as tall with short brown hair, serious eyes, and strong features. His skin is unnaturally pale as a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor.[33] He stands about 7 feet (2.13 m) tall and weighs 1,000 pounds (450 kg) in armor;[34] without it, he stands 6 feet, 10 inches (2.08 m) tall and weighs 287 pounds (130 kg).[35][36]

If bungie wants to be saved it needs to go back to its roots, aka masculine protagonist, oozing with testosterone, and i dont mean fat lesbian with no waist, we learned thats recipe for diseaster from concord beta already

Now sony HQ decides what path bungie goes, can be beautiful redemption story or nasty fall, its not up to us anymore, so either way