Rumor: Sony leadership feels that Bungie is a failed investment

Klosshufvud said:
He already got fired.
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Donald Glover Reaction GIF
 
Hindsight is 20/20. Bungie had/have one of the biggest modern IPs at time of purchase with consistently high engagement, they're well experienced in live service (for better or worse), and exclusively make shooters, which Sony lacks. At surface level, it was a move that made sense and didn't really break the bank, relative to other publishers. Things have changed obviously, but I don't blame them for taking a shot.

However, I think Hermen gets fired soon. I wouldn't can him for his part in Bungie alone, but he definitely will be replaced if Haven and/or Firewalk's games flop.
 
As a PlayStation fan, I'm so happy that PlayStation is having trouble with Bungie and their Gaas initiative.

Instead of doing it "organically" like they used to say they wanted to shift their focus on Gaas.

How's that working out for them.

Maybe they'll focus on their core audience now.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Japan side executives need to gut Bungie and fire all the wokies who have infected both Bungie and the rest of SIE North America.

Once the PlayStation division is back to being run by the Japan side, things will improve quickly and dramatically.
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Hope so.
 
solidus12 said:
As a PlayStation fan, I'm so happy that PlayStation is having trouble with Bungie and their Gaas initiative.

Instead of doing it "organically" like they used to say they wanted to shift their focus on Gaas.

How's that working out for them.

Maybe they'll focus on their core audience now.
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They haven't focused on their old core audience for over a decade now. I wouldn't hold my breath. Being able to move on is a sign of good health.
 
Fabieter said:
That's like 3 times the headcount of insomniac which will release their fourth full game by the time marathon might come along. Why do they have so many people compared to other studios which release more games more regularly.
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When acquired, Bungie was working minimum the yearly expansions of Destiny 2, Marathon and minimum one new IP.

2-3 years ago Bungie's plan was to release "at least one" (so maybe more than one, meaning that other than Marathon and Destiny had something else in full production) new IP -counting Marathon as new IP- before 2025 (or depending on the specific quote, "by 2025"). They had Matter trademarked since 2018, and updated the trademark in 2023, meaning they still plan to use it so the cancelllation claims in 2022 from IGN are fake news.

So they had under development minimum:
  • Destiny 2 The Witch Queen
  • Destiny 2 Lightfall
  • Destiny 2 The Final Shape
  • Marathon
  • Matter
  • Some prototypes under incubation
Since then they almost doubled their headcount, so very likely they are working on more new IPs, like the game they hinted in a job offer (nicknamed "Gummy Bears" by the rumors) if it really isn't Matter as the supposed leakers claim.

And obviously Sony won't want to kill Destiny with The Final Shape, they will want to refresh the Destiny IP pretty likely with a Destiny 3.

They also mentioned that Bungie wanted to expand their IPs to movie and tv shows and Sony were going to help them with this, so maybe they are already also working on adaptations to the cinema of their IPs.

Bungie also had a deal with I think was Netease, which I'm not sure but I'd say it was for a mobile game. If not developed by Netease itself, maybe Bungie is developing it in-house too.

ChorizoPicozo said:
GaaS killed Bungie
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No, GaaS made Bungie more successful than ever before.
 
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solidus12 said:
As a PlayStation fan, I'm so happy that PlayStation is having trouble with Bungie and their Gaas initiative.

Instead of doing it "organically" like they used to say they wanted to shift their focus on Gaas.

How's that working out for them.

Maybe they'll focus on their core audience now.
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The core audience isn't enough to sustain Sony anymore as game budgets balloon and development times double. Sony knows the writing is on the wall and the shrinking profit margins are indicative of that.
 
ChorizoPicozo said:
but at what cost
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At the cost of becoming one of the most popular and successful gamedev studio in the world. Being acquired at $3.6B even if owning only one IP and having a single game in currently in the market, and almost doubling its size in couple years.

And well, having also some youtuber and gaming website mading up stuff about them when there are slow news periods.

James Sawyer Ford said:
The shrinking profit margins are largely due to Bungie acquisition costs…
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According to Totoki in addition to costs of recent acquisitions (not only the Bungie one) there was also the rising costs of the components needed to make their hardware. In the report they mentioned more stuff that now I don't remember.

Regarding the acquisition costs, Totoki said that next fiscal year will start to ease out.
 
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yurinka said:
At the cost of becoming one of the most popular and successful gamedev studio in the world. Being acquired at $3.6B even if owning only one IP and having a single game in currently in the market, and almost doubling its size in couple years.

And well, having also some youtuber and gaming website mading up stuff about them when there are slow news periods.
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and not being able to financially sustain themselves. you forgot that part.
 
They have so much talent over at Bungie. Destiny 2 plays great, looks great, and they know how to make great raids. But they decided to completely ruin the experience by having the game become a microtransaction hell. Keep the artist, keep the programmers, and fire whoever decided to monetize a paid retail game worse than a free to play game.
 
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Jack Package said:
Yes, the games did well but it doesn't mean Bungie did a good job of developing them.
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Sure, there's the possibility that all their games became super successful not because their devs did a great job, but because they wren't doing a shit and some magic fairies developed the game.

Jack Package said:
Having a long-serving member of staff get fired then successfully sue you is not "normal development".
Jones is an imbecile at best and a shyster at worst. The truth is, Bungie have succeeded despite themselves.

You should Google the meaning of "contradiction".
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Yes, it's normal that after working several years in a company that aims to the top some people gets tired or fired.

And it's also normal to fire people even if they worked during a long time in a company even if in the past did a great job. Maybe now was doing an awful job, or wanted to leave with the money, or maybe punched someone in the face. Who knows.

ChorizoPicozo said:
and not being able to financially sustain themselves. you forgot that part.
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Source: your ass
 
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This has all the makings of being the next Blizzard as far as beloved IPs and games then turned failure.

I'm on that hopium though that Marathon ends up being a great game because I want it to.
 
Salty Popsicle said:
The core audience isn't enough to sustain Sony anymore as game budgets balloon and development times double. Sony knows the writing is on the wall and the shrinking profit margins are indicative of that.
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They could have tackled their gaas initiative in a better way like they did with Helldivers 2.

I wouldn't be surprised if they acquire Arrowhead given their decade old relationship.

As opposed to Bungie, with whom they have nothing in common.
 
I always felt this whole initiative with Bungie was quite insulting to Sony's quite successful first party studios. Bungie, one of the grossest, shittiest live service companies, with predatory monetization and anticonsumer practices, whose entire history is plagued by waste, disappointment and development hell, (um does anyone not remember the colossal development fuck up that was the original Destiny.... it's a miracle that sad game even launched) is presented like a shining beacon on the mountain. Yeah... right.
 
Surprise Wow GIF


But but I thought live service games were the future and easy moneymakers,Warner Brothers execs and Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes keep telling us so.

Sony you should definitely invest even more money into Bungie,they are clearly a winner with their 2 games in 14 years and no doubt you'd want a marathon for another 10 years...

winning charlie sheen GIF
 
Gojiira said:
The interesting takeaway is Sony wanting to restructure the monetisation which Destiny really needs…I remember back when Eververse first dropped and their was backlash Bungie justified it with 'Eververse will fund a second team who will release free content such as strikes,crucible maps etc'…And that never happened, not even once. Now they say they cant make strike specific loot, or seasonal armours etc because its too much work but Eververse gets multiple new drops every season. Fuck off Bungie.
Not to mention the vaulting of content, or how season passes you own cant be completed after the fact, I know I personally have missed a few despite owning then, its just ridiculous tbh. The justification that game size would be too big if everything was kept in is stupid too, look at Warzones file size and how many people play that, nobody gives a fuck about file size, but Bungie just want to have a way to charge people again when some of that vaulted content does return…
Yeah Sony needs to put the boot down hard on the execs. Been a long time coming,
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I fucking loathe Bungie for all the reasons you just listed. They are the scum of the earth as far as studios go. How lawsuits weren't filed against them for the vaulting and their many lies I'll never know.
 
K' Dash said:
It's amazing that Sony just keeps fucking up and selling PS5 at a record pace.
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That's because there are more games than anyone can reasonably play, and the normal gamer doesn't visit boards like this one or is aware that any of this shit is happening.
 
It's interesting how Bungie has basically shit away their relationship with three publishers, yet somehow it's always the publishers' fault.
 
yurinka said:
Sure, there's the possibility that all their games became super successful not because their devs did a great job, but because they wren't doing a shit and some magic fairies developed the game.


Yes, it's normal that after working several years in a company that aims to the top some people gets tired or fired.

And it's also normal to fire people even if they worked during a long time in a company even if in the past did a great job. Maybe now was doing an awful job, or wanted to leave with the money, or maybe punched someone in the face. Who knows.


Source: your ass
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I've no idea why you're so determined to defend incompetence, but make sure you work the corporate balls along with the cock!

If someone was punched in the face, Marty would never have won that lawsuit. I play Destiny, despite my better judgement. I love Halo and Marathon, but there is no escaping the fact that Bungie is a badly run company that is in a bad way financially, and that incompetence is finally biting them in the ass.
 
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Jack Package said:
I've no idea why you're so determined to defend incompetence, but make sure you work the corporate balls along with the cock!

If someone was punched in the face, Marty would never have won that lawsuit. I play Destiny, despite my better judgement. I love Halo and Marathon, but there is no escaping the fact that Bungie is a badly run company that is in a bad way financially, and that incompetence is finally biting them in the ass.
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Nah, you're just too negative because being a Bungie fanboy you are too emotionally invested and see small issues way more important than they really are, or made up issues where there aren't.

It's a fact that they have a flawless history of all their games being huge success at the highest level, which wouldn't be possible if people in charge would be incompetent.

Sure, as humans they may made mistakes and to have some flaw, something normal. But the overal result is a huge success. If it would be a badly run company some games would have been big failures and they would have shut down, which is the opposite of their case.
 
What talent works at Bungie? What kind of smart person decided that damage should be based on how close the camera is to the target. So aiming has to teleport the player camera across the map to increase/decrease damage. There's so many bugs/glitches, it's ridiculous to think that management is hovering around telling people to code line for line how every little thing should be implemented. The issue is team leads, e.g. lead designer, lead engineer
 
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diffusionx said:
It's interesting how Bungie has basically shit away their relationship with three publishers, yet somehow it's always the publishers' fault.
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That's done on purpose. The company is big enough with enough success under their belt they play the mercenary role and flip flop around getting bought, sold off, partnered, bought again etc..... Dont be surprised if they get sold off again and management finds another big fish to milk.

The problem they got is there's only so many big corporations out there willing to dance with them. MS already did. Activision did too (now part of MS). Nintendo isnt the type of company that would buy Bungie. And their current dance partner is Sony.

At some point Bungie will be on its own again. In which they will try to hook in EA, T2, Tencent, Epic etc... as their next target.
 
Lol. Sony got Bungie in July 2022. It's waaay too soon to speak of either a succes or failure. The article in the first post is probably fake clickvait
 
Bungie fumbled so hard with Destiny. I loved the OG Destiny. Destiny 2 was good if samey. Then the expansions started, and things got confusing. Even if I wanted to play Destiny 2 again I'd have no real shot of doing so in any coherent way. Chasing widgets.
 
How much did they pay for bungie again? iirc bethedsa was bought for less
Buying over woke studios is just poor business sense, every meetings they will argue about mundane diversity crap
 
Salty Popsicle said:
The core audience isn't enough to sustain Sony anymore as game budgets balloon and development times double. Sony knows the writing is on the wall and the shrinking profit margins are indicative of that.
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People also forget that development times are increasing.

If people think the drought is bad already, imagine if GaaS wouldn't exist.
There has to be something to play in between major releases and GaaS continues to offer content.
 
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