Bungie has seen more layoffs and moves to outsource the company to Sony Interactive Entertainment, and a recent report suggests Bungie’s leadership has over-hyped its financial outlook.
Sony acquired Bungie in 2022 and paid a total of $3.6 billion for it. That’s a lot of money for a single studio, even though the developer has an established live service brand with “Destiny.”
The financial expectations were apparently not met, which again led to mass layoffs. More employees were outsourced and Sony Interactive Entertainment even took over the development of a game that was previously being developed by Bungie in a newly founded studio.
Bungie sold things that cannot be delivered
Was Bungie ultimately a bad buy? There are a number of indications that this is the case. There were apparently misconceptions about the financial opportunities that the purchase of the developer would open up. The generally well-informed Journalist Stephen Totilo from three sources.
“I think Sony paid too much for Bungie,” one of the sources is quoted as saying. “I think Bungie sold things they just couldn’t deliver.”
If the statement is interpreted correctly, it could mean that Bungie has embellished its future prospects, while Sony, despite all its professionalism, approached the matter too naively in the boom phase of gaming – especially with the prospect of Microsoft embarking on a mass acquisition, which is actually hard to imagine given such sums of money.
It is also alleged that Bungie has missed financial targets set by Sony on several occasions. Hiroki Totoki also suggested in a rather benevolent way last February that Bungie’s business costs and development schedules are not satisfactory. From a business perspective, there is still “room for improvement,” he warned at the time.
New wave of layoffs planned for months?
Since the release of “Destiny 2: Lightfall,” Bungie has reportedly been losing money on a consistent basis. The job cuts in October were reportedly made to show Sony officials that the studio was taking serious steps to get the company back on track.
Above all, the studio’s autonomy – and management jobs – were apparently to be secured. But even Bungie’s management recognized at the time that these cuts were not enough.
Accordingly, the latest wave of layoffs is something that the studio management had been planning since the beginning of 2024, Totilo continues. Even if “Destiny 2: The Final Shape” had been a huge commercial success, this would allegedly not have been enough to avoid mass layoffs at the studio. They were necessary to stop further losses, which “amounted to an ongoing reality check.”
Former and current employees are ultimately convinced that Bungie’s top management, which promised unrealistic growth, is primarily responsible for the current situation. According to reports, not selling to Sony would not have improved the situation in any way.
Accordingly, calls for resignation were already made yesterday, primarily targeting Bungie CEO Pete Parsons:
What’s next? “Destiny 2” is currently the only game that Bungie can make money with. That’s a problem for the management, who want to continue to prove that they can turn things around. “The finances just aren’t right,” a source told Totilo. “Destiny is an incredibly expensive game.”
“Marathon,” a new brand from Bungie, is far from finished. And it is unclear whether the title will be a success. That means further cuts sound conceivable.
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