Bungie's Independence Reportedly Under Threat After Layoffs & Destiny 2 Expansion Delay

Bungie was always desperate to be owned by anyons except Microsoft, to their own detriment.

They most lost of their soul when they bled talent after the Activision acquisition. Then again after the Sony acquisition.

It is sad, but they've not been the Bungie we loved for ages.

They could have been part of Microsoft and they would stayed making great Halo games with probably Destiny in the side. Now they have lost all their prestige and are only Bungie in name (although I do also acknowledge that Rare did lose their prestige after Microsoft bought them 🤷)

But staying with Micro would have been the better lomg term solution

Bring them back Home to where they belong.

So Sony is a big swallowing corporate too? Just like microsoft?

Well, waddayaknow…

IGN goes on to explain how it's believed the split board structure is all dependent on Bungie "meeting certain financial goals" and if it falls short Sony is reportedly allowed to "dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company

It might just be rumoured for now, but Sony taking full *control*always going to happen, it is/was just matter of when not if
They didn't spent 3.6 billion to have Bungie releasing their content multiplatform indefinitely.
It also means that the argument Sony fans were using to counter Microsoft acquisitions will be null and can be put out of its misery. The only difference between the two corporations and acquisitions is the scale and that's dictated by their respective purchasing power.

I guess it was a nice marketing ploy by Sony that Bungie will be independent and remaining multiplat

Sony would be dumb af not to release multiplayer games across all consoles. For live service online sh*t you need as big an audience as possible.

That’s why all the popular/longevity is on multiple systems.

This deal was a knee jerk reaction in response to ABK. It was said Sony wanted a service game provider for knowledge so they could quit making action/Adventure games which i think was largely true but it seems rushed and panic as during or close to that same time they lost stocks as MS was closing in on ABK. Bungie is still good, wouldn’t say great. But this deal may take time to figure its way out so it can be beneficial for both Sony and their live service games. It’s not a dead deal yet but any means but it’s not nearly as strong a move as ABK.

@Friendly

So Sony is a big swallowing corporate too? Just like microsoft?

No way man! We were led to believe via Sony fans advocacy that the blue team only do organic acquisitions and if not (see Bungie) they'll be wholly independent and in control of content release 😉 (**).

Edited: ((**)- sarcasm mode fully engaged.

@HonestHick

but it’s not nearly as strong a move as ABK

....I think you're overstating ABK, it was only 65.4 billion more than what Sony paid for Bungie 😉.

@Friendly lol I know all companies are as bad as each other they are businesses out to make money I don't understand why people don't seem to understand that sony Microsoft or Nintendo fanboy seem to think they care about there players or payers lol.

Let's be honest the only thing they did good was halo destiny is a grind fest money grab think people are getting sick of them types of games if Sony had any sence they would get them to make a halo like game for them and stop the destiny money grab

There is concern among staff that Bungie may lose its independence within Sony should Destiny 2 fail to meet financial goals

The writing was always on the wall (Bungie loosing independence) for those privy to the ginormous caveat in the Sony acquisition deal.
Very few companies meet financial goals consistently, but I guess that what happens when management is high on the Fortnite kool-aid....

Edit: LOL at that R. McAffrey guy, has he been living under a rock since Microsoft acquired Bethesda? 😄

It couldn’t happen to a nicer team 😂😂😂

One of the greediest devs out there may get swallowed by another company just as greedy, match made in heaven.

Good...theyve made some terrible decisions lately ,take over ,then order them to make a single player story based fps,maybe about some gruff space marine..with zero microtransactions and ps exclusive,jobs a good un 😂

@PsBoxSwitchOwner they'd just need ps and pc to be fair ,ms need ps players more than Sony needs xbox players,and they know it, which is unfortunate but true.

@eire-shabba or have Destiny 3 with an actual honest-to-goodness single player mode. In place of the current muddled nonsense it calls single player now.

So disgusting how Sony would force studios under them! Sony is trying to get their filthy hands on every studio possible, I guess when they cannot make anything even remotely decend by their first party, they must try to ruin the whole console industry. Microsoft should definedly step up on this and save Bungie and let them come to Xbox so they could still keep their freedom and not be forced to make some cold, empty cash grabs for Sony.

It sounds like their management is a complete mess. Perhaps Sony taking over could actually help Bungie. Sony owned studios do pretty well I’d say.

Microsoft surely dodged a bullet by passing on re-acquiring Bungie.

I'm probably just being cynical, but you do have to wonder whether Sony set the financial bar so high that there was no way that Bungie could meet the requirements and thus Bungie were always destined (sorry! 😂) to fall under Sony's full control. A cunning plan, if you will. Baldrick would be so proud...! 😉

I hate to hear that for the employees of Bungie. But a hostile takeover would bleed out the crappy leadership from the "old guard" as they would rather layoff rank and file employees instead of taking pay cuts. I hate to say this as well but it's been a long time coming.

@Fiendish-Beaver will one of the new board be a turnip?

@Mephisto2869

to be fair ,ms need ps players more than Sony needs xbox players,and they know it, which is unfortunate but true

In fairness Microsoft only needs the whales(PS COD players) as well and Sony is more than happy to oblige.

They didn't just fly Jim Ryan around for sightseeing, they wanted guarantees on that 10 year COD deal.
Starfield, the upcoming Indiana Jones, perhaps even mainline TES IV prove Microsoft are wiling to take a hit....

@Onlyboxmatters MS own more studios then anyone else but yes Sony are ones the buying up gaming 🙄 MS can't "save" Bungie because MS don't own Bungie.

I never fully understood how Bungie could stay independent under Sony, when they control their studios so much, to the point that some Naughty Dog ex-developers have stated on several interviews that it was a nightmare working at a Sony-owned studio because of the crunch culture. I knew the independence of Bungie wouldn't last long...

@Sol4ris @Murray Likely, Sony was waiting until the ABK trials were over, because keeping Bungie as an independent studio that releases multiplatform games was excellent corporate advertising.

@Fenbops It's like Bungie only wanted Sony's funds and the microtransactions, so it seems that greedy meets greedy, indeed. Not the best destiny, at least for Bungie. Sony might be happy if they think that Bungie can make their own Fortnite...

@Sol4ris doesn't make my comment less of a fact

@Mephisto2869
But MS allways have the PC players too and not 'only' the console players like Sony.

@Onlyboxmatters what on earth are you talking about 😂

@Mephisto2869 They’re parodying the uproar in the Sony community every time Microsoft buys a company and proceeds to tell them what to do.

It is entirely feasible, @Markatron84, though Blackadder may have something to say on the subject..! 😂

@Murray I think you're missing the point

@Mephisto2869

doesn't make my comment less of a fact

It's more about perception....

So the studio that was supposed to spearhead Sony's Live Service model needs saving? Lol. If Sony takes them over they'll turn them into a studio who makes single player, over the shoulder, 3rd person, story driven games i take it? Followed by a remaster 2 years later and a remake of that remaster.

This is becoming comical, but I'm curious what the industry would say if this was MS and not Sony. Something tells me the words "mismanaged" and "big-tech bad" would be used much more frequently.

Just a hunch.

@Kaloudz Jim Ryan said that 4 billion purchase was a better buy than ABK for MS. Wonder why he's "retiring" lol

@J_Mo_Money From what I’ve read, it’s very clear that Bungie management is awful. So mismanaged is a perfectly good term for what’s happening there. If Sony does take over, hopefully they can right the ship.

I’m sorry to hear of all those layoffs. It’s happening a lot in the industry right now and I hate to see anybody lose their job.

On a side note, I’m glad it wasn’t Microsoft that ended up with Bungie. (And that’s not meant as a fanboy for either console. I don’t get into all that mess.) Bungie is going through a rough time right now and everybody would be screaming how Microsoft ruined them…. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Hopefully Bungie can turn things around again.

@FatalBubbles mismanaged is correct, but where is the mismanaging coming from? Bungie was acquired in 2022 and it doesn't appear that Sony was able to put them in a situation to succeed when clearly that was the plan.
Based on Sony having little to no experience with live service and not having much of any multiplayer games I'm not sure what a Sony ran Bungie would look like.
If they are just going to put out the same games all the other studios make I think that's a bad thing, and a grave future for Sony's MP/Live Service future. I simply think they should have never purchased them and it was super reactionary by Jim due to MS doing their thing.

@J_Mo_Money Did Sony remove old Bungie leadership and put new people in? If so, I didn’t know that. My understanding was Bungie stayed independent with their team.

Bungie has been in trouble for years now (Destiny community has been extremely upset) and I also think it was a bad purchase. However, Sony finds a way to make great games with their studios. I find it hard to believe that they would spend billions on Bungie and not find a way to make them great again.

@FatalBubbles Sony finds a way to make great games, but MP/Live service really isn't their bag. So we'll see where this rabbit hole goes. Also, with the recent FireSprite, Media Molecule news, and Connie Booth/Jim Ryan no longer there I'm very curious to see where they go moving forward. Just doesn't seem to be a clear/cohesive road map.

I think people are butting heads around there from the top down and I'm curious where everything will be in 5 years.

Very interesting.

@Kaloudz clears throat "We Know Activision Extremely Well, When You Look At $69 Billion Dollars For Activision Compared To $3.6 Billion Dollars For Bungie, We Believe That Bungie Can give Us Way More Than A $69 Billion Acquisition Of Activision."

He won't be making decisions anymore lol not surprisingly.

@Sol4ris Very true. But let's all be honest.

It's Destiny.

Anyone going truly miss buying incredibly overpriced DLC, that severely lacks content, with high possibility being pulled so no longer accessible again?

@Sol4ris That thought had crossed my mind when I read the news story, but I put my tinfoil hate away as I do try to give the benefit of the doubt.

I would hope that whatever "financial goals" that Bungie and Sony agreed to weren't goals that the deciding factors at Bungie felt were unreasonable.

But it is possible that approving board members were greedy and picking up "sinking ship" vibes already and decided to agree to whatever "financial goals" Sony proposed just to give themselves a golden parachute when the inevitable happened - caring very little for the future of the company.

Tough to say.

It just sucks that it's very apparent that Bungie is seemingly doing everything it can to remain independent only to potentially lose the fight.

Sony couldn't swallow a McNugget whole. They're broke. Lol. Ryan is thoroughly confused. Now Microsoft on the other hand.......

@Kaloudz It's a lot, I know what.

@J_Mo_Money Ha ha! Sony's arrogance is unrivalled. The hypocrisy too, because he would have bought ABK if he could, but all he could do is pay for early access and DLC. I checked what ABK earns pear year and it's not going to take many years to recoup the costs, plus the value of Xbox has increased after the acquisition. It was expensive but it was worth it. Bungie, on the other hand...

Maybe Sony had big plans for Bungie turning Sony into that games as service machine they talked about and release their own Fortnite, but there's no clear road map now, as you said.

@Sol4ris it is way more money however i can name 4-5 cash cows that ABK comes with. That will print money from day one to whenever. Bungie while a fraction of the cost comes with what? Destiny that seems to be fading out and a shooter game that will be in a genre of strong competition for players time and money. So i just can’t see it being a strong picked at the current moment. ABK is worth 100 Billion if you are going to tell me Candy Crush, COD, WOW, Diablo, and many others are going to print money for another decade or longer. Plus take into account 69 Billion to MS was laying around to be spent. Sony is in debt and buying Bungie only furthered their debt. So the spendings are very different. 😊

@GamingFan4Lyf
It just sucks that it's very apparent that Bungie is seemingly doing everything it can to remain independent only to potentially lose the fight

I agree, it does look like Bungie are trying all sorts of measures but staying independent might jut prove a bridge to far. Perhaps this was always part of Sony's cunning plan of giving Bungie independence 🙃.

I guess I'm in the minority thinking Sony taking control might be a good thing. Bungie seems to be continually losing talent and making bad decisions. Maybe Sony needs to take over and get things back in order. They definitely spent a lot of money for the IP.

They could also cut off their nose to spite their face, but they really need their big multiplayer games to be cross platform. Time will tell.

I honestly barely play Destiny 2 anymore. The seasons are just a grind and no amount of new story will change that without new content. I'll probably buy the last dlc, mostly to get closure on 1000s of hours of playtime, and to see the end of the storyline. I'm pretty much done with Bungie after that. I don't trust them enough to invest in their new multiplayer games.

Bungie has lots of pass success but the problem is that don't have much to offer any more than just adding minor content to Destiny 2. Most studios that Sony owns or has owned get assimilated into the Playstation gaming studio.

@Tecinthehead Rare was going out of business when Xbox acquired them. Under Xbox we've gotten Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, Viva Pinata series, Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts, Killer instinct (helped), Kinect sports, Sea of Thieves, Battletoads... And now Everwild is being developed by them. They've honestly thrived under Xbox, and it's a blessing they didn't go out of business.