IGN: Former Bungie Worker Claims Studio Faced Insolvency Without Sony Acquisition

[FIREPOWER 914]

Looks like Sony pretty much saved Bungie from being closed due to poor management. Without Sony's money the studio would have been closed a while ago. 

 

 

Good thing Sony was smart enough to have a clause in buyout agreement there guaranteeing they get full ownership if Bungie management screwed up which they ended up doing.   Now Sony completely owns their asses.

 

Sony must have seen the money they paid as worth it because of the chance of acquiring so much talent. While I don't give a shit about Destiny, it can't be denied that the studio has a lot of talent and them closing down would have been a huge loss for the industry. I'm against consolidations but I'd rather have Sony completely own them than see them close down or end up like 343 under Microsoft 

 

 

Quote

Bungie misrepresented its finances and had significantly overextended itself when Sony acquired the studio for $3.6 billion in 2022, former workers claimed in a new Game File report published in the wake of Wednesday's layoffs.

 

It was apparently bad enough that at least one source described as a "well-connected former worker" went so far as to claim that Bungie faced dire consequences if the acquisition hadn't happened, saying that the "alternate history is insolvency."

Their comments paint the picture of a studio that was struggling despite the success of Destiny and Destiny 2 due to supporting too many projects and other problems. Following the Sony acquisition, Game File's sources claim Bungie repeatedly missed its financial targets, leading to roughly 100 employees being laid off in November 2023.

 

A second round of layoffs followed on Wednesday, impacting another 220 people, or 17 percent of the studio's workforce, with another 155 being integrated elsewhere in Sony Interactive Entertainment. Bungie is also spinning out one of its incubation projects to form a new studio under the PlayStation banner.

Within Bungie, the layoffs had been anticipated for some time. In December 2023, IGN reported that the feeling within the studio was that it faced more reductions if The Final Shape didn't do well. But according to Game File's source, even The Final Shape being a major blockbuster success couldn't have stopped the layoffs. Indeed, with Destiny 2 on the wane some seven years after its original release, The Final Shape reportedly failed to outsell the previous expansion, Lightfall, despite being a critical success.

 

[Long Ball Larry 1,350]

Looks like Sony paid 2+ billion for a company in the gutter  

[Remij 4,993]

So why pay so much?  lmao, they got played.

 

But I'm sure as a focused PS studio under Sony leadership they'll rebound.

[Long Ball Larry 1,350]

5 minutes ago, Remij said:

So why pay so much?  lmao, they got played.

 

But I'm sure as a focused PS studio under Sony leadership they'll rebound.

As a focused PS studio they’re about to release remakes of Destiny 1 lmfao. 

[JonDnD 2,988]

1 hour ago, Long Ball Larry said:

As a focused PS studio they’re about to release remakes of Destiny 1 lmfao. 

[MalaXmaS 697]

Sony, the masters of getting ripped off and passing the debt into their firetards

[Tainted 23]

Microsoft didn't want them, Activision didn't want them, and now Sony doesn't want them