Back when Sony announced its $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, we didn’t quite understand it. Sony was under intense pressure at the time, as Microsoft was still in the midst of its corporate consolidation storm, and didn’t look likely to stop until it owned most of the industry. Acquiring the legendary Halo creator always struck us as something of a panic buy; it felt like the firm snagged the Destiny developer purely to stop anyone else from owning it, and many analysts at the time mentioned that the Japanese giant may have overpaid.
You didn’t understand it either. In a poll published in the aftermath of the announcement, a sizeable 32 per cent of you seemed bemused by the news, while a further 23 per cent of you felt it was a bad decision.
However, as the deal closed and further details emerged, it did start to make a semblance of sense: Sony was betting the house on live service, and wanted one of the biggest names in the business under its umbrella. The idea was to establish a so-called ‘Live Service Center of Excellence’ – a company-wide task force with Bungie at the helm designed to enrich and improve all of its projects across the space.
But without being intimate with the inner-workings of the studio, we always found this strange: Destiny 2 had long been criticised by its player base, and all of the outside noises around the title always seemed to signal discontent. Lightfall released to a disastrous reception prompting apologies from the studio, and it’s only with The Final Shape that the developer appears to have won back its fans.
To make matters worse, Bungie prompted public ire when it appeared to have the final say in Naughty Dog’s cancellation of its long-awaited The Last of Us 2 multiplayer game. We don’t really believe in scapegoats, because presumably we’d all be happily playing Factions right now if whatever Naughty Dog was making was amazing, but the subsequent announcements of Concord and Fairgame$ ultimately bemused PlayStation enthusiasts. How come those two got the greenlight?
And this led to us asking the question: is Bungie really the right developer to lead Sony’s live service charge? “It may have been a pioneer back in 2014 as it launched Destiny, but fast-forward nine years and it feels like dark clouds have been hanging over the Washington studio for a while now,” we wrote last year. “Why should anyone listen to Bungie when it can't get its own game quite right?”
Today the studio announced a massive contraction of its workforce, with over 200 staffers sadly let go. Sony, it seems, has found roles elsewhere for a further 150 employees, while it’s established an entirely new studio based on one of the ideas being incubated at the outfit – a sign this terrible news could have somehow been much, much worse.
It seems, from the outside looking in, that Bungie’s independence is now eroding; despite the initial acquisition announcement suggesting the developer would retain full autonomy, it now looks like it’s being integrated more deeply under the PS Studios umbrella. Considering the venomous criticism of the current leadership circling on social media, some from affected employees, that may not necessarily be a bad thing.
But it still begs the question: why did Sony buy Bungie to begin with? Concord is, at best, looking like it’s going to get off to a slow start – and many of PlayStation’s other live service projects, like a widely rumoured Twisted Metal title at Firesprite, have been cancelled. It leaves the strategy in tatters, and a bloated billion dollar developer seemingly incapable of leading itself – let alone anyone else.
It’s a bizarre state of affairs, and we can’t help but wonder whether there are some serious regrets among the Sony hierarchy. PlayStation may have felt it needed to throw some money around in wake of Microsoft’s absurd and frankly unprecedented acquisitions – it’s left with a headless chicken and a lot less money in its back pocket.
What do you make of the latest headlines regarding Bungie, and did PlayStation make a mistake buying the developer for billions of dollars to begin with? Mull it over in the comments section below.
Was PlayStation's acquisition of Bungie a mistake? (2,663 votes)
- Yes, it's certainly starting to look like that
- Maybe, but I think it's still too early to say
- No, the developer brings big value to Sony
- I really don't know to be brutally honest
Comments 104
Sell Bungie to a publisher like Amazon. They can keep the spin off studio and the 150 employees they integrated into the rest of Playstation as some sort of consolation prize.
@Meowmixes98 I wonder what Bungie would be worth today?
I have a feeling this is an over the top reaction.
Destiny has done fine.
There was a valid reason at the time for buying bungeie. They haven’t gone bad over night.
The market has just changed.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Isn't that the definition of a panic buy, though?
Surely they would have done the calculus on any potential market changes before blowing billions on a studio that, frankly, seems like a mess and doesn't appear to be adding any value to their strategy.
Destiny doing "fine" does not justify spending billions of dollars on the developer, especially when the game (and any subsequent sequels) were almost guaranteed to release on PlayStation regardless.
Did it in response to Microsoft acquiring Activision. Really dumb move by Sony in my eyes.
Just remembering that Sony was determined to get into this live service area because before buying Bungie they tried to buy Leyou/Digital Extremes and lost the "bid war" to Tencent.
People love to theorize that they should have invested all that money in studios that make singleplayer games, but I believe that simply wouldn't happen. Sony wanted and is unlikely to give up on pushing live service games (and it would be extremely stupid not to try since it is extremely clear that this is where a lot of the industry's money is at the moment).
Folks should be happy that traditional studios like Naughty Dog or Santa Monica weren't turned into support studios for these games.
I thought after the whole "Sony is spending $200-$300 million and and need 5~7 years to produce games" and "low profit margins" topics people would finally understood why Sony needs a few successful live-service games.
I'm somewhere on the middle where I think the money could've easily been used to incubate new studios but at the same time Destiny Is still a very valuable IP in terms of its universe and multimedia potential (bigger player count than HD2 rn on Steam) and Bungie still have some of the best art design and Gun feel in the industry along with longevity most GAAS games can only dream off.
I think Sony's mistake overall is coming into Live Services very late and while now most of their studios have moved back to SP, the time and money lost on cancelled projects has been costly. Especially when they all over hired during covid.
Bungie management has been bad since Halo 2 though.
Regardless of whether or not it was a mistake to buy Bungie (remains to be seen imo), being bought by Sony might be the luckiest thing to happen to the studio.
They'd be in a far worse position right now without Sony propping them up.
Also, I wonder if the other project being spun out to SIE is the reason why London Studio's project was canned. They sound a little similar.
I don't know if the live service strategy is in tatters just yet.
Maybe it will be eventually, but they got off to a decent start with Helldivers.
Concord is a lot of fun but I just don't see it finding much of a base outside of a core community unfortunately. Although, I said the same about Helldivers.
And The Final Shape did well in the end too.
We'll see what we see I guess.
I mean if you only look at it in the short term maybe but no I don’t think they regret it. I also bet their actually happy Parsons is an idiot so they can bring Bungie even more under PS Studios. All that said people need to remember Bungie just had a huge hit with the Final Shape and Destiny 2 still pulls in very respectable numbers for a live service title and I would bet anything Marathon is going to be a huge hit.
Nah. A buyout is a blunder when you know it can't make money and Bungie CAN make money. The final DLC of destiny proved it, why would a community that was so pissed off buy the last expansion to the point that before the server crashes it was on its way to break their highest number of concurrent players on steam?
Whenever Marathon is out it will sell because most people who buy those games don't give a damn about people losing their jobs the same way they will buy GTA6.
I know this site likes drama and I like drama too that is why I'm still here lol but what happened today shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because after 2023 we knew a lot of things.
-Bungie made unrealistic promises to Sony.
-Bungie was a timebomb ready to explode.
-Bungie wouldn't exist right now without Sony.
-Bungie administration is the reason why all of this is happening.
The moment they got loses on 2023 there was no way they could met expectations in 2024 unless some kind of miracle happened. Sony knew this was going to happen, probably it was part of the reason they closed London. It was a lot of money for Bungie? It was but again, the people who will buy the games don't care and Bungie has the talent to make all that money back. It's not about optimism it's about an industry where company names matter way more than the actual game, that and also the fact that Sony is now majority in the board of directors, Bungie CEO and his bullsh*t won't go unsupervised anymore.
Now about the dynamic between Bungie and PS services. People need to understand one thing Naughty Dog is REALLY REALLY f*cking good making videogames and the multiplayer was in development hell for 5 years (or more), if what they were doing was any good or was worth to keep wasting money and the time of some of the best devs in the world the project would still be in production.
It's funny that this site first says concord is "good" and now they are making the question about why it was greenlighted LOL. For the service push to stop Sony needed to experience failure, Helldivers making 1200% the money they were expecting wasn't that failure, Concord won't be enough of a failure, even fairgame has a chance of success thanks to Pay Day 3 being bad.
Bungie failure canceled the service push, freed ND and Insomniac, got Ryan out (yes he "retired" after watching first hand how much money services can lose). Probably those 3 billions saved all of PlayStation, I don't know you guys but I won't cry over that lol.
Voted for the first one. What a waste of money.
I will repeat what i said in previous Bungie news. Imagine if Sony used $3.6 Billion to revive their dormant IP's like Wild Arms, Legend of Dragoon, Alundra, Syphon Filter, Warhawk, Socom etc which i'm sure many PS fans will be happy.
Or worked together with 3rd party like Capcom to make a new PS All-Star Battle Royale? I mean, the game managed to sold 1 million copies and a lot of people actually enjoyed it. There's a good potential with PSABR and now Sony own EVO, a perfect event to promote a new game.
I'm just glad Jimbo got booted out before he do more damage to SIE. So let's pray Herman and Nishino doesn't do the same mistakes like Jimbo did.
Bungie blunder, huh, has a nice ring to it.
Sadly, I think this is pretty much the beginning of the end for Sony.
I think the panic acquisitions centered around building an in-house live service infrastructure in response to Xbox getting ABK turned out to be some of the worst mistakes during Jim Ryan's tenure, and Bungie is the biggest screw-up of them all.
Definitely one of sonys worst moves. Sony way overspend for acquiring bungie. I get why though. Sony wanted bungies experience in live service and looking to earn a lot of money with various live service projects/games. However the gaming community is a lot smarter , me and many others are not interested in paying for live service content. I made the mistake of trusting bungie , paying for yearly content from destiny for almost 9 years , after 6/7 years giving content away for free and locking away content because they couldn't handle how big it got , yet ff14 /square enix managed it fine - yes its taken a lot of work after it bombed but they turned it around - a much better partner for live service imo.
@LowDefAl EVERY 🤬 THING YOU SAID HERE! Like, these people always go nuts over Jim Ryan and in some weird way they also praise Phil Spencer. Sony has never been this profitable and have expanded the reach of PlayStation. At this point PS is releasing games in every genre so there’s something for everyone. I often wonder what specifically Jim Ryan did to make PlayStation not great anymore? No critic is ever specific with their complaints.
Depends on how much they are making with destiny 2.
The lay-offs are worrying.
I thought the point was to get destiny and live service know-how, but that other teams were being built to bring new projects forth.
I really don't have enough information, but i can say they did overpay for them. It was clear from day one they could have invested that money in buying a publishers such as square enix or capcom that also has a big live services on top of other big IP's.
Hopefully Sony put Bungie to good use on more than just destiny.
@LowDefAl "Playstation was making a whole lot of money under him"
While in the same time losing a lot of money under him too. All the cancelled live service games including ND Factions that has been development for almost 5 years, 900+ employee got lay off, closing studios, and now Bungie not just another waste of money but also brought a big headache for Sony to integrate the studio under PS umbrella. All the money PS made under Jimbo seems less and less significant right now.
"He left of his own accord, I can't imagine living in three continents a month is that much fun."
He left after all the massive layoff, cancelled projects, and closing studios doesn't show as "he left of his own accord" to me. But you're free to believe what you want to believe 🤷♂️
@PuppetMaster - In other words, spending three billion on dormant IPs that no one is sure would yield a return just because the "PS fans would love it", is that the logic?
My heart sinks when I hear about a studio I love getting acquired. The need for higher quarterly profits is gutting the industry and it's bleeding talent. I know a decent amount of people who just decided to leave the industry all together after years of layoffs and closures.
Chasing those live service profits was such a predictably bad idea, it amazes me how many publishers still are doing it. I think we are going to see some big changes in the gaming landscape in the next 5 years. Let's hope those changes are good for developers and fans instead of just shareholders.
I’m not good at the “armchair CEO” game, but how can you see this acquisition as anything other than a huge blunder?
My question is forget bungie, but how the hell did concord and fairgame get green lit and the push, when quite clearly concord is a pretty big standard 5v5 hero shooter with cut scenes which won't matter anyway because all your doing is battling 5 other people anyway.
Fairgame which looks like a 5v5 hero shooter capture the flag game.
These generic entries are both coming and yet last of us online or factions 2, of which factions was an absolute blast to play online all they had to do is expand it and people would flock, yet cancelled it due to bungie saying some parts wouldn't work (rumour, was never fact)
I mean destiny 1 was pretty medicore and destiny 2 great shooter but lost its way and it does OK but it ain't fornite. They truly aren't the kings of live service.
@ED_209 So you don't want Sony to revive their classic IP's but you want them to keeps making live service games? Are you even a PS fan?
@LowDefAl You think closing studios, lay off 900+ employees, and spent $3.6 Billion for a studio that doesn't bring anything are nonsense?
Hey, you're free to keep sucking Jimbo's toes but don't bring that **** to my face. And feel free to ignore my future post. Thank you.
@BeerIsAwesome "If Sony overpaid for Bungie, what do you even call the Microsoft buyout of Activision?"
Considering the revenue of a certain Activision property (not even including Candy Crush, WoW) Microsoft will make it's money back easily. Destiny is allot of things but it's certainly not COD!
Also no they didn't overpaid for the other live service studios like Haven and Firewalk, they shouldn't have been bought to begin with! Jim was panic buying and ultimately the developers will suffer the consequences.
Sony had to buy Bungie before Microsoft did. Microsoft already bought Bethesda and was in the process with Activision-Blizzard at that point. With Bungie being a private company, Microsoft could partake in their favorite pasttime of skirting around the regulators.
@Tecinthebrain
Easily in 30+ years.
It is kind of crazy how quickly things changed in such a short time. When Bungie was purchased, as stated in the article, the industry at large was on a merger/acquisition spree. The Bungie buyout did feel a bit weird considering they were going to operate independently originally. However, the idea of buying up a live service focused studio did make some sense at the time since Sony wanted (and still wants) into that market.
Fast forward a couple years and nobody is buying anyone big anymore, the Bungie purchase looks more and more like a blunder, and Sony has at least somewhat cut down on its live service desires thanks to a shift in leadership.
What's done is done. All we can do is hope the changes made today will move things in the right direction.
@Deadlyblack No they didn't, the deal was in the works for months before all that. Sony were already looking for a studio with live service experience, Bungie just at happened to be available.
@PuppetMaster - Sony has all the possible data to consider resurrecting old IPs. If they haven't done with any so far, it's because they don't believe is worth.
Where were the "PlayStation fans" when Japan Studio's last games like Gravity Rush bombed before it closed? Probably all of Japan Studio's games from its last 5 years of existance haven't sold as much as one Horizon game, just to give you some perspective.
I'm not even the target audience for these games as a service, despite being an active Warzone user, but there's no denying that it's extremely beneficial to have a game like this in your portfolio. And why the hell Sony is the only one not allowed to have it?
Anyway, Sony won't be able to keep making 3 or 4 games costing 300 million dollars a year, at some point the rope will break and things will get ugly for them. If people really want them to focus only on single-player games, folks better get ready for 100 dollar games or 8~10h games costing a full 70 bucks in the very near future.
3.6 bil for a company that owns 1 IP, but has a history of solid games. On paper that sounds great, but with sonys shift away from live service, and the subsequent completion of destiny, it sounds a bit less solid. Then they lay off a lot of the talent which makes the games, and you diminish the only real asset you had.(with Destiny IP closing)
So its hard to call it a good purchase at this time. Its different than AB for MSFT because there were several very profitable IPs they now own along with access to the talent and tech.
Each acquisition should be(and usually is) vetted on an ROI basis. It looks like Sony is trying to extend the ROI on this because it hasnt met expectations, but is reducing the overall value of the asset in the process.
Looks like that money went to the boss’ car collection. Did you see that tweet from a former dev? @get2sammyb
sorry , but this is a miss article , they haven't really done anything yet to say its been a failure or not. if this scifi game comes out and is great every one forgets about it, and if it flops then you can call it a failure.
@ED_209 "Sony has all the possible data to consider resurrecting old IPs. If they haven't done with any so far, it's because they don't believe is worth."
You're acting as if Sony never made wrong decisions when comes to judging the value of their own IP's. Here, I'll give you back some perspective.
Yes there are some unfortunate flops like Gravity Rush. But that doesn't mean Sony should completely stop investing on their classic IP's. Sony obsessions with everything needs AAA budget is their biggest weakness.
"And why the hell Sony is the only one not allowed to have it?"
Did i say Sony can't have live service games under their belt? The problem here is Jimbo try to pushed out PS from single player roots and put all the eggs in one giant basket called live service. Looking at these mess, clearly that plan doesn't worked out.
"Anyway, Sony won't be able to keep making 3 or 4 games costing 300 million dollars a year"
More reason to revive classic IP's because a lot of them doesn't need AAA budget. I'm sure making a new Wild Arms, Sly Cooper, or Ape Escape game is still a lot cheaper than making one Spider-Man or Horizon game and definitely better than spent it for Bungie and live service games.
Bad call to cancel the live service games especially tlou. Maybe it was a bad decision to attempt in the first place and I know people are vocal about wanting to continue the trademark great single player experience.
But I can't understand with the IPs like tlou, twisted metal, warhawk, socom, kill zone even motorstorm and resistance that budgie couldn't figure out some great live service games aswell. Definitely seems like a blunder.
The problem is Sony doesn't have the mega franchises or powerful IP to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo,
Nintendo: Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Animal Crossing
Microsoft: COD, Diablo, Minecraft, Fallout,
Sony: ....maybe Destiny 2 which is on a massive decline now
This isn't a console thing because its obvious MS is going full third party/multiplat,
its a company thing, Sony can't build or even buy mega franchises
@Savage_Joe Phil never begged him lol, Bungie wanted too much and Phil told them to fk' off, Bungie tried shopping around and Sony were the only ones willing to buy them for that price
Should have bought a thousand Indy devs for that money. At minimum break even. At best take over an entire market.
Sony had to buy a big live service studio, Especially seeing Microsoft buying both Activision and Bethesda Bungie was lucky enough to be available for purchase at the time.
The entire rise and fall of Bungie is crazy. Really interesting story I would read the book.
More like Bungle, amiright?
That guy with the beards was the happiest thinking how stupid Sony people could be 😆
I think the only way to look at these ridiculous number purchases, I mean come on did $3.6B in any currency actually exchange hands or is this all stock swap make believe, is look to see how much Sony’s stock price went up or down when they made the deal and how much it goes up or down with this announcement, b/c while it’s real for all the people getting fired and the few executives making millions the rest of the $3.6B isn’t real money and Sony will likely be just fine.
Does look like a bad purchase at any price though.🤷🏻♂️
Bungie just got too big and too bloated to useful. Sony has ordered it to be put on a diet.
Spun off a new team to make a new studio, which can make more games with less interference.
This will happen again until bungie is at a sensible size. And Sony has lots more, controlled, studios under its banner
I said it at the time but Deatiny is one of the worst examples of a live service title with their huge problems with sunsetting content etc.
How can you be stupid enough to create a "Live Service Center of Excellence" ran by one of the very worst and most scummy devs around. Literally the opposite of what a competent company would have done.
And what would everybody be saying if Sony didn't buy bungie? Instead of saying "its the worst decision Sony have ever made" blah,blah,blah everybody would be saying "Sony should have bought them and now Microsoft own them too." I'm not really that bothered anymore as to who owns who as ultimately we all lose out in some way or another. I enjoyed destiny a heck of a lot on the ps4 but destiny 2 confused the heck out of me and I didn't like that paid for expansions were completely locked out later on. That was really bad and I lost a lot of faith in bungie knowing that all those people who bought those key parts of a game found them to be useless and inaccessible. Now that to me is "predatory practices" to quote my favorite anti-capatalist pushsquarers amongst us.
Never go full live service, in saying that, how about just making a true sequel to factions, thats all the true fan base wanted.
Not some super duper, overcomplicated live service game that needed permission from overrated Bungie to get the green light.
Hear was the problem with Sony buying Bungie. Bungie has basically 1 game which is close to a decade old and all they are doing is releasing paid seasons. Destiny 2 is "successful" but many of the endless changes were any power builds are quickly nerfed and most seasonal bonuses often become irrelevant after the end of the season.
A $Billion is a lot of money to stop Microsoft buying them to reboot Halo.
@get2sammyb apologies late reply.
No it wasn’t a panic buy. Bungie was doing well. They excelled in an area Sony wanted to expand in. They had a good track record.
Sony at the time (and bungie) didn’t know how things would change going forward. Hence certain clauses in the deal around ownership.
So yeah 100% not a panic buy.
It's just a bummer that Sony's wasted half a generation chasing live service. For live service to be successful, it needs to be a phenomenon and that's not something anyone can orchestrate.
@Yousef- "Bungie blunder, huh, has a nice ring to it"
I prefer Blundgie myself 🤗
@Kidfunkadelic83 haha, nice one! 👍
Just imagine if Bungie had stayed put. Halo infinite wouldn't suck, and Sony would have a lot more money
I called it looooong ago.
It was an unnecessary purchase. Nothing has changed to make it look like a good decision, if anything it is just getting worse.
Jim Ryan was a complete and utter failure, lacking in basic competence and didn't even manage holding a controller correctly. Under his management I have boycotted PlayStation, and I have been a core customer since the first playstation. Only a complete idiot would ever manage that.
Him establishing Haven proves his complete lack of judgement when it comes to Jade Raymond, a talentless hack with nothing but vaporware to offer. CLOSE HAVEN already. Their SoMe is as dead as their development is. Sue them for the wages they never earned. (I will look like the biggest tosser there is, if Haven suddenly shows a decent game, but my head is on the chopping block here, come get it Haven employees.)
Cancelling Days Gone 2 was the end for Bend. Now they're collecting wages and are apparently transitioning into cooks and crooks. It is harsh criticism based on a lack of insight into what they're making, but I know I won't touch anything they make until their former leadership is reinstated and DG2 is in development. Their community Manager's only credential is being a fan of Days Gone, and now he vehemently defends his pay checks spreading only negative stories in the news about the very people whom he was supposed to respect.
Neil Druckmann ruined Naughty Dog's reputation for me. He also was a moving force in cancelling Factions, as far as I can tell. They could have easily had a live service team AND a single player team. But he is quoted for saying they couldn't. If it was up to me, I'd fire him so fast and salvage Faction and rework whatever the hell he made TLOU into. Yep, I would even have them retcon the God awful writing of TLOU 2. TURNS OUT Joel had a twin posing as him for a week. And yes, it would feature a brutal murder of Abby with wet noodles.
The lack of PSVR2 titles are also a huge point of criticism for me. GT7 and a Horizon-on-rails-climbing simulator isn't good enough.
@Zriggin1 I see what you're saying mate, in terms of staples that thrive on wide market appeal/casuals. But Sony has incredibly strong brand and IP - Spiderman, Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, even new entrants like Ghost of Tsushima, that also have wide market appeal. I do think Sony need to focus on what makes Playstation great. And in addition it concerns me that I might never play a new Fallout game on the blue box again, the only Bethesda IP I have a strong connection to, I was pleasantly surprised Doom Dark Ages is coming our way, so I hold out hope.
As soon as I saw the price tag they were paying, I thought the decision looked absolutely bananas.
I feel they could have snapped up several far more talented teams for that money.
But I just play video games and the Sony bigwigs, they clearly had a masterful plan in mind. I haven't seen any sign of it yet.. maybe it was more of a gamble? Time will tell.
Every time I start forgetting last of us online was a thing, someone brings it up again 😭
@Acquiescence What a wild thing to say
When you consider Bungie were better and more consumer friendly under Activision it shows what a horrible purchase Bungie was. I can understand wanting some live service experience but Bungies model was and still is the worst one in the business.
Get them off destiny and get them to work on a new killzone multiplayer title.
Sony executed a brilliant strategy with PS4, and then seems to have thrown most if it in the bin to pursue something 'better' - and cheaper. Never leave a good party to go to a better one.
@breakneck Destiny gets a lot of unnecessary hate, but I really don't think Sony needed bungie for this, they're capable of getting these games out through other channels without spending big on buying the studio. That said, they'll probably get value anyway, it's just a lot of money to put down, but it won't really affect they're bottom line. IMHO.
As they bought the Studio that was also a Publisher with their own Publishing Rights and of course own their Destiny IP, that purchase can instantly start making money for Soney.
Every sale of Game, of Cosmetics etc all went to the 'Publisher' which is Bungie, now owned by Sony so instantly started making money back. It's possible its made that money back over the years now they've owned Bungie.
When they bought Insomniac for example for a LOT less, they didn't get many IP's and certainly no Publishing rights they can make money from. They did at least have publishing rights and games to sell to recuperate virtually immediately with Spider-Man and R&C - but just buying a 'Studio' is a LOT cheaper because they don't own Publishing rights and/or may need to invest 'more' time/money into that Studio until they have product to sell...
That's the big difference between buying a 'Publisher' versus just buying a Studio - and Bungie after leaving Activision were not only a 'Studio' but also Publisher with the Publishing Rights to Destiny. So every game and every MTX sale from Day 1 started making money for Sony. It's the same with Zenimax/ABK for MS, as soon as those deals went through, they started making money. Doesn't matter that Fallout 4 was released before the deal, you buy that today, that's money for MS and despite Square Enix selling Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider IP, they still have Publishing rights on the 'old' games. The new owners of CD/TR won't make money on them until they have new products out to sell...
As such, it's a very difficult question to answer. On the one hand, it looks like a mistake, but on the other, it could also have made money and Sony do 'own' the Destiny IP which makes money on 'Xbox' too...
Always felt like a bit of knee-jerk response to Microsoft acquiring ABK (Call of Duty) and Bethesda (Doom, Wolfenstein) I think Sony were worried they would be without too many major FPS franchises at the time. Which to be fair DID seem plausible at that moment in time. Now we know COD will be on PS for 10 years, we know Doom The Dark Ages is also coming to PS5. Back then we didn't.
Bungie Bungle.
@ED_209 Nobody demanded that Sony spend such absurd amounts of time and money on their 1st party single-player games.
Another flop from Jim Ryan
@Northern_munkey no one asked Sony to buy Bungie. We just want a kill zone or resistance game
It seems the only thing it really got was the name. When you considered what else was up for sale, Square Enix flogging it's western studios around that time for less money, you got to wonder if Sony would have gotten a better return elsewhere.
Also thinking Bungie wasn't going to be integrated into Sony PlayStation Studios eventually was delusional on the part of the management.
@KillerBoy I agree
Hindsight is always 20:20. At the time, I think the acquisition of Bungie made sense. They looked to all the world like they had the live-service game figured out with a very popular franchise that had multiple tiers of recurrent spending, and the technical chops when it came to developing FPS games, which Sony's other studios were not working on at the time.
What I think did for Bungie was the boneheaded decision to lock older expansions away and make them unplayable. This killed most interest from people who hadn't made a start on the franchise yet - would you jump into a TV show at the latest season, or want to start it from the beginning? - and meant that their audience shrank from expansion to expansion as the people dropping off outnumbered the people joining in.
@KillerBoy those games didn't sell well, so who's "we" exactly?
It was done as a counter to Microsoft buying Activision/Blizzard, the difference is Activision/Blizzard is a money printing machines whereas Bungie has been in a pretty bad place for a while they have had seemingly a fair few issues with money, seems like Sony panic brought Bungie and seems to be regretting it
They bought it why? For films? Idk... They should have purchased EA or cd project red maybe even epic (they have windows store fronts)... Not bungie their only game is a free to play game...
I think it only gets worse for bungie going forward. The talent they used to have has eroded beyond repair. It will never be as good as it used to be. Sony isn't really getting much with this purchase.
I can't find the statement but hiroki totoki visited them awhile back and expressed that they were using bad business practices at sony so this seems to be the result of that visit
Sony supposedly paid over to make sure no one got fired so what actually happened to all that money I think if I was Sony I would want to know where every nickel and dime was spent
playstation 5 is the worst playstation generation
"The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different" - Peter Drucker 1909 - 2005 (smart business guy)
Even if a person could predict the future I don't think anyone would believe and if they did they would burn them as a witch.
But I do know one thing, If Naughty Dog continued to make "Factions 2" it would never have lived up to the expectations of the niche community that played the first game. Sony would have had to adjust the game in ways that keep the casuals happy to make the most money off of it. It would have been filled with microtransactions, season passes, paid cosmetics, upgrade timers, and the so-called "woke agenda". This would have triggered the original fans of the game who would have turned on Naughty Dog faster than you can say Gacha.
@nomither6
I'm not sure about it being the worst PS generation, however, it does have the most whiny and entitled fans.
@MikeOrator But it still has less total fans than PS4 did, launch adjusted.
@MikeOrator ok, glad to hear your complaints about other peoples opinions (while simultaneously expressing yours) i guess
Give us Factions.
Can't blame Bungie for everything, but I sincerely doubt they lead any true decisions anymore in terms of what gets greenlit. I also don't think they are entirely (or at all) to blame for the already greenlit projects.
There are plenty of bad decision makers everywhere, not just at Bungie xD
@nomither6
lol... isn't that what comment sections are all about...lol...
@NEStalgia
I do not own Sony stock so I do not have a horse in the race, but maybe, just maybe, there are fewer fans because they all expect something from Sony that is being seen through rose-tinted glasses. Each gen for Sony has been different. This is not worse or otherwise...it just is.
The problem is nowadays people can only see in terms of black or white. There can't just be an ok generation with some good games, bad games, and some great games it has to be "THe WorSt GenERatiOn PlaYstaiOn has HaD". I find that attitude to be tiring and boring.
Anyway, the Bungie deal was bad because PS did not get Halo with the purchase...lol...
@MikeOrator Eh... I do think it's their worst Gen, though not just Sony. It seems like console in general became too big business for its own britches and investor demands now expecting Big Tech, Big Media returns and similar budgets have distorted gaming in general from a collective engagement between producers and customers into standard soul sucking value extraction big business, and I think that shows pretty clearly across the whole industry.
Been saying Jim Ryan's bad decisions/investment are coming home to roost.
More is yet to come.
@NEStalgia
I also remember my grandpa saying that Jaws, Star Wars, and the Exorcist were crappy movies and they sure didn’t make movies like they used to. He blamed corporate greed and a lack of talented writing. He also didn’t like that black actors were in lead roles. Just saying, the more things change the more they stay the same. This is why I don’t make any sweat over what’s happening in entertainment. I enjoy what I do and leave the rest.
@Savage_Joe Yeah I always say Microsoft became the dominant publisher at the cost of throwing its own console in the trash
People who play on Xbox are the ultimate losers out of all of this
Playstation gamers are getting virtually every non Nintendo game, Microsoft will make bank, Sony will make bank off their 30% cut
Xbox gamers get a console with no exclusives and instead get a Game Pass price increase....
@MikeOrator heh, he wasn't exactly wrong about those films though. They're popular but they're not exactly excellent writing. Alec Guinness only took the role because he thought it was awful and beneath him but his business sense knew it would make bank and took the role in exchange for a cut of merch sales knowing he'd never have to take any role he didn't like ever again with the funds. I trust Alec Guinness taste in good film 😂
Forwarned is forearmed, but hindsight is even better!
Remember when Sony was at the top of their absolute freaking game during the PS4 generation? That was fun while it lasted.
In the end it's about games and results. There was doom before Final Shape and it delivered. Wait until Marathon comes out and how it performs. In my book Bungie already had value by keeping ND a SP studio with their advice (and others). Jim paid for them, but they are not getting played like Bungie did with MS & Activision that's for sure.
I'm not sure why people assume this purchase was in retaliation for abk, acquisitions would take months in the background to complete.
As for the poll, it's still early to say, the purchase went from one studio split into to two now. If they take control of the studio and make it a first party, I don't see why it won't still be a good purchase. The staff are still some of the best in the industry. Management needs to be overhauled...
I don’t understand acquisitions like this. It’s not like Bungie had a lot of IP Sony could make use of. Mainly just another online shooter that was falling in popularity. Of course they got the expertise involved in making an online shooter like this, but could they not have just opened an office down the road and started hiring at twice the salary Bungie were paying? Would have been a hell of a lot cheaper and easy to poach the staff given what we are hearing now.
After two decades of Microsoft making ill-thought out studio purchases and then going on to destroy value in them, looks like Sony incomprehensibly decided to follow their playbook.
@MikeOrator
Liking all of your comments.
Agreed on all points.
They obvs bring value but I still think it’s turned out to be pretty pants
@naruball uhm, a fair amount of playstation fans! Killzone wouldn't be a flop if it managed to release 6 games. Wouldn't consider resistance a flop either though it was never my cup of tea.
@tameshiyaku who talked about flops? There is a difference between being a flop and not selling well.
At the very least, I’d love to see Bungie apply their expertise to some new/resurrected FPS games from Sony. Hell, let them give Resistance a go! Forgot their experience with GAAS, Bungie make the best feeling shooters in games.
These guys made Halo and Playstation is entirely lacking in first-party shooters. Get them to make a new IP - advertised as from the creators of Halo and Destiny, exclusive to Playstation - designed to be ripe for sequels, with a big-budget campaign and robust multiplayer mode.
But noooo. "Live service wee wee wee". The purchase of Bungie was a good idea, how they've been used since is the problem.
Bungie was over valued, but Sony can turn this around with the right people running Bungie.
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