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[FingerBang]

Turns out this has been way more beneficial for Bungie than Sony. Terrible investment, but it might help to keep them afloat.

But the fact their new IP is just another multi-player GAAS is, well, just sad. They had so much potential. Destiny has been, in many ways (not all positive) a massively influential game. I wish they would take another big risk but I'm afraid they'll just play it safe from now on.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

I have never played a game made by bungie, so is this a good or bad thing? do they make good single player games?

The halo games (1,2,3, ODST ) were friggin' great (and still are), heck, you could see glimpses of that bungie magic® even in Destiny 1 (simple, pick up and play gameplay, great OST, nice art-direction) before it started to devolve into the OCD inducing, Stockholm syndrome bullshit that is today...

That "30 seconds of fun" motto they had was a real thing and shone through all of their games - a stark contrast to what destiny 2 stands for today since everything about it is basically...work/a 2nd job.

How the mighty have fallen...

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

This was a TERRIBLE investment by Sony how many Concords worth?

Honestly I never understood it. I know Microsoft were going ham with acquisitions and I guess Sony had to be seen doing something, but this was not the right choice. I didn't like this from the beginning because I knew it was never straight forward with Bungie and I thought Destiny was already on the decline.

But €3.6 billion was it? Fucking pissed up the wall as far as I'm concerned. Could have done so much more good with that.

 

[EN250]

Dear Mr. President Elect, is that a yes, or no? God bless ya, 47.

They're a one trick pony, they were top tier back in the day when they developed Halo for MS, after they went independent they had their huge hit with Destiny and the milking process started, then they got cocky after releasing Destiny 2 and thought the milking of their audience would be enough to support their big team expansion and branching to other media and new IPs, turns out, the well dried up and without the support of a big fish they couldn't keep going

They scammed Sony good for a $3.5billion purchase of an independent team that would report to them and do whatever they wanted, but signed a deal where if they couldn't meet an undisclosed level of cash flow, Sony would start the process of absorbing the team

Now Sony has to drag their asses up and make them work as another First Party Studio to try and recover something out of that bad deal

 

[Muddy]

Honestly I never understood it. I know Microsoft were going ham with acquisitions and I guess Sony had to be seen doing something, but this was not the right choice. I didn't like this from the beginning because I knew it was never straight forward with Bungie and I thought Destiny was already on the decline.

But €3.6 billion was it? Fucking pissed up the wall as far as I'm concerned. Could have done so much more good with that.

2.4 billion.

1.2 billion for Employee Retention which would be spent over several years. I doubt they have spent that given the layoffs and targets not being met.

 

[Badlucktroll]

i’ll probably chill on marathon for a bit but i bet its really making sony sweat internally right now

 

[hououinkyouma00]

I have never played a game made by bungie, so is this a good or bad thing? do they make good single player games?

Bungie made some of the best console FPS of all time, and basically single handedly proved that FPS could work on a controller. Halo 1-3/ODST/Reach are all amazing games. You could also easily argue that Bungie and Halo is one of the only reasons Xbox got popular.

Halo was originally a Mac game and not a FPS until Microsoft bought them when they were developing the Xbox. Before Halo Bungie had made multiple games, but I've never touched any of them besides the original Marathon which while it's no Halo is a fun game with lots of potential.

 

[playbignbox]

RIP Bungie

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Makes sense the Portfolio Strategy workers get absorbed into Sony. The only games Bunge has left are Destiny 2 and Marathon as the new CEO guy said the rest go to Sony. So what portfolio?

 

[nial]

These useless bums will likely cancel whatever promising project PS Studios has in the pipeline. Hermen Hulst can't help rewarding his Bungie pals after becoming the worst acquisition ever.

Ah, I dearly missed you.

 

[ArtHands]

Salvaging some of the remaining talents before studio closure?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Salvaging some of the remaining talents before studio closure?

I think it'll be a while. But after Destiny 2 and Marathon have fizzled out, theyre all moving over to Sony studios.

There's no point even having them around after those two games dont need support anymore since the new ceo said all future Bungie games have shifted to Sony, including already shifting over 50 or so employees early in the year to get another game going. But not as a Bungie labeled game. But a different studio.

 

[yurinka]

Source

Sony already absorbed the 100% of Bungie and integrated them in 'PlayStation' (SIE) back when they fully acquired them two years and a half ago.

Salvaging some of the remaining talents before studio closure?

Bungie created Halo and the fastest selling new IP ever, Destiny. Destiny 2's The Final Shape was a great success and the Marathon teaser broke records. They are one of the most successful FPS and AAA GaaS studios in the planet.

It would be seriously stupid and nonsensical to shut them down, there's absolutely no reason to do that.

Being 100% acquired by SIE, no longer makes sense to have some things like Bungie's specific 'Strategic Partnerships team', so moved them to whatever team does that for SIE, in this case apparently SIE's PlayStation’s Franchise Development and Portfolio Strategy division.

 

[mckmas8808]

The ROI must be worth it otherwise they wouldn't bother, right?

That's what we are all hoping.

 

[GymWolf]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The ROI must be worth it otherwise they wouldn't bother, right?

Studio is almost dead.

After D2 and Marathon, it'll be gone. Writing on the wall with poor financials past few years, big layoffs, cancelled projects and most important factor of them all.... shifting 50 people to SIE to make a new game in a different studio.

Bungie will last a bunch more years as D2 is still going and Marathon isnt even out and supported yet. But when those games fizzle out years from now, they are gone. No point shifting people over now as Marathon is still being worked on under the Bungie label.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

This was a TERRIBLE investment by Sony how many Concords worth?

Honestly this means Sony is absorbing all of Bungie talent without having to deal with a huge management problem they are having for years.

Also, it's not like Destiny 2 is doing bad. It's an old game from 2017 and still pushing some stable numbers.

It also depends on how well Marathon is doing. I can see the game flopping and Sony doing some tough decisions. Let's not forget that the layoffs from Bungie just made the studio as big as it was when Sony acquired them. It's not like the studio is doing terribly bad out of nowhere.

That said, Sony clearly overpaid for them. You know it's bad when even MS looks at you and says "yeah that's too much money. we ain't buying you".

 

[sainraja]

Studio is almost dead.

After D2 and Marathon, it'll be gone. Writing on the wall with poor financials past few years, big layoffs, cancelled projects and most important factor of them all.... shifting 50 people to SIE to make a new game in a different studio.

Bungie will last a bunch more years as D2 is still going and Marathon isnt even out and supported yet. But when those games fizzle out years from now, they are gone. No point shifting people over now as Marathon is still being worked on under the Bungie label.

I hope what you are saying does not happen and some people here simply want to see them go down because Bungie is under PlayStation now. Some of you forget that their series Destiny 2 has been going since 2017 and if you count the first, then 2014. If they want to continue Destiny 2 they only need to make key changes and make it less grindy and keep adding content.

Obviously things could look better but change isn't always a bad thing and Bungie is pretty much PlayStation now.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Will be surprised if they still exist in a few years. They've been in full collapse ever since Lightfall. If Marathon flops they're done.

Destiny 3 is the only way out. But they (and their playerbase) are too stubborn to admit it.

 

[Bernardougf]

Is hard to choose whats fucking up sony more... gaas or wokeness

 

[ArtHands]

Will be surprised if they still exist in a few years. They've been in full collapse ever since Lightfall. If Marathon flops they're done.

Destiny 3 is the only way out. But they (and their playerbase) are too stubborn to admit it.

I wonder if Sony will pull the plug sooner rather than later like the Concord studio

 

[EN250]

Is hard to choose whats fucking up sony more... gaas or wokeness

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I wonder if Sony will pull the plug sooner rather than later like the Concord studio

Destiny 2 is one of the highest grossing games on Steam

It’s not a pull the plug scenario

 

[Nydius]

Destiny 2's The Final Shape was a great success

Was it? I seem to recall reading that it sold worse than Lightfall before it and a lot of frustrated users bailed once they reached yet another lackluster end game.

I think Bungie massively damaged their brand when they started vaulting content. Between that, their increasingly blatant recycling of content, and their attempt to monetize every element of their game, people began to see they were being robbed of their time and money.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Was it? I seem to recall reading that it sold worse than Lightfall before it and a lot of frustrated users bailed once they reached yet another lackluster end game.

I think Bungie massively damaged their brand when they started vaulting content. Between that, their increasingly blatant recycling of content, and their attempt to monetize every element of their game, people began to see they were being robbed of their time and money.

Highly regarded as one of the best expansions

 

[AJUMP23]

Spongie for bungie.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I hope what you are saying does not happen and some people here simply want to see them go down because Bungie is under PlayStation now.

It’s not that. I’ve studied these people for years.

They don’t like Bungie for this primary reason:

Bungie went from making great single player campaigns (Halo) to a PvE GAAS (Destiny) to Marathon (GAAS and PvP only). They went from “I love Bungie” to “I’ll tolerate Bungie” to “Public enemy number one”.

They are the jilted lover. Dumped for a more lucrative audience. They feel ugly and used. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

 

[intheinbetween]

This is what I call organic growth

 

[yurinka]

Was it? I seem to recall reading that it sold worse than Lightfall before it and a lot of frustrated users bailed once they reached yet another lackluster end game.

I think Bungie massively damaged their brand when they started vaulting content. Between that, their increasingly blatant recycling of content, and their attempt to monetize every element of their game, people began to see they were being robbed of their time and money.

According to Sony (or Bungie specifically, I don't remember) and the Steam's top 10 top grossing games of the year highlight (they aren't ordered, the order changes when you reload the page) it has been a great success. It got a 89/90 in MC and as far as I remember some 'best ongoing game' award or nomination.

I dislike seeing them vaulting things, but looking at the facts The Final Shape (and Destiny 2 in general) seems to be super successful.

 

[Tams]

But €3.6 billion was it? Fucking pissed up the wall as far as I'm concerned. Could have done so much more good with that.

Yep. For one studio (well, yeah itxs a company with many teams that are effectively studios, but the creative diversity is just not there).

Sony, already with a their own studios and much experience, could have set up a load of new studios for that much. Sure, many wouldn't produce that great stuff, but surely several handfuls of new IPs and rejuvenated old IPs would have stuck.

Instead all we seem to be getting is one massive GAAS game. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

According to Sony (or Bungie specifically, I don't remember) and the Steam's top 10 top grossing games of the year highlight (they aren't ordered, the order changes when you reload the page) it has been a great success. It got a 89/90 in MC and as far as I remember some 'best ongoing game' award or nomination.

I dislike seeing them vaulting things, but looking at the facts The Final Shape (and Destiny 2 in general) seems to be super successful.

They don’t like it when you bring this up. It riles up their emotional response.

 

[mckmas8808]

Yep. For one studio (well, yeah itxs a company with many teams that are effectively studios, but the creative diversity is just not there).

Sony, already with a their own studios and much experience, could have set up a load of new studios for that much. Sure, many wouldn't produce that great stuff, but surely several handfuls of new IPs and rejuvenated old IPs would have stuck.

Instead all we seem to be getting is one massive GAAS game. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

Well now that they are splitting up Bungie and made a new Sony studio, we should be getting more than just one massive GAAS game.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

According to Sony (or Bungie specifically, I don't remember) and the Steam's top 10 top grossing games of the year highlight (they aren't ordered, the order changes when you reload the page) it has been a great success. It got a 89/90 in MC and as far as I remember some 'best ongoing game' award or nomination.

I dislike seeing them vaulting things, but looking at the facts The Final Shape (and Destiny 2 in general) seems to be super successful.

Game is at an all-time low point let's not delude ourselves. And yeah there's always this cycle with the yearly expansions except the 3 'episodes' instead of 'seasons' has been a total failure, and now there's not a real expansion on the horizon and it seems pretty unlikely that Frontiers will drive anywhere near the revenue as 10-year saga ending Final Shape which was a proper expansion.

They still have yet to prove they can milk Destiny while not actually investing a lot into Destiny.

They have more riding on Marathon than they sensibly should IMO.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Far too many of the folks in this thread are wholly ignorant about Bungie and the success of Destiny.

Bungie isn't going anywhere and Marathon is likely to become one of the few prominent, successful GaaS games after it launches and Bungie gets into the swing of things.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Is hard to choose whats fucking up sony more... gaas or wokeness

... or the female protagonist push in most of their games.

 

[Bernardougf]

... or the female protagonist push in most of their games.

This goes into the "woke" and its feminist subcategorie

 

[yurinka]

Game is at an all-time low point let's not delude ourselves. And yeah there's always this cycle with the yearly expansions except the 3 'episodes' instead of 'seasons' has been a total failure,

According to your ass, maybe. As I said, according to Steam is one of the top 10 top grossing games of 2024. And according to Sony/Bungie (can't remember which one exactly) the mot recent data we have was that they were very happy with The Last Shape being very successful.

Regarding to its performance, we have no idea other than the data we have from Steam and the one shared very rarely by Sony/Bungie (the last comments we got was that Lightfall underperformed and that The Final Shape was a big success). And well, being a 7 years old game it would be normal that it would sunset at this point, but TFS was a great bump.

and now there's not a real expansion on the horizon and it seems pretty unlikely that Frontiers will drive anywhere near the revenue as 10-year saga ending Final Shape which was a proper expansion.

They still have yet to prove they can milk Destiny while not actually investing a lot into Destiny.

Destiny 2 has been a top 10 game of the year in the top grossing Steam for 2024 despite being a 7 years old game and already must have made billions before this. They have nothing to prove.

Regarding next year, we'll see. Being so old it should enter on a sunseting stage before moving their main efforts to Marathon and maybe to the next Destiny game, I assume Destiny 3. But who knows, maybe they are happy with the results of the new seasons format and they keep supporting Destiny 2 during a few years more.

 

[nnytk]

Bungie is a multiplayer/GaaS studio now, no investment in Single Player games whatsoever. Long ago they created the Halo Series and made Halo 1, 2, and 3 for Microsoft. That's the last time we saw any true single player output from them (17 years ago). Nowadays, they're known for shady microtransactions, milking their players wallets and patience, and overall being a huge disappointment to the people who loved them in the Halo/Early Destiny 1 days. Oh, and did I mention being insufferably, obnoxiously woke? Disastrous purchase decision from Sony.

I'd love to see a singleplayer or coop roguelike fps or tps from them tbh. It's a shame they're being pushed in that live service corner.

Does Sony own the Killzone IP? If so, could Bungie be working on a new Killzone game?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'd love to see a singleplayer or coop roguelike fps or tps from them tbh. It's a shame they're being pushed in that live service corner.

Does Sony own the Killzone IP? If so, could Bungie be working on a new Killzone game?

Sony owns KZ. But that is a Guerrila Games IP. Nothing stops Sony from having another studio take the reins. But I dont think IPs usually flip hands at Sony unless it's a PSP/Vita handheld game they get a different studio to do it.

 

[nnytk]

Sony owns KZ. But that is a Guerrila Games IP. Nothing stops Sony from having another studio take the reins. But I dont think IPs usually flip hands at Sony unless it's a PSP/Vita handheld game they get a different studio to do it.

Ugh, I'd love to see a Killzone reboot by Bungie, maybe with an online coop twist.

Sony is sitting on so much great dormant ip, it's stupid. I really hope the success of Astro Bot creates some fresh opportunities/projects.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Ugh, I'd love to see a Killzone reboot by Bungie, maybe with an online coop twist.

Sony is sitting on so much great dormant ip, it's stupid. I really hope the success of Astro Bot creates some fresh opportunities/projects.

I think what scared them off is KZ on PS4 sold great out of the gates (I think they sold 2M copies in the first handful of months), but the MP base some reason dropped like a rock. I remember articles saying despite the huge sales, the MP base only had 1,000 or 2,000 active gamers. So it must had sucked and every gamer then bolted to play COD or BF4.

That's probably what cemented Sony focusing on SP games since then aside from GT and baseball. All their other MP games... many shooters, that fighting game, LBP etc... all stopped.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

According to your ass, maybe. As I said, according to Steam is one of the top 10 top grossing games of 2024. And according to Sony/Bungie (can't remember which one exactly) the mot recent data we have was that they were very happy with The Last Shape being very successful.

Regarding to its performance, we have no idea other than the data we have from Steam and the one shared very rarely by Sony/Bungie (the last comments we got was that Lightfall underperformed and that The Final Shape was a big success). And well, being a 7 years old game it would be normal that it would sunset at this point, but TFS was a great bump.

Destiny 2 has been a top 10 game of the year in the top grossing Steam for 2024 despite being a 7 years old game and already must have made billions before this. They have nothing to prove.

Regarding next year, we'll see. Being so old it should enter on a sunseting stage before moving their main efforts to Marathon and maybe to the next Destiny game, I assume Destiny 3. But who knows, maybe they are happy with the results of the new seasons format and they keep supporting Destiny 2 during a few years more.

Red line to help illustrate how low the playerbase is. Source: SteamDB courtesy of Steam's own API.. i.e. Steam not 'my ass'. The way your posts are written you clearly don't care about Destiny (have you even played The Final Shape?) beyond pumping it up for your plastic box warring agenda

 

[Long Far Gone]

Bungie have been limping along for a while now. They messed up the Destiny franchise horrifically, it could have been something special, something iconic in all of gaming, like Mass Effect, but instead they shit all over it. I still remember when they released the original art posters of The Traveller, it was so inspiring, mysterious and exciting.

I used to love Destiny but vaulting content that people actually paid for? How ruthless can you be? There should have been a Destiny 3 & 4 by now but, no, we get the same old wank we got in 2014. It's heartbreaking.

If Marathon fails, Sony are going to absorb Bungie and, quite frankly, I wouldn't blame them. But then, Sony also massively fucked up with Concord so they're just as brain-dead as Bungie's management team. I hate everything about this situation...

 

[RCU005]

Long ago they created the Halo Series and made Halo 1, 2, and 3 for Microsoft.

Halo 1 wasn't made FOR Microsoft. The game was supposed to be Apple exclusive (for Macs) but Microsoft acquired Bungie to prevent it.

 

[Vlodril]

Bungie have been limping along for a while now. They messed up the Destiny franchise horrifically, it could have been something special, something iconic in all of gaming, like Mass Effect, but instead they shit all over it. I still remember when they released the original art posters of The Traveller, it was so inspiring, mysterious and exciting.

I used to love Destiny but vaulting content that people actually paid for? How ruthless can you be? There should have been a Destiny 3 & 4 by now but, no, we get the same old wank we got in 2014. It's heartbreaking.

If Marathon fails, Sony are going to absorb Bungie and, quite frankly, I wouldn't blame them. But then, Sony also massively fucked up with Concord so they're just as brain-dead as Bungie's management team. I hate everything about this situation...

Didn't like Destiny nearly as much as i love Mass effect but to say it's not more iconic than it is laughable. Destiny in general not only made a ton more money but it's way better known than Mass effect. It's not even close not sure why you would compare the two.

 

[Darchaos]

The talent in that company who made Halo and Destiny is long gone, what is left is pure shit.

 

[yurinka]

Red line to help illustrate how low the playerbase is. Source: SteamDB courtesy of Steam's own API.. i.e. Steam not 'my ass'. The way your posts are written you clearly don't care about Destiny (have you even played The Final Shape?) beyond pumping it up for your plastic box warring agenda

This is not playerbase, these are concurrent users. Meaning, how busy are the servers are in a given point of the day. Not the daily active users (daily userbase), weekly active users (daily userbase) or monthly active users (monthly userbase).

CCUs can give you an approximated idea of the userbase (like seeing that The Final Shape, but isn't accurate at all because two games with the same CCUs can have hugely different userbases: one can have less players but that play more times or longer per day/week/month than the other, or one can have all their users focused on a timezone or day of the week compared to the other.

Lower CCU doesn't imply that the userbase is smaller. It may mean that the userbase is the same but games play now less frequently (in case of 'old' GaaS games, typically many of them come back when they include important new content).

And this is only from Steam, when the game is also in other platforms like PS and Xbox. And well, CCUs aren't also good indicators of the revenue they make. As we can see there, TFS launch peak almost got their highest Steam CCU ever, with the Lightfall launch peak being the actual record. But the news we got from Sony/Bungie is that they considered that Lightfall underperformed and weren't happy with it, and that TFS instead has been very successful and they are happy with it.

We don't have any factual data of the game being in an all time low regarding revenue or userbase. Only in Steam specific CCUs, which is somewhat an indicator, but as explained can't be extrapolated to its userbase or revenue, specially when adding the non-Steam versions to the mix.

In any case, it's a 7 years old game that performed at top level all this time, and it's normal that around at this time it would start to sunset or would already sunseted. But still considering this, according to Valve Destiny 2 is one of the 10 top grossing games of the year in Steam.

And shut the fuck up with "plastic box warring agenda" bullshit, don't be an asshole idiot.

 

[lordrand11]

Source

 

[RJMacready73]

Can someone explain to me why if Sony bought Budgie for it's live service experience amongst other things they cannot give a near feature complete Last Of Us Multiplayer game over to them to run?? Why would they put all those years into something to shelve when they have studios being put to pasture that could easily run this game for them or was the game a Trainwreck?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Can someone explain to me why if Sony bought Budgie for it's live service experience amongst other things they cannot give a near feature complete Last Of Us Multiplayer game over to them to run?? Why would they put all those years into something to shelve when they have studios being put to pasture that could easily run this game for them or was the game a Trainwreck?

Supposedly, the reason was ND didn't have the resources to handle a GAAS game, and anything else they are working on (which is Intergalactic and surely LOU3). I dont think I remember anything about it being bad.

But what you probably got is internal politics.. Druckmann doesnt want Bungie (or anyone else) taking it over. And Bungie as master MP overseer recommended it shut down too, so they got fewer internal studios to compete against for GAAS. The CEO just agreed and let it go.