destiny 2
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Bungie’s recent woes are well known, with more than 100 layoffs in late October, but the more time passes, the more we learn about what’s going on inside Destiny 2 developers. It has become tragic.
This culminated in a report from. IGN’s Rebecca Valentine This revealed that, among other important issues such as “soul-crushing” morale problems, there were actually even more serious problems potentially looming. Sony acquired Bungie in 2022 for $3.6 billion, but the company has remained an independent subsidiary ever since. However, if Bungie fails to meet certain financial goals, Sony has the power to step in, dissolve the current board of directors, and take over direct control of the company itself. As a result…well, guess what. will do What is the result?
Beyond the idea that Bungie could even find itself in this situation, what would it mean if this trigger was actually pulled and Sony took over Bungie completely? I wanted to talk about it through several scenarios. This is not inside knowledge, just my own analysis, but I found this to go with some version of his three methods.
destiny 2
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Best case scenario – better leadership, stronger game
At this point, I don’t think anyone would dispute that Bungie’s leadership itself is the primary cause of most of what’s happening at Bungie right now. Well, Bungie’s leadership may dispute this, but it’s the view of players, many of the developers, and apparently Sony itself that the current board of directors will be disbanded.
The idea here is that this could be what the company and its games are about need. If Sony gets rid of problematic leadership, they might promote people within the company who can make better decisions, leverage their own talented internal talent, or hire people with live service or AAA experience. You may be able to hire someone.
In this case, Sony is willing to take some short-term losses (6-month season spending dip, post-Final Shape dip) to get back on track with a new leadership team to take Destiny 2 into its next era. You may agree to absorb it. We will continue to develop and release other Bungie IP such as Marathon. If the idea is that leadership is the main issue, then a leadership change in Sony’s hands could result in real corrections and positive changes for the players and remaining employees. but…
destiny 2
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Medium Scenario – Downsizing
While poor leadership decisions are certainly a big part of the problem here, there’s also the unavoidable fact that games like Destiny 2 are simply incredibly expensive to produce. Delivering this much seasonal content on a regular basis at this scale, on top of massive yearly expansions, is extremely difficult and expensive, and the game doesn’t have a good revenue mechanism to support it. Currently, Destiny is over-monetized enough to not interest players, but not monetized enough to support Genshin-like gacha gambling models and his WoW subscriptions (which players never take advantage of). Is not …
In this scenario, we would expect cuts both in terms of what Destiny will become and literal cuts at Bungie. Unfortunately, more layoffs. Perhaps the idea is that Destiny can’t continue at this pace without significant revenue growth or players who don’t see it coming. Even if “The Final Shape” sells well, a whole new era of “Destiny” will begin after that. But at the same pace? On the same scale? That may be difficult to convince Sony, and they may reduce the scope of the game and accordingly reduce or reorganize the team working on it.
This could mean a literal maintenance mode with smaller, less frequent content removals, or perhaps a plan to bring the IP back to scale later. And in the meantime, Bungie continues to aim to fulfill Sony’s other live service ambitions with new games like Marathon, which both Sony and Bungie hope will be a hit, with plans for that suspended. Is not …
destiny 2
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Worst case scenario – the end of Bungie
If the first scenario proposed here is somewhat rosy, this is a bleak ending. At this point, I think Sony will not just replace the board, but will lose faith in Bungie projects from Destiny to Marathon and end up spending more money than it brings in for far too long.
This is the realization of very real internal concerns that Bungie would essentially become a support studio for other prominent Sony developers, resulting in Bungie falling apart. It could be chopped up and involve significant layoffs. It’s possible that Bungie is developing other live service games that aren’t its own IP as part of Sony’s larger plans. Or it could be that Bungie developer leaves live service altogether and ends up working on something like the next God of War or his Naughty Dog game. But Bungie will more or less cease to exist.
In conclusion, I think it is unlikely that the final scenario will materialize. Bungie is too famous a development company to break up, and it would look foolish to buy Sony, which was founded less than two years ago.If Sony offers a multiplayer product, Marathon is too promising Any Ambition to make a mark in the field. And Destiny, despite its problems, was too strong an IP to be completely destroyed, and the series lasted a decade and still has a fan base of millions, including hundreds of thousands of devoted players. are collecting. We don’t just erase it from existence after revenue slumps.
My guess would be somewhere between the first two. I don’t think changing Bungie’s leadership is a magic solution, even if it would help. There are also real questions to consider about Destiny’s sustainability in content spending under its current revenue model. And if you can’t squeeze more revenue out of it (I don’t think you can at this point), what should you do? Perhaps refocus or reduce scope. But whatever happens, I’d like to see options that don’t result in further layoffs, and anything that helps improve dire morale over there. I don’t know how long Bungie’s time will last, but my guess is that Bungie will likely end it around his The Final Shape and then figure out where things go from there .
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