Sony's acquisition of Bungie has always been seen among gamers as a risky operation that never really took off. A gamble from an earlier era of the company, where games-as-a-service seemed the only possible horizon, and which, years and hundreds of millions of dollars lost after that, seems to be turning the ship around again. With Bungie, everything depended on Destiny remaining the reigning looter-shooter franchise, but that's no longer the case.
Sony has released an expanded report on its impact on the company's earnings in its Games and Network Services segment where, in a Q&A session (thank you, TWIV), it declared impairment losses on "intangible and other assets related to Destiny 2". The company's CFO Lin Tao has argued that "as far as Destiny 2 is concerned, due in part to changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectations we had at the time of the Bungie acquisition."
"While we will continue to make improvements, we have revised the business projection downwards for the time being and have recorded an impairment loss on a portion of Bungie's assets."
This is not good news for Microsoft's one-time crown jewel and original creators of Halo, who are now struggling to keep Destiny 2 alive in the new Destiny Saga, while also preparing for the launch of Marathon, a remake of their own title released over 30 years ago and which has gone through a rather turbulent development.
With these two fronts open, and the disenchantment of its bosses, Bungie doesn't have much room for error right now if it wants to keep things moving.
How do you think Bungie will react to both Destiny 2 and the development of Marathon after this overhaul from their bosses at Sony?