A damning new report claims that Bungie mislead Sony about its financial position ahead of its acquisition by PlayStation. The studio’s management has come under scrutiny following a second round of mass layoffs within a year that didn’t even spare long-time senior executives. Now, many former employees are laying the blame solely on CEO Pete Parsons.
Sony spent $3.6 billion acquiring Bungie — was it worth it?
The aforementioned report comes from veteran journalist Stephen Totilo, who spoke to former Bungie employees to get to the bottom of things. At least one of them addressed what many analysts and the gaming community have been left puzzled by: Sony spending $3.6 billion to acquire the studio.
The employee reckons that Sony overpaid for Bungie after the studio misled the PlayStation maker by selling “things they were just not able to deliver.” While Destiny 2: The Final Shape has been widely praised, Totilo has been told that the latest cuts were being planned long before the expansion released.
What’s even more interesting is that it seems Bungie was a bit desperate to strike a deal with Sony. One of Totilo’s sources said that if Bungie hadn’t been acquired, it may have gone bankrupt. “The alternate history is insolvency,” they said.
NEW: I spoke to ex-Bungie workers about yesterday’s big cuts– This round was in the works prior to Final Shape– Feeling is Bungie bosses oversold studio to Sony – Not selling would’ve been worse? Source: “The alternate history is insolvency”My story:https://t.co/QXm0qzeSQ8— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) August 1, 2024
Bungie had thousands of employees at one point, which have now been reduced to 850 following the latest round of cuts. The studio hasn’t released anything outside of Destiny and its sequel over the last decade, and has gone through high-profile splits with both Microsoft and Activision in the past.
It has also emerged that senior Destiny executives Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy have been let go. Suffice to say, the common denominator here is Bungie’s management.