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Bungie Replaces Marathon Director Amid Leadership Shakeup, Fears of Layoffs

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
No they don’t. Read their statement closely, they don’t have a major AAA franchise release
If you want to split hairs, sure, they'll have releases, just not blockbuster franchise releases, which are the ones that drive sales numbers.

It doesn't change my point at all that:
They have made several poor business decisions, and it seems like PlayStation has been managed by bean counters/committee for the last several years.
It's becoming readily apparent that they are and have been in decline.
They need better management/leaders to right the ship.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
If you want to split hairs, sure, they'll have releases, just not blockbuster franchise releases, which are the ones that drive sales numbers.

It doesn't change my point at all that:
They have made several poor business decisions, and it seems like PlayStation has been managed by bean counters/committee for the last several years.
It's becoming readily apparent that they are and have been in decline.
They need better management/leaders to right the ship.

Sorry, but no.

The last few years they've had numerous AAA projects that have all hit great sales milestones. Playstation sales are at their briskest pace ever.

Is everything rosy in the industry? No, costs are a concern across the board, but Playstation is still highly profitable especially when you exclude one off expenses.

From a gamer's standpoint there's no lack of games either. Helldivers is their largest GaaS ever. They have third party investments into Square with FF7R which released to high fan and critical reception. They have Steller Blade, Rise of the Ronin in the next few months. And looking at the fall they could have a big AstroBot project releasing. 2025 has some major releases with GTA6 and Death Stranding 2. Not to mention whatever unannounced games they have in the works.

I'm not buying into the doom and gloom.
 
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gothmog

Gold Member
To be honest I think a lot of this negativity about Bungie is sour grapes from those let go. I'll believe it when the final trailers for the next expansion drop and are met with crickets.
 
You know what sucks? If they made a true modern Marathon, even a retelling of the original story, as a story-based campaign, they'd have a crazy big seller. Especially with co-op. When Bungie focus on spectacle and big, high concept sci-fi, they excel. No one is better at it.
 
Sorry, but no.

The last few years they've had numerous AAA projects that have all hit great sales milestones. Playstation sales are at their briskest pace ever.

Is everything rosy in the industry? No, costs are a concern across the board, but Playstation is still highly profitable especially when you exclude one off expenses.

From a gamer's standpoint there's no lack of games either. Helldivers is their largest GaaS ever. They have third party investments into Square with FF7R which released to high fan and critical reception. They have Steller Blade, Rise of the Ronin in the next few months. And looking at the fall they could have a big AstroBot project releasing. 2025 has some major releases with GTA6 and Death Stranding 2. Not to mention whatever unannounced games they have in the works.

I'm not buying into the doom and gloom.


If not for Shuehi Yoshida, PlayStation would be kind of screwed this year, he is the only man bringing in a variety of exclusive games and reaching out to new partners. He is a gamer, "one of us". The rest of the PlayStation management are suits or people completely out of touch with the fanbase.

Sony badly needs more people like Mr.Shu and less fuckers from the Californian mindsphere.
 
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zedinen

Member
They have zero first-party games slated for the entirety of 2024. That is absolutely embarrassingand a sign of piss-poor management.

They are embarrassing their competitors.

(Nov 2022 - Apr 2024)
GOW Ragnarok (15 M)
Final Fantasy XVI
Honkai: Star Rail
Spider-Man 2 (10 M)
Helldivers 2 (8 M)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Rise of the Ronin
Stellar Blade


They've been running on fumes of goodwill, and those fumes are running out.

Goodwill? In Europe.

PS4 sales in the US and Japan were catastrophic.

Which is why the european boss was appointed as CEO. One of the best decisions ever made.


Ampere Analysis: In 2023, PS5 Sold 22.5m Units (+65% YoY), Xbox Series 7.6m (-15% YoY)

Starfield will be announced for PS5 with a release between November and December 2024

Bungie purchase? Disastrous.

Totoki seemed very impressed with Bungie employees

They have made several poor business decisions, and it seems like PlayStation has been managed by bean counters/committee for the last several years.

Excluding the massive increases in R&D and D&A and costs related to acquisitions, SIE operating income in FY23 would be 500 billion yen.

They didn't care about short-term profits: SIE chose to reinvest profits into growth.


It's becoming readily apparent that they are and have been in decline.

SIE has overtaken Tencent as the top grossing gaming company.

Well that's not entirely true is it? As you well know the Sony powers that be are not happy with the margins the PS division is pulling in, so you may be happy but Sony aren't.

SIE has made more money over the past 4 years than the previous 26 years combined

Totoki expects a new profit record in the PS5 generation
 
3Bil spent and over 18+ months... zero games and nothing outside of Marathon on the timeline over the next 3 years. I don't think this acquisition has lived up to any reasonable person's expectations. Bethesda was probably the better get at 7Bil and that's honestly who Sony should've acquired.

But, but, but muh GaaS you just need 1 to hit and you're good!
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
3Bil spent and over 18+ months... zero games and nothing outside of Marathon on the timeline over the next 3 years. I don't think this acquisition has lived up to any reasonable person's expectations. Bethesda was probably the better get at 7Bil and that's honestly who Sony should've acquired.

But, but, but muh GaaS you just need 1 to hit and you're good!

Bethesda's last 5 games have been single player farts. Indy will be another fart.
 

Varteras

Member
Bethesda was probably the better get at 7Bil and that's honestly who Sony should've acquired.
I mean that's twice as much for a bunch of games that were far away from expectations. From a company that was selling itself because it was in a bad financial way. Now it looks like Sony is ultimately going to get those games back on the menu. So where would that have been better for them? 100% of the revenue on their platform? Yeah, and 100% of the development and marketing costs for underperformers.
 
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Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
If Sony knew what they were doing they would also retool the game into a single player campaign. But I don't see this happening sadly, not this late.
That would be the dumbest thing they could do right now.
 
They have zero first-party games slated for the entirety of 2024. That is absolutely embarrassing and a sign of piss-poor management. They're not dying in a gutter, but they are definitely in decline.
You really wrote this with Helldivers 2 being a smash hit and having great reviews, Rise of the Ronin about to be released, FFVII Rebirth releasing to amazing reviews and Stellar Blade all coming before the end of April huh. Also TLOU2 remastered being a big seller earlier in the year.

That's some decline right there. It might be the best Q1 PS5 has had so far lmao.

But sure...since we can't complain about the lack of exclusives now, let's trash the content even if it's a hit or well received by critics.

They still have stuff like MLB, Concord, possibly Silent Hill 2 remake to come this year.

They have literally released the best games so far in 3 months when compared to MS and Nintendo and yet, you call this embarrassing.

1st Party games don't have to come from their studios, like Helldivers 2 or Rise of the Ronin or Stellar Blade. Sounds like good planning to me. Releasing exclusive games from other studios in times their own studios aren't releasing games.

Do y'all actually like videogames anymore? If nothing about these games do anything to you, you're probably on the wrong platform, lol.
 

peish

Member
Sony over paid for bungie imo, that’s on jimmy
Bungie also are likely unproductive with too often fighting over diversity and representation nonsense that many western studios are guilty of
 
Bethesda's last 5 games have been single player farts. Indy will be another fart.
I think Starfield would've been a better game under Sony WWS and Redfall would have been axed. Hi-Fi-Rush was well-received and they would have had Doom, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout all exclusive which would have fixed their lack of 1P FPS and 1P WRPG.

I mean that's twice as much for a bunch of games that were far away from expectations. From a company that was selling itself because it was in a bad financial way. Now it looks like Sony is ultimately going to get those games back on the menu. So where would that have been better for them? 100% of the revenue on their platform? Yeah, and 100% of the development and marketing costs for underperformers.
Hindsight but yes Sony gets those games back because MS is a joke. You're forgetting about Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Those two franchises alone sell enough to float pretty much everything else in the pipeline regardless of how much they underperform.
 
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drganon

Member
They have zero first-party games slated for the entirety of 2024. That is absolutely embarrassing and a sign of piss-poor management. They're not dying in a gutter, but they are definitely in decline. I think the goodwill they developed with core gamers is essentially the momentum they've been running on for a while now, but they've made a ton of poor decisions.

PSVR 2? They sent it out to die.
Bungie purchase? Disastrous.
The Last of Us: Factions? Dead.
Massive layoffs, including from new studios that haven't even put a game out yet.
PS5 sales "underwhelming" and in decline.
It seems like all they make now are third-party cinematic action-adventure games. And some of their recent content, especially with Spider-Man 2, has been polarizing for their core audiences.

They've been running on fumes of goodwill, and those fumes are running out.
Articles from that worthless dipshit Takashi don't help your point.
 

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
Sorry, but no.

The last few years they've had numerous AAA projects that have all hit great sales milestones. Playstation sales are at their briskest pace ever.

Is everything rosy in the industry? No, costs are a concern across the board, but Playstation is still highly profitable especially when you exclude one off expenses.

From a gamer's standpoint there's no lack of games either. Helldivers is their largest GaaS ever. They have third party investments into Square with FF7R which released to high fan and critical reception. They have Steller Blade, Rise of the Ronin in the next few months. And looking at the fall they could have a big AstroBot project releasing. 2025 has some major releases with GTA6 and Death Stranding 2. Not to mention whatever unannounced games they have in the works.

I'm not buying into the doom and gloom.
I didn't say it was unprofitable, I said it was in decline, and because momentum is slowing, this point is becoming increasingly apparent. This is not an opinion. Again, Sony themselves said that the most recent PS5 sales have been underwhelming.

Costs are a concern across the board, and yet you don't see Nintendo laying off their teams. Why is that? Could it be, at least partially, because their teams, projects, and acquisitions are managed intelligently and responsibly?

>From a gamer's standpoint there's no lack of games either. Helldivers is their largest GaaS ever.
Yes, but it's not "theirs." PlayStation does own the Helldivers IP as a publisher, but they don't own Arrowhead, which is why my point about a wasteland of first-party titles still stands.
I repeat, it is not a sign of good management when you have 20+ studios across the globe and not one of them is putting out a major game for an entire year. If you think that's Sony "firing on all cylinders," I'd strongly disagree.

You list a ton of second-party titles but no first-party titles, which is what I was talking about in the first place. Second-party output is great, but can't we agree it would be even better if first-party and second-party output could be great at the same time?

I'm not doom and gloom. This isn't a hopeless situation. We need more leaders like Shuhei Yoshida, Adam Boyes, and Jack Tretton, and we need less like Jim Ryan, Hiroki Totoki, and Herman Hulst.
 

Brigandier

Gold Member
Honestly it's time for Sony to send in some managers who will crack the whip hard with this absolute JOKE of a studio and if the purple haired land whales and LGBTQ+-&_£#@ Microwaves can't handle actually having to work hard instead of argue over who misgendered them 4 years ago in an email written for the attention of everyone then they can kindly fuck off and find a new job elsewhere.

Make some fucking games and get them revealed/released same with ND sort your shit out, Totally mismanaged.
 

Varteras

Member
Hindsight but yes Sony gets those games back because MS is a joke. You're ignoring Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Those two franchises alone sell enough to float pretty much everything else in the pipeline.

Do you remember what one of the big motivating factors for Microsoft to buy Zenimax was? Because Sony was getting exclusive deals. First parties buying major publishers was never a thing until Microsoft did it. Sony had no reason to want to buy them. They were already winning the war by a large margin and getting free revenue from selling their games on their platform. Just because they have some big IP doesn't make it a sound financial decision to buy a publisher who, despite having those IP and selling them on all platforms, had to reduce themselves to timed-exclusive deals to make enough money in the short term to keep all the lights on. So, no, those two franchises weren't enough.

Let's not forget that Bethesda itself has gone downhill for a while now. So, yay, you get Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Maybe many years after purchase. Hoping that they don't fail to meet expectations on those, too. Again, Zenimax was a financially struggling company despite its IP. Microsoft bought them out of desperation at the time. A desperation that Sony didn't have. It was not only a good call in hindsight to not try to outbid Microsoft, but would have been a quite questionable call even then. Don't forget, $7 billion is what Microsoft was willing to pay. If Sony wanted them, they'd have had to float a better offer. Probably billions more. And hope Microsoft didn't offer even more. It's not as simple as you make it sound.
 

Klayzer

Member
You really wrote this with Helldivers 2 being a smash hit and having great reviews, Rise of the Ronin about to be released, FFVII Rebirth releasing to amazing reviews and Stellar Blade all coming before the end of April huh. Also TLOU2 remastered being a big seller earlier in the year.

That's some decline right there. It might be the best Q1 PS5 has had so far lmao.

But sure...since we can't complain about the lack of exclusives now, let's trash the content even if it's a hit or well received by critics.

They still have stuff like MLB, Concord, possibly Silent Hill 2 remake to come this year.

They have literally released the best games so far in 3 months when compared to MS and Nintendo and yet, you call this embarrassing.

1st Party games don't have to come from their studios, like Helldivers 2 or Rise of the Ronin or Stellar Blade. Sounds like good planning to me. Releasing exclusive games from other studios in times their own studios aren't releasing games.

Do y'all actually like videogames anymore? If nothing about these games do anything to you, you're probably on the wrong platform, lol.
This quarter alone was full of games. PS5 is on a roll with content.
 

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
Helldivers 2 is a first party game developed by a 3rd party developer. It's an IP owned by Sony. I'm not having this discussion again if you can't even grasp this concept.
I was criticizing Sony's management of their first-party studios. Arrowhead is not one of those. Helldivers 2 being successful does not make their management of their first-party studios better. You're creating strawman of points I never brought up.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I was criticizing Sony's management of their first-party studios. Arrowhead is not one of those. Helldivers 2 being successful does not make their management of their first-party studios better. You're creating strawman of points I never brought up.

Why does it matter? Sony is funding these games. They rightly recognized a gap in FP output in 2024 and made sure the pipeline had 2nd or 3rd party games

That’s a strategy organized by Sony themselves and it’s not new, that’s mostly all of what Sony did during the ps2 era
 

Omnipunctual Godot

Gold Member
Why does it matter? Sony is funding these games. They rightly recognized a gap in FP output in 2024 and made sure the pipeline had 2nd or 3rd party games

That’s a strategy organized by Sony themselves and it’s not new, that’s mostly all of what Sony did during the ps2 era
It matters for the reason I mentioned above. Second-party (or whatever you want to call studios that aren't owned by Sony making console-exclusive games) output is great, but can't we agree it would be even better if first-party and second-party output could be great at the same time? Wouldn't it be great if there were strategic releases from both that complimented each other throughout the year?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I'm not following or an idiot.

So the news is a director is being replaced with a different guy, but the guy tweeted he's been doing the job for 9 months already? Huh?
 


lrohayE.jpg
 
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In the particular case of Helldivers and Stellar Blade, those are first-party content from third-party studios. What is now called "second party". Sony has been great with those.

PS Studios, managed by Hermen Hulst, has been a shitshow. There's no denying that. Hermen cannot survive this debacle.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Valorant.

Heroes.

Extraction shooter.

Kill it with fire. Please. Just legitmately the worst three word combination ive ever heard. Just sell them sony. get your money back while you can.
 

Varteras

Member
In the particular case of Helldivers and Stellar Blade, those are first-party content from third-party studios. What is now called "second party". Sony has been great with those.

PS Studios, managed by Hermen Hulst, has been a shitshow. There's no denying that. Hermen cannot survive this debacle.

I'm not sure Hermen is to blame for the GAAS initiative. He's not even actually in charge of Bungie. However, he can certainly be blamed for any other studios under him not running well. Firesprite and the recent claims of complete studio mismanagement after purchase comes to mind.
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
Wasn't excited with the direction of this iteration of Marathon from the start and I don't see how mixing in anyone Valorant related will help.
 

nial

Member
In the particular case of Helldivers and Stellar Blade, those are first-party content from third-party studios. What is now called "second party". Sony has been great with those.

PS Studios, managed by Hermen Hulst, has been a shitshow. There's no denying that. Hermen cannot survive this debacle.
Which is absolutely up to Hermen Hulst, because the production of those games does not manage itself.
I mean, if internally-developed games are all people care about, then I don't think they really liked Sony that much in the past. As far as retail releases go, they literally had nothing in 2015, but it was still a great year because of externally-developed titles like Bloodborne, Helldivers and Until Dawn.
Hey, let's not even go to the PS2 era, when 75% of their games were ""second-party"".
 
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nial

Member
Costs are a concern across the board, and yet you don't see Nintendo laying off their teams. Why is that? Could it be, at least partially, because their teams, projects, and acquisitions are managed intelligently and responsibly?
LOL, the same Nintendo which had, according to your logic, only TWO first-party releases in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, and only ONE this year? Really?
It seems like all they make now are third-party cinematic action-adventure games.
If you want to split hairs, sure, they'll have releases, just not blockbuster franchise releases, which are the ones that drive sales numbers.
It's like you can't even make up your own mind.
 

yurinka

Member
Not sure on the details of the contract but doesn't Bungie have complete creative control?

Bungie has said it will remain independently operated and be able to release its future new games and IPs multiplatform as well.

I knew they had some almost unbelievable caveats written into the contract.
The details of the contract is that Sony bought 100% of Bungie, so Bungie is a fully owned SIE subsidiary.

SIE decided to keep them as a different and separate multiplatform publishing label outside PS Studios, and like to all their other teams gives them creative freedom.

Sony is interested on the money they make in non-PS platforms including rival consoles as part of their multiplatform strategy (the other parts are the PC ports, PC+PS GaaS and future mobile games). But without using PS Studios publishing label in rival consoles.

Meaning, PS Studios and Bungie are two separate subsidiary publishing SIE labels.

Other than that, Bungie is just a subsidiary. If SIE wants Jimbo can fire them all tomorrow and put them to make PS Vita exclusive Knack games.

Bungie must obey their owners and bosses just like anyone else in any other company. They aren't magical beings with superpowers. They are a fully owned subsidiary.

They have zero first-party games slated for the entirety of 2024.
Sure, TLOU2 Remastered, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin, MLB, Stellar Blade, Destiny 2 The Final Shape, Until Dawn, Concord, Convallaria or Lost Soul Aside plus the HFW and GoTDC PC ports don't exist and are part of a reptillian Illuminatti conspiracy.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The details of the contract is that Sony bought 100% of Bungie, so Bungie is a fully owned SIE subsidiary.

SIE decided to keep them as a different and separate multiplatform publishing label outside PS Studios, and like to all their other teams gives them creative freedom.

Sony is interested on the money they make in non-PS platforms including rival consoles as part of their multiplatform strategy (the other parts are the PC ports, PC+PS GaaS and future mobile games). But without using PS Studios publishing label in rival consoles.

Meaning, PS Studios and Bungie are two separate subsidiary publishing SIE labels.

Other than that, Bungie is just a subsidiary. If SIE wants Jimbo can fire them all tomorrow and put them to make PS Vita exclusive Knack games.
That's where there's some conflicting views on how much control Sony has over Bungie. Traditionally, a buy out is a buy out and corporate (top of the pyramid) has control.

But when the buy out happened, Bungie management made it sound like they are independent and got control of their own destiny (no pun intended). As part of the buy out, Bungie execs made it sound like they control their own department.

Who knows.
 

IAmRei

Member
Imagine if we talk about this bungie fall in 00s, dang... Its like we talk about lot of big names lately, doom and gloom...
 

yurinka

Member
That's where there's some conflicting views on how much control Sony has over Bungie. Traditionally, a buy out is a buy out and corporate (top of the pyramid) has control.

But when the buy out happened, Bungie management made it sound like they are independent and got control of their own destiny (no pun intended). As part of the buy out, Bungie execs made it sound like they control their own department.

Who knows.
Sony and Bungie just said that Bungie even if inside SIE wouldn't be inside PS Studios but instead would continue publishing as Bungie, and would continue publishing Destiny 2 expansions and future games multiplatform day one including rival consoles keeping creative freedom. As part of Sony's multiplatform strategy.

So basically just bought them to get all the money they make, not only in PS, block any potential exclusive for the competition, and also to use their knowledge, tools and data to support and improve the other GaaS being made at PS Studios.

Then some Bungie fanboys wanked when they saw that and misunderstood it, not knowing how a subsidiary works specially in a publicly traded company, not knowing what a fully owned company means, not knowing that all Sony teams have creative freedom or not knowing Sony's multiplatform plans.

In addition to this, these fans also made up things like Bungie was cancelling PS Studios games, forcing them to change stuff, shutting down studios or demanding them to do this or that game. When the reality according to Sony is that SIE created a Sony Live Services Center of Excellence where the GaaS experts from SIE publishing, PS Studios and Bungie (not only Bungie) would share their knowledge, overview, support and review a few certain GaaS specfic areas (not the whole game) of all SIE GaaS titles (which doesn't include non-GaaS games).

Obviously other than collaborate there, Bungie has no power over any PS Studios game or studio. They aren't part of PS Studios and aren't above them. They are separate SIE subsidiaries that are at the same level. They're just another SIE gamedev studio but having their own publishing label and publishing their games day one everywhere.

In the particular case of Helldivers and Stellar Blade, those are first-party content from third-party studios. What is now called "second party". Sony has been great with those.

PS Studios, managed by Hermen Hulst, has been a shitshow. There's no denying that. Hermen cannot survive this debacle.
Second party games are also first party PS Studios games, and also managed by Hermen.

Hermen released games like Dreams, GoT, TLOU2, Demon's Souls remake, Astrobot, Miles Morales, Returnal, HFW, GT7, GoWR, Rift Apart, Horizon CoM, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2. Very successful in sales achieving even historical sales records for any PlayStation exclusive in their history, winning a ton of awards, even breaking the record of GOTY awards. Grew all the teams allowing them to work in bigger games and more games at the same time. Acquired Housemarque, Bluepoint, Firesprite, Firewalk, Haven or Nixxes. Some studios like Insomniac, Guerrilla or Naughty Dog claim that they no longer crunch.

Cancelled the TLOU GaaS that he didn't greenlight and greenlighted ND instead minimum 2 new non-GaaS SP games. Greenlighted games like Wolverine, X-Men, next Ratchet, Spider-Man 3, Death Stranding 2, Kojima's new IP, Bend's new IP (first pitch he received from Bend after DG), Horizon 3, next GoW set in a new mythology, new games from Media Molecule, Housemarque or Team Asobi.

Did put some order in Japan Studio after decades of being a money sink not being able to develop a single good selling game and did shut down Pixel Opus and London Studios, two studios almost nobody cared about. Plus canned a few GaaS more, when people were complaining about GaaS.

It seems to me that he's been doing a great job to me. The opposite of a shitshow.

Btw, Hermen Hulst isn't related to Bungie. He's the head of PS Studios and Bungie is a SIE subsidiary, not a PS Studios subsidiary.
 
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