After $3.6 Billion & a Cratering Player Base, Sony Is Fed Up With Bungie & Destiny 2

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For a long time, Destiny by Bungie was a popular choice for fans of first-person shooter games. Bungie wanted to combine different types of gameplay into a single, captivating experience that would keep players engaged. The game featured a compelling story where players created and played as a Guardian, the hero of the ongoing narrative. Destiny blended action RPG elements with open-world exploration, a main storyline, numerous side quests, challenging raids and dungeons, daily activities, and competitive player-versus-player modes.

It took over three years to release the sequel to the first game, and since then, the story and world have been expanded with numerous updates instead of requiring players to buy a new game. Although Destiny 2 originally cost money to play, it’s now free, with new content available for purchase. However, the game’s player base has shrunk significantly, which has created challenges for the developers.

Sony Acquired Bungie for $3.6 Billion in January 2022

Bungie is a well-known game developer, famous for creating the hugely popular Halo series for Xbox between 2001 and 2010. Microsoft initially bought Bungie in 2000, but Bungie became independent again in 2007, though Microsoft retained the rights to Halo. In 2010, Bungie then partnered with Activision for ten years, resulting in the first Destiny game. However, Bungie chose to end that partnership in 2019.

Most dedicated Destiny players remember the debate surrounding Activision’s role in the game’s development. When Bungie ended its partnership with Activision and took full control of Destiny 2, things initially improved. However, problems started to emerge, with expansion delays and underwhelming new content. Eventually, many Destiny fans felt that Bungie becoming independent actually harmed the game they enjoyed.

Sony bought Bungie in July 2022 for $3.6 billion, a move that significantly impacted both the game developer and its loyal fans. Since the acquisition, Bungie has received a lot of criticism, with many Destiny players blaming Sony for decisions they disagree with and feeling frustrated with having to constantly defend the company.

Sony is unhappy with how Bungie has performed since buying the company. In its latest financial report, Sony noted that it had to reduce the value of some of Bungie’s assets related to the game Destiny 2. Essentially, Destiny 2 is currently costing Sony more than it’s earning, which is a concerning situation.

Sony’s CFO, Lin Tao, explained that Destiny 2 hasn’t performed as well as expected since Sony bought Bungie, partly because the competitive gaming scene has changed. They are still working to improve the game, but have lowered their financial forecasts and taken a loss on some of Bungie’s assets as a result.

Making a live service game profitable is surprisingly difficult. While games like Helldivers 2, Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, and MLB: The Show 25 have managed it, there’s no guaranteed path to success. Simply copying features from popular games doesn’t always work, and every successful game has a unique story. What works for one game might not work for another, and even previously successful games can lose popularity over time.

It looks like this is what’s happening with Destiny. The game was once incredibly popular, but players have been noticing a drop in quality for quite some time. A lot of longtime fans have stopped playing altogether, while some continue to play simply because they’re used to it or feel a sense of nostalgia.

Bungie has made a serious mistake by losing the trust of its player base, and it’s incredibly difficult to win that trust back. Destiny 2 has been steadily declining in quality for some time, and many players believe the recent Final Shape expansion was the last chance to save the game. Instead, it feels like the game should have ended with The Final Shape, providing a strong conclusion rather than continuing with disappointing updates and questionable decisions from the developers.

Bungie & the Future of Destiny 2 Are in Danger

So, I was reading up on things, and Sony’s CFO, Lin Tao, basically said they’re still trying to make things better, but they’re also tempering expectations for Destiny 2 and anything else Bungie is working on. Honestly, that’s not totally bad news for us as players. It means the servers are probably going to stay online for now, and we’ll likely keep getting new content. But the big question is, how long can Bungie actually keep that up? It’s still pretty uncertain.

As we’ve noted, the number of players actively playing Destiny has dropped significantly. Currently, the game sees around 20,000 to 25,000 daily players across all platforms, which is a low number. For comparison, Fortnite, another free-to-play game with ongoing updates, typically has 1.5 to 2 million players online at once. While Fortnite is a very popular game, making a direct comparison difficult, other games are still attracting more players than Destiny 2. These other games average roughly twice the number of concurrent players as Destiny 2.

What does all this add up to? Essentially, the future of Destiny 2 and the company Bungie is uncertain. Sony is starting to doubt whether the game will be profitable, and players have lost confidence in the developers’ ability to deliver good content. A lot of fans, reviewers, and people in the gaming industry think Destiny 2 has reached its natural end.

Ultimately, a game needs to be profitable to continue. Because Destiny 2 is an online game, it costs a lot to run and update the servers. If Bungie can’t show that Destiny 2 can attract and retain players, and therefore make money, the game’s future is uncertain.

It’s increasingly obvious that Bungie may be nearing the end of its journey with Destiny. The developers seem to have explored all the possibilities for the game, and it might be time for them to focus on new projects. Destiny fans may have to accept that the game’s lifespan is limited. If Destiny 2 were to close, it could also signal trouble for Bungie, as it’s been their primary focus for over ten years, and losing that could damage player confidence in the company.

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2025-11-15 21:43