More and more it sure looks like it was a bad idea from Sony to acquire Destiny developer Bungie. In Sony's latest financial report (PDF link), they directly attribute a 31.5 billion yen (roughly $204 million USD) "impairment loss" to Destiny 2. Specifically, this impairment loss is due to Destiny 2 failing to hit sales milestones as well as declining user engagement.
The impairment was significant enough to bring down profits at Sony's Game & Network Services Segment, which does include Sony Interactive Entertainment.
In the financial call with investors, Sony's chief financial officer (CFO) Lin Tao issued a slightly longer statement about the impairment Sony suffered at the hands of Bungie. Thanks to IGN for obtaining this quote from Tao during the financial call:
Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectations we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie. While we will continue to make improvements, we downwardly revised the business projection for the time being, and recorded an impairment loss against a portion of the assets at Bungie.
Parsons was the CEO when was dealing with what can best be described as a toxic work culture. Shortly after that, Bungie was acquired by Sony for $3.6 billion. In 2023, Bungie was not only hit by layoffs but they also delayed both The Final Shape expansion for Destiny 2 and their still unreleased extraction shooter, Marathon. In July 2024, Bungie saw another 220 employees were laid off.
This year, Bungie was once again caught stealing artwork. A month later, Bungie announced that Marathon was delayed indefinitely and would not make its planned September 2025 release date. Marathon did recently have another beta test which did seem promising to those who participated. However, a firm release date is still not known other than it may be out by March 2026.
