When Bungie got acquired by PlayStation, the main goal was to let the studio keep their independence and release games just as they would have before.
A lot has transpired since that acquisition. From Destiny 2 having a massive player dropoff to Marathon’s mixed reception and plagiarism, Sony hasn’t made much of the $3.6 billion back that they initially invested.
Independence just isn’t working out, and, as part of the initial contract made, Bungie agreed to give up their independence if profit didn’t come.
And, sure enough, years of downward trajectory have resulted in Sony slowly but surely wrestling control of Bungie. With over 100 Bungie employees getting moved to Sony as part of the layoffs in late 2024, it’s only a matter of time until Bungie gets absorbed entirely.
Bungie set to get completely absorbed by Sony
PlayStation CFO Lin Tao spoke about Bungie’s role in the PlayStation ecosystem during an earnings call for Q1 2025. According to him, everything is already set in motion here. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
“We have gone through structural reform, as we announced last year, so this independence is getting lighter, and Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios, and integration is proceeding. In the long term, you can see this as an ongoing process. So the direction is to become part of PlayStation Studios,” he explained.
Does this mean that Bungie won’t exist as a studio anymore? No, not quite. It’s more that Bungie is transitioning into a first-party studio for Sony, one that’ll make games targeted more at Sony’s audience.
And, while the gaming giant has begun going multi-platform and putting PlayStation games on PC (and rarely Xbox), there’s a good chance that future Bungie titles will come with a layer of console exclusivity.
Additionally, Tao claimed that Sony’s live service efforts are a whole are “not entirely going smoothly” after Concord cemented itself as one of the biggest financial failures not just in video game history, but in the history of media as a whole.
With Sony moving to make Bungie more and more integrated as a Sony first-party studio, it remains to be seen what the studio does after Marathon releases and Destiny 2’s content updates die down.
