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Bungie Replaces Marathon Director Amid Leadership Shakeup, Fears of Layoffs

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.

That wasn't a contract, that was Sony saying they will let Bungie operate as they want as long as they hit performance metrics. Do you think a publicly traded company like Sony can go around hiding deals in takeovers and lie to their shareholders? All that's fact is that Sony purchased 100% of Bungie and that they're now a complete subsidiary of the parent company.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Member
Wouldn't that be an awful look on Sony though? A veteran studio like Bungie that developed certified bangers franchises like Halo with Microsoft and Destiny with Activision gets shut down by Sony with nothing to show for it.
Ah, typical organizational behavior scenario of escalated commitment - “I know it’s not working, but we committed too much to just end it so we will continue to pour resources in in hope it will work”.

Bold Strategy Cotton GIF by MOODMAN
 
That wasn't a contract, that was Sony saying they will let Bungie operate as they want as long as they hit performance metrics. Do you think a publicly traded company like Sony can go around hiding deals in takeovers and lie to their shareholders? All that's fact is that Sony purchased 100% of Bungie and that they're now a complete subsidiary of the parent company.
"Independently operated" tells you everything. Of course there was a contract and with how this has all played out it had to have certain stipulations that Bungie drew up to safeguard themselves.

Sony own them yes but I'd bet that Bungie can buy themselves back at current market value if it goes pear shaped. Jones is the greatest salesman the industry has ever seen, Microsoft acquired them but they got out. 10 year Activision deal but they got out, Sony buy them....see the pattern?
 
"Independently operated" tells you everything. Of course there was a contract and with how this has all played out it had to have certain stipulations that Bungie drew up to safeguard themselves.

Sony own them yes but I'd bet that Bungie can buy themselves back at current market value if it goes pear shaped. Jones is the greatest salesman the industry has ever seen, Microsoft acquired them but they got out. 10 year Activision deal but they got out, Sony buy them....see the pattern?

Bungie got out from Microsoft because Bungie's 2 founding owners didn't want to make new Halo games anymore. Their management put together money to buy the company from Microsoft. Activision never owned Bungie, they had a publishing agreement.

The difference here is that Sony purchased 100% of Bungie, the 2 guys who held controlling interest over Bungie gave up their control as well unlike with Microsoft. Bungie is now a sole entity of Sony
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I think Bungie has exhausted all it's options now. They were once an incredible studio. I don't see how they survive this unless they downsize and humble themselves into some smaller games.
 

Caffeine

Member
i actually want this game to be a success but I hope they make it a complete package. thats the only difference in direction I hope.
Like extraction shooter is cool but it steps away from marathons legacy. I think they need another epic game not just another service game.
 
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Bungie got out from Microsoft because Bungie's 2 founding owners didn't want to make new Halo games anymore. Their management put together money to buy the company from Microsoft. Activision never owned Bungie, they had a publishing agreement.

The difference here is that Sony purchased 100% of Bungie, the 2 guys who held controlling interest over Bungie gave up their control as well unlike with Microsoft. Bungie is now a sole entity of Sony
Let's see the contract? You're making shit up.
 

IAmRei

Member
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.
This, i always adore their concept, inspiring so much.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
I was referring to them getting out of the deal, don't try to be smart it doesn't suit you.
You are comparing Bungie getting out of the Destiny-deal to Bungie getting out of Sony's ownership, when reports indicate that Sony is about to take over control as Bungie fails at working independently.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
I think Bungie has exhausted all it's options now. They were once an incredible studio. I don't see how they survive this unless they downsize and humble themselves into some smaller games.

Eh, I'm no Destiny fan, but the IP is worth something. If they made a Destiny 3, people would show up for it, including a lot of people who played the first 2 games (not me though).

Essentially their problem is "doesn't have a game ready to ship yet." If they did, they'd have no problems.

They will have a game at some point. I'm interested to see Marathon.

I'm not sure if things are as dire as is being made out?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I mean there replacing them with someone who designed Valorent...

If you have played Valorent you will probably understand why that's not a good sign.
 

Mooreberg

Member
Wouldn't that be an awful look on Sony though? A veteran studio like Bungie that developed certified bangers franchises like Halo with Microsoft and Destiny with Activision gets shut down by Sony with nothing to show for it.

If Destiny was a certified banger with Activision, wouldn't they still be working with Activision?
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I did not. Enlighten me.

Seems like a pretty popular game still?

However it's essentially the same issue in regards to Marathon, people arnt asking for a primarily multiplayer shooter.

Also Valorent is just Counter Strike with hero powers, and micro transactions that make Overwatch 2 look good by comparison. It found its niche, people like counter strike, people like hero shooters, but it's completely derivative. Not something like Halo or Destiny which redefined their respective genres.

That's the core difference, this new guys vision will be "how do we make a game that copy's the best bits of other popular titles to become popular" vs "how do we redefine a genre"

The joke is valorent while popular still failed, because it didn't replace the games it attempted to improve on, people still massively prefer CS as a whole.
 
However it's essentially the same issue in regards to Marathon, people arnt asking for a primarily multiplayer shooter.
If you mean the people on Neogaf, then yes, but I doubt there's a big ask for single player shooters tbh.

I personally would've liked something that has a bit of both. A story driven thing you could play solo, but also has multiplayer interwoven.

We haven't seen a second of gameplay from Marathon, so I still have high hopes it could be good, but changing Game Directors halfway through the project is never a good sign..
 
From Bungie's perspective it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise, tho. Because they need an outside entity to unfuck em. And maybe Sony can be that entity.
Sony are not going to pump money into a sinking ship, they're not Microsoft.

Their [PlayStation’s] revenue on digital sales, add-on-content, digital-downloads are at all time highs, and yet their margins are at decade-lows,” Jeffries’ equity analyst Atul Goyal told CNBC. “This is just not acceptable.” Analyst Serkan Toto pointed out that games like[COLOR=var(--xe--block-container--link--color)] Spider-Man 2[/COLOR] are costing too much to make, resulting in a “significant impact on their gaming margin” despite [COLOR=var(--xe--block-container--link--color)]robust sales[/COLOR].

They ain't got the money to keep a huge studio like Bungie afloat.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
If you mean the people on Neogaf, then yes, but I doubt there's a big ask for single player shooters tbh.

I personally would've liked something that has a bit of both. A story driven thing you could play solo, but also has multiplayer interwoven.

We haven't seen a second of gameplay from Marathon, so I still have high hopes it could be good, but changing Game Directors halfway through the project is never a good sign..
Based on the development of D1 and D2, changing Game Director could potentially be the best thing to happen to Bungie, no matter at what point in time.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
If you mean the people on Neogaf, then yes, but I doubt there's a big ask for single player shooters tbh.

I personally would've liked something that has a bit of both. A story driven thing you could play solo, but also has multiplayer interwoven.

We haven't seen a second of gameplay from Marathon, so I still have high hopes it could be good, but changing Game Directors halfway through the project is never a good sign..

The lack of single player shooters is why Boomer shooters are doing so well at the moment.

There is an untapped market for single player shooters, it's just not being met outside of the indie scene.

By all means have a multiplayer component to that, but people should try a single player campaign again.
 
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Bernardougf

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.
You can choose to not have this discution all you want .... but you be right as much as flat earthners.

By definition first party games can only come from first party studios... you cant have two definitions for first party. The closest definition for Helldivers is second party. Stellar Blade and Rise of the ronin are third party exclusives as far as I know it.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
The lack of single player shooters is why Boomer shooters are doing so well at the moment.

There is an untapped market for single player shooters, it's just not being met outside of the indie scene.

By all means have a multiplayer component to that, but people should try a single player campaign again.
There's a reason why it's primarily in the indie scene and why they're called "boomer shooters".

But a good singleplayer campaign couldn't hurt.
It's just that most gamers want games that keep em engaged, which boils down to multiplayer/GaaS.
 

Hudo

Member
Sony are not going to pump money into a sinking ship, they're not Microsoft.

Their [PlayStation’s] revenue on digital sales, add-on-content, digital-downloads are at all time highs, and yet their margins are at decade-lows,” Jeffries’ equity analyst Atul Goyal told CNBC. “This is just not acceptable.” Analyst Serkan Toto pointed out that games like[COLOR=var(--xe--block-container--link--color)] Spider-Man 2[/COLOR] are costing too much to make, resulting in a “significant impact on their gaming margin” despite [COLOR=var(--xe--block-container--link--color)]robust sales[/COLOR].

They ain't got the money to keep a huge studio like Bungie afloat.
So they're just gonna shut Bungie down? Weird look, to both the outside and to the investors "Yeah, well, turns out our M&A department, CFO and CEO were all retards when we bought Bungie! Whoops! Don't forget to invest in Sony stock, tho!".
 
So they're just gonna shut Bungie down? Weird look, to both the outside and to the investors "Yeah, well, turns out our M&A department, CFO and CEO were all retards when we bought Bungie! Whoops! Don't forget to invest in Sony stock, tho!".
I don't know but maybe downsizing is a better option?
 
You can choose to not have this discution all you want .... but you be right as much as flat earthners.

By definition first party games can only come from first party studios... you cant have two definitions for first party. The closest definition for Helldivers is second party. Stellar Blade and Rise of the ronin are third party exclusives as far as I know it

Games like Stellar Blade or Death Stranding were only possible because Sony funded and lent them technical support. They are almost as first party as any other game coming out of PS Studios. In the case of SB, this has been confirmed by both sides and can't be argued.


I don't know but maybe downsizing is a better option?

I would downsize, first (one-third out, at least) and then shut down completely if it doesn't work.
 
Isn’t Destiny a hero shooter? What is wrong with a hero shooter?

No, it isn't.

Overwatch is a hero shooter. Lawbreakers is a hero shooter.

In Destiny, you create your own fully customizable character. It's not an arena-style purely PvP shooter, and it has a full SP+Co-op campaign, additional PvP and PvPvE modes as well as raids and all sorts of other shit.

Destiny is an MMO FPS.
 
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Toots

Gold Member
I find crazy that the US culture, which contribution to the world's culinary arts can only be counted negatively, is obsessed with cooking terms, and people use them for anything they want to make "cool".

If you're going to use any random thing, why not use something funnier ?
"Let him mime" has a nice ring to it.

RLKFkFC.jpg


go suck a mime's cock
w1fwX5z.jpg
 

DonF

Member
The game's direction has shifted somewhat under Ziegler's new leadership, one source says, including moving away from custom player characters in favor of a selectable cast of heroes.

There is Selectable cast of heroes :messenger_grinning:(y) aka overwatch or apex
and
Selectable cast of heroes :messenger_angry:(n) aka battlefield 2042

either way... I dont trust bungie now.
 
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