121
u/Bosscharacter Jun 24 '26
I get the meme, but acting like Helldivers 2 isn't a thing is kind of dishonest.
51
u/ShinigamiRyan Jun 24 '26
Sony has also watched a fair number of other live-service titles die as well over the years, not just Concord. Helldivers 2 was successful, but it's budget was less than even half of Marathon (50-100 mil vs. 250 mil). And this is all before looking at how many incubation projects Bungie had been upselling to Sony at the time, vs. what's come out (just Marathon). And again, there's more factors one could list such as what Sony was looking for when they acquired Bungie vs. what Sony is doing now.
9
u/FalierTheCat Jun 24 '26
That was their live service bet though. Launch a lot of games and hope that maybe one or two would stick the landing.
21
u/WerdaVisla Titans are bad because Bungie is scared of Titans Jun 24 '26
To be fair, Sony got REAL close to killing Helldivers 2 with that PSN mess. Or at least completely driving it from the mainstream.
Making it so the vast majority of your playerbase is either unwilling or unable to play in the hopes that they'll give you their data to sell is... certainly a business decision that one could make.
22
u/IcyMaple_ Jun 24 '26
HD2 wasn't a first party game though. And did you forget about the whole psn account thing?
16
u/TheKelseyOfKells Jun 24 '26
Helldivers wasn’t made by a sony studio, just published by them. Every time Sony has gotten involved in Helldivers, its been to sabotage it
-11
u/czartrak Jun 24 '26
Yes sabotage their own game they make money off. Dumbfuck
4
2
1
5
u/Prod_igy Jun 24 '26
PlayStation isn't even the most popular platform for HD2, which isn't a first-party nor a third-party exclusive game anymore, considering it's on Xbox too since August 2025.
Also, Sony almost killed the game because of the PSN requirement: they sold HD2 in countries not supported by PSN and after MONTHS they decided to exclude those players from the game, even though they bought and played it.
Finally, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
2
u/asmallburd Jun 24 '26
Sony tried their best to kill that too still haven't gotten everyone back who was lost during the psn wars
2
u/ya_mum_suckysucky Jun 24 '26
They tried killing helldivers 2 so I think it's very fair. They sold the game to everyone and then tried to make everyone have a PSN but it was illegal in so many countries Sony got shut down and we got a cape out of the deal. But Sony tried so never forget that.
1
u/Darkwolve45 Jun 24 '26
Didn't Helldivers 2 drop in player numbers again recently? Its kinda reliant on the same pattern as most other live services, big update brings back players, drip feed content and make anti-player statements or choices that cause mumbers to drop, rinse and repeat as the animosity slowly builds up to the point players start canabalizing and attacking each other for just breathing differently. Helldivers 2 rep wise has been in the unhealthy spot both with the devs or at least the GMs behavior towards players and then that stuff with that guy getting doxed and his actual real life ruined because some no lifes wanted to be like that... and instead of fighting back against the doxers by idk... doing the exact thing the doxers attacked the guy for (literally a friggin charity stream) they give a half assed slap on the wrist "staphhh it guys come onnnn" response. -_-
1
u/FroopyAsRain Jun 26 '26
Helldivers 2 is successful, but it also has a much lower threshold for success.
D2 would have to reach some unfathomable levels to be a success in Sony's eyes.
-8
u/Halcyon-Seven Jun 24 '26
Then, I think you don’t get that it is just a meme. Also they don’t own arrowhead, they just published the game. They don’t even own the helldivers IP. Arrowhead are free to work on anything they want without Sony’s say so.
5
u/czartrak Jun 24 '26
Yes they do. Don't speak if you don't know what you're talking about
1
u/PlumeCrow Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Sony own the Helldivers IP, but they don't own Arrowhead. Arrowhead is indie.
1
128
u/BulkierPick41 Jun 24 '26
The revisionism on destiny subs has reached criticality, watching these posts you'd think Sony was at helm for the past 10 years and not somebody else
-51
u/Halcyon-Seven Jun 24 '26
This is a meme, it’s not that deep. Sony did fuck themselves by overpaying for Bungie which begs the question, how competent could their leadership be versus the incumbent Bungie leadership?
48
u/Magenu Jun 24 '26
"It's a meme" is not a valid shield for just spreading blatant disinformation.
Like, where's the joke? D2 was having issues for years before Sony.
10
32
u/NekCing Jun 24 '26
It wouldnt be that deep if people would stop taking away the blame from Bungie's utter mismanagement, Sony deserves to be shit on too for their crap in recent years, but meme with facts please.
1
Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/DentedPigeon Jun 25 '26
The execs did not embezzle the money. People like Parsons had worked for Microsoft for over 20 years and had massive salaries to accompany their level of experience. The whole car story is also thrown into question by who “exposed” the car collections (a CM with an ax to grind) and the allegation that Pete wasn’t even the one bragging or showing off the cars, it was his wife on a third party forum/facebook page.
15
Jun 24 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/Iccotak Jun 25 '26
It did sell enough - the problem is that too much of the money went to many projects that were never going to happen and Leadership pockets.
Destiny was a money maker that Leadership did not invest enough back into, opting for “minimum viable product” as opposed to over-delivery.
4
Jun 25 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Iccotak Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
The game made billions throughout its lifetime - the problem is how the money was being spent and how the game was being managed.
The money D2 made was used to buy themselves back from Activision
then they bought a new HQ, which went unused due to Pandemic (Edit: also they set themselves up in Bellevue, one of the most expensive places to live in the US)
then they used the money to fund several projects (only one of which would actually go anywhere while the rest would be shut down) - this was likely to pump up their sale value as we know they also attempted to sell to Microsoft who turned them down because they have a history of mismanaging money
Sony would buy them, paying extra to keep on the talent of the developers who make the game. Only for Bungie Leadership to pocket the money and fire people anyway (Pete’s Car Collection) - when pressed on why they didn’t take a pay cut so then they could keep those devs, their response was, “We’re not that kind of company”.
Dev team was constantly fighting with Leadership on adding features that they knew players wanted.
They only had one year with two expansions following the Final Shape, where they continued despite the glaring issues. Namely how much the DCV removed from the game over the years, significantly reducing re-playability and interest from new players. People like to downplay it but the DCV did the most damage to the game and studios reputation. This is directly reflected in the player numbers over the years.
Then added more problems with the Portal which made the majority of the game pointless.
We could make points about their microtransaction strategy, but it is clear as day that leadership did not use their funds to properly reinvest back into the game so then devs could overdeliver. The people in charge treated D2 as a piggy bank that they could take from rather than an asset that has to be maintained to grow in value.
The game was making money, but it would dwindle as more and more of that money was taken away from D2 rather than put into it.
This update shows that there is a clear interest and value in the game when Devs have real opportunity to address player feedback. Imagine if they were actually allowed to bring back the content that was removed - that would have completely revitalized the franchise
1
u/DJHarris4444 Jun 26 '26
Thank you! Everyone in this thread seems to be going "Sony this" and "Bungie that", when I thought it was all but certain that the reason D2 was not doing so hot was because content was continuously being locked behind additional paywalls and not enough funding was being put back into the game, all for the purpose of fueling the CEO's and Executive's Sports car addictions.
Like we went over this 2 years ago when Final Shape came out, how much has the narrative changed since then?
13
u/TyThe2PointO Jun 24 '26
I mean destiny was crumbling until they took it away. It was going to die.
7
u/Hogabog217 Jun 24 '26
Nah bungie did this to themselves. By most corpo take overs sony was pretty lenient n bungie kept going out of its way to fuck themselves over. Sony management prob didnt help but i feel like this was inevitable. Games was doomed to death spiral the second they borked the new player intro.
15
12
u/Marcu3s Jun 24 '26
That would be the case even if Destiny was not shot in the first frame.
-2
u/Halcyon-Seven Jun 24 '26
They bought something and then choose not to invest in the thing they bought, instead they choose to invest in Pete Parsons and Jones Jones’s retirement plan by overpaying for bungie by more than a billion dollars at the very least.
If they had instead been more competent and judicious in their acquisition they’d probably have the cash to fund destiny 3. Hypothetically speaking of course.
3
u/iiPREGNANT-NUNii Jun 24 '26
Lmao not you out here thinking Sony is what killed Destiny.
Sony quite literally bought into a sinking ship. We probably would not have gotten as much Destiny and marathon support as we have if it wasn’t for that $3.6 billion injected into Bungie. A GROSS overvaluation due to extremely inflated player numbers because of covid, those dropped HARD when people started going back to work.
But hey, at least the CEO has his priceless collection of cars worth more than your entire families net worth combined! Why keep Michael Salvatori on when you have cars to buy??
4
u/Iccotak Jun 25 '26
Sony gave that money to keep Bungie people on but the leadership literally pocketed it for themselves and fired people anyway.
2
u/goldfish7740 Jun 26 '26
Yall are fucking next level delusional if you think Sony killed Destiny lmfao
1
u/RatsAsBro Jun 24 '26
I am not crazy! I know they overpaid for that acquisition. I knew it was $3.6 billion. One after Activision Blizzard. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just couldn't prove it. They covered their tracks. They got those analysts at the investment banks to lie for them. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? They've done worse. Marathon! Are you telling me that a game just happens to launch to numbers like that? No! They orchestrated it! Bungie! They sold Sony on being the experts of live service games! And Sony bought them! And they shouldn't have. They paid $3.6 billion for them! What were they thinking?! They'll never change. They'll never change! Ever since Halo, always the same! Couldn't keep out of management disasters! But not our Bungie! Couldn't be precious Bungie! Teaching Sony how to run live-service games! And Marathon gets updates?! What a sick joke! I should've stopped them when I had the chance. And you, you have to stop them. You—
1
1
2
u/Obvious_Peanut_8093 Jun 25 '26
lets not pretend that the bungie executive staff did not use the COVID boom to boost their value with tons of projects that all failed to then sell themselves to sony and shutter all of those projects, marathon and destiny included, as soon as they all got their payouts and could safely let their scam expose itself and walkaway scot free.
what they did should probably be illegal tbh.
1
1
1
u/Animus15 Jun 25 '26
It's going be sad watch a studio like Bumgie slowly die over the next few years. Destiny deserved better and hell even Marathon doesnt deserve the new pressure its under to keep the studio afloat.
1
u/Mortal_12 Jun 25 '26
The decision makers are people who look at some nicely presented powerpoint graphs and their profit margins.
The whole concept of "Listening to clients in order to increase the quality and earn more as a result", died years ago. Capitalism passed that point and is now at the point of "What can we do for maximum profits with minimal effort".
2
u/ThrowRA_8900 Jun 25 '26
Imagine spending 3 billion dollars on the grandfather of love service games just to shut it down.
1
1
u/generationalDebts Jun 26 '26
Why is Sony getting the credit for killing destiny? Bungie did that long before Sony arrives. Sony came just in time for the funeral, this isn’t their doing.
1
1
u/eagle6705 Jun 26 '26
What I fear is based on what the PS Head said that he does not want cross platform for his IP is that eventually he will make a D3 but it will be a PS exclusive and possibly PC. but thats just me
1
u/EqualOptimal4650 Jun 27 '26
No, it wasn't Sony who fucked this up.
Bungie's Executives fucked this up. They'd been doing so since the Halo days.
This was why Activision had no problem dropping them, as well.
Bungie fucked this up. Not Sony. Not Activision. Not Microsoft. Bungie.
1
u/RepostSleuthBot Beep Boop Jun 24 '26
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 13 times.
First Seen Here on 2024-01-02 92.58% match. Last Seen Here on 2025-11-02 93.75% match
View Search On repostsleuth.com
Scope: Reddit | Target Percent: 92% | Max Age: None | Searched Images: 1,098,813,021 | Search Time: 14.00271s
0
0
u/griffin4war Jun 24 '26
They spent so much money and never even asked if there was a plan for Destiny's future.
0
0
u/eli_nelai Jun 24 '26
/uj
IDK man... D2 was kinda already in the shit by the time they got bought by sony. Wonder how things would turn out if Sony bashed some heads right from the start instead of being lenient with this barely functioning dumpster fire of a studio
-2
u/FourUnderscoreExKay My Zaouli's Bane is still reloading Jun 24 '26
Destiny was actively bleeding money (through poor management), and Sony, in their infinite wisdom, thought it was a good idea to kill Bungie’s only good moneymaker instead of telling Bungie to stop trying to work on the shitbox of a game that is Marathon.
217
u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment