“Swallow Bungie whole”
Unfortunately, more concerning news about Destiny 2 and original Halo developer Bungie is making the rounds today. According to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, the studio is still a “fully independent subsidiary of Sony,” but the “split between Sony and Bungie” and a shared power “may not last forever,” even after recent cost-cutting measures that resulted in layoffs and a delay. The current structure is as follows:
“Its board of directors has been divided since the takeover in July of 2022. Among its current members are PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst, Sony senior VP Eric Lempel, Bungie co-founder Jason Jones, Bungie CTO Luis Villegas, and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons. The board as a whole is split between Sony and Bungie representatives, with Parsons serving as a tiebreaker vote.”
According to IGN, the split board structure is all contingent on Bungie “meeting certain financial goals,” and if they don’t, Sony is reportedly allowed to “dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company.”
It comes after Bungie’s current title Destiny 2 failed to meet its revenue projections for the current fiscal year, forcing the game’s newest expansion ‘The Final Shape’ to be delayed from February to June next year. In addition, it recently laid off a significant number of employees.