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Sony president wants Bungie to be better at ‘assuming accountability for development timelines’
- Thread starter Topher
- Start date
Fake
Member
No. It was over this, you were here for it.
Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover - IGN
https://www.ign.com/articles/bungie-devs-say-atmosphere-is-soul-crushing-amid-layoffs-cuts-and-fear-of-total-sony-takeover?utm_source=twitter As it currently stands, Bungie is (on paper) a fully independent subsidiary of Sony. But its board of directors has been divided since the takeover in...www.neogaf.com
This was already happening before Sony buy them.
IMO Sony act like child when they saw Microsoft buying Activision and think they had an obligation of buying something else to match Microsoft.
Time to time is proving that buying Bungie was a total waste of money from Sony part.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Anyone know if bungie helps out Sonys studios with programming and such? Or were they strictly supposed to act independently as announced and just be more like consultants and strategy advisors?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Ok.
Kacho
Member
I assume they act more like consultants for other GAAS projects
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Apparently they were allowed to be independent as long as they were able to manage themselves in the black. They have not been doing so. Which then gives Sony rights to take over full operation.
laynelane
Member
I think the Bungie purchase had more to do with this:
Sony Projects Launching 12 Live Service Games By 2025
What these live-service games could be are currently unknown.
www.gamespot.com
They purchased expertise in making shooters and GAAS games. That's likely why they spent so much on retaining talent with Bungie, as well.
ZehDon
Gold Member
Lol, no, that's not how business works. Bungie were one of the pioneers in the GAAS space, and have successfully survived in it for longer than basically anyone else. When Ryan decided to go all in on GAAS, he knew Sony's single-player-focused studios simply didn't have the expertise to pull it off, so PlayStation grabbed Bungie, hoping to leverage their expertise across the entire PlayStation portfolio. Unfortunately, Sony didn't accommodate for the fact that Destiny's success was built on the back of "From the Studio that made Halo..." and has survived seemingly despite Bungie. Heck, at the time Sony purchased them, the Destiny community was hanging on by a thread, which appears to have finally snapped with the latest expansion pack and monetisation practices. Sony thought they were buying a golden goose - and they're about to learn why Microsoft were happy to part ways and why Activision got tired of their shit.
Fake
Member
Now you have a company that can't do shit. Gaming crush dev is not a thing anymore thanks to western devs, because somehow is better get fired than being working for more hours. 2024 is getting brutal and brutal.
The way I see we gonna see more layoffs unfortunately.
We are in 2024 now. They want results since their acquisition. I guess this is pretty much the message Sony president is saying LOL.
The way I see we gonna see more layoffs unfortunately.
I think the Bungie purchase had more to do with this:
Sony Projects Launching 12 Live Service Games By 2025
What these live-service games could be are currently unknown.
They purchased expertise in making shooters and GAAS games. That's likely why they spent so much on retaining talent with Bungie, as well.
We are in 2024 now. They want results since their acquisition. I guess this is pretty much the message Sony president is saying LOL.
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bitbydeath
Member
This isn’t even Totoki-sans final form.
March is coming!
March is coming!
AltogetherAndrews
Member
Why in the hell do people keep asking for this shit? The concept they at least claim to be going for massively eclipses a ”campaign.” Fucking yokels.
The fact is that it is NOT a correction, simply an answer to a question about Bungie.
Before that, he answers another one and involves all the Studios. And as you say, no assessment is necessary because we already know from the leaked Insomniac documents that it implicated all the Studios.
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Jinzo Prime
Member
It's so refreshing, a night and day difference from Phil Spencer and the whole Xbox crew.
Horseganador
Member
Bungie cost almost 4,000 million and they have to pay more than 1,000 payrolls a month, it is normal that Sony is running out of patience and asking for results-games.
Saber
Gold Member
Not that I have anything against what he said(he kinda look positive at start and are very direct, I liked), but correct me if I'm wrong... Isn't Naughty Dog the one who recently cancelled an ongoing project and they never going to recover back that project expenses? Is Bungie even involved on an actual project nowadays? I don't even know or remember, unless its just Destiny 2, which is something that they have for ages.
As for Bungie themselves, yeah these expense numbers are alarming. They should stop doing that social shit on twitter and resolve this soon. Or else you know...the usual.
As for Bungie themselves, yeah these expense numbers are alarming. They should stop doing that social shit on twitter and resolve this soon. Or else you know...the usual.
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Fake
Member
Yeap. And 2024 is telling us that will gonna get pretty ugly running this companies with such pressure.
IDK if any of them was expecting 2024 to be such a challenge year for gaming, but they should maybe had a plan B.
Mr Moose
Member
So Sony decided to purchase Bungie within 2 weeks of the Activision announcement because they were acting like a child and not because these things were in talks for months?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Yes. That is what they are saying. No iNcLuSiViTy knitting and cooking groups on company time. You're there to produce and work, this isn't high school or college anymore.
laynelane
Member
Agreed that they want results which is where the commentary from Totoki is coming from. More so, it seems he also wants Bungie to be accountable for their costs. This particular statement tell us a lot:
I hope it doesn't come to lay-offs, but I suspect you may be right about that.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
One talks like cult of personality politicians, the other, actual businessmen.
Fake
Member
Thats was a weak speculation from my part, but I can assure you that was not a fruitful acquisition.
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Mr Moose
Member
Maybe Sony will make a Destiny movie that isn't a flop. I think they talked about expanding Bungie stuff but my memory is shit.
clarky
Gold Member
Oh no not 12 hours days, and working on a Saturday. Or gosh not sometimes even more!!!
Bullshit like this, 4 day working weeks, working from home, fucking kitting classes. People wonder why AAA game development in the west is in the shitter with ridiculously massive budgets.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
devs need to be working 8 days a week
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
36 hours a day!
clarky
Gold Member
My man. Someone who speaks sense. Perhaps we'd get games in 4 years instead of 7.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
And also wonder why hellish crunch is thrown in when close to deadlines. Efficiency is key.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
clarky
Gold Member
I've worked projects for 30 odd years, 12 hour days 7 days a week happen some times. Its unfortunate but it happens. Its called giving a shit and hard graft.
I be the folks at Arrowhead just now are not looking forward to kitting at 3pm.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Helldivers devs right now.
laynelane
Member
The clause where Sony can dissolve the existing leadership and take full control of the company (upon Bungie not meeting financial goals) is an interesting detail. I assume MS and Activision did not have such a contingency plan in their dealings with Bungie.
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Killjoy-NL
Member
Going by Destiny, Bungie has a major management problem.
Best thing is for Sony to take control.
Best thing is for Sony to take control.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
The talent at Bungie is still there. They make great playing games.
I’m confident they will be able to course correct, but it’ll take some time
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The vast majority of western companies don’t do hardcore Japan hours,nor do they do knitting classes or take forever to launch products on time. Heck, and I thought it takes the city forever to fix highways (multi year projects).
Most office jobs are going to be your standard 9-5 job where it’s not too strict but not too loosey goosey. Just go to work get your shit done and go home.
That’s probably why bungie execs wanted independence. So they can do their own party culture hoping to avoid Japanese execs carrying a hammer to clamp down on shit.
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Chittagong
Gold Member
Absolutely based.
The moment you start to have clubs and communities like that on work time you are fucked.
I have a LinkedIn connection working in a big bank with a title of ‘group guild leader for community of practice. I never thought he could have a title worse than ‘Dreamer’, one of his previous jobs, but here we go. Among the major achievements in his job he lists creation of a framework called ‘The Egg’.
You need to Elon all that fat out. Not only does it burn money, but it grinds things to a halt.
clarky
Gold Member
In my experience, private companies that work projects and therefore to deadlines require employees to work overtime and yes that means weekends. There's only the videogame industry that complains about "crunch"
Its bullshit. You want a 35 hour working week, working from home tossing it off, work for the government or a bank in some boring ass job.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I’ve worked at big companies all my life and the only clubby thing I’ve ever seen is one company making a professional networking womens club so ladies from different functions and regional office can connect and share ideas. I guess no guys care since there was never a Men’s Connection Hub.
Then I asked some colleagues what you guys talk about in the women’s club. I was expecting shared best practices on strategy or skills and stuff like that. Nope, it was basically some canned presentations and more like online conference call chats to connect and have fun for half an hour. Comroderie kind of thing. Nothing wrong with that if that is the purpose. But I was thinking it was content that was going to be more gender focused helping them with their career function.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Hey I do finance and know all about crunch. End of month, quarter and year takes extra time. And annual target setting takes time too. You can’t wing it and just tell everyone and wall street if the team can get an extra week to submit numbers. You got a strict deadline every so often that has to be met. It’s normal for any job to require crunch because not all work is equal in quantity, difficulty and timeliness. In a perfect world, everything would be a breeze with unlimited time and budget. Nope. It’s just that some companies got to learn the hard way since it’s obvious some don’t really have controls in place to keep everyone in line.
Hudo
Member
The concept they're going for is fucking shit. It's a fucking extraction shooter with PvPvE or whatever the fuck that buzzword was. It's a buzzword game. Nothing massive or ambitious about it. It's Bungie going for the live-service crowd since they don't know what to do with Destiny anymore.
Krappadizzle
Member
They uh.... Did know who they bought right?
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ZehDon
Gold Member
Some of it is, undoubtedly. The issue is Bungie's culture. After Halo established Xbox, they adopted a "we're literally amazing" attitude that they cling to, even when it's clear they're failing. Their internal reviews put vanilla Destiny at a 9/10 while in the real world it landed at a 5/10 and required them to, basically, redevelop the game. With Destiny 2, they repeated this exactly, eventually having to fly the YouTube community out to their HQ to tell them how to fix after they all dropped the game. Bungie refuses to admit when they're wrong until it's too late, and you can see this repeat across the last decade of Destiny over and over. I can't image that's changing for Marathon.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
If I was in charge I'd introduce layoff Monday
You can even bring your family. They can watch you get laid off
You can even bring your family. They can watch you get laid off