Sony Reportedly Told Bungie Developers to 'Pull Their Heads Out of Their Asses.' Recent Big Changes to Destiny 2 Said to Be Thanks to Japanese Giant
According to a former Bungie employee, the recent changes in Destiny 2 are due to pressure from Sony. The studio initially believed that nothing would change after its acquisition, but the Japanese company reportedly forced the developers to take specific action.
Both the Bungie studio and its (still) latest game – Destiny 2 – have recently undergone quite a revolution. In July, as many as 220 employees said goodbye to the development team, and over a month later, major changes were announced in the distribution of future content for the online shooter. According to former Bungie chief legal officer Don McGowan, some of these changes are thanks to Sony, which acquired the studio in 2022.
Destiny 2 changes thanks to Sony
In a post on LinkedIn, he explains that the Japanese company pressured Bungie to change the way it manages Destiny 2. In this way, the corporation was supposed to force developers to fix things that weren't working well.
To be clear: I’m not talking about the layoffs, I’m talking about forcing them to get their heads out of their asses and focus on things like: implementing a method of new player acquisition; not just doing fan service for the fans in the Bungie C-suite; and running the game like a business. Good. I still have friends in that environment and I'd like them to keep jobs.
According to McGowan, this is the future the studio must accept – it's no longer an independent company, but an entity owned by Sony. This may seem obvious, but as McGowan himself says, many people at Bungie pretended that "nothing would change" following the acquisition.
I remember sitting there during the deal saying "do you think Sony describes this as them getting to pay $3.6 billion for the right to have no input into what Bungie does?" That was exactly what a lot of people thought.
With the changes being forced, Sony has made it clear what the situation really is. McGowan calls this a good decision, as these are "things you do to run a franchise, not to keep making the game you and your friends have mastered, or to chase trends."
Accusations of plagiarism
Finally, it's worth mentioning the accusation that has been made against Bungie and Nerf, which recently jointly revealed a new gun. It turns out that its design may have been inspired by a project by user Tofu_Rabbit, who posted on X presenting his work from 2015.
It is really easy to spot nearly identical elements when examining both pistols. Fortunately, the matter has now reached Bungie, who said they have reached out to the artist to make sure he receives compensation and credit for his work.
