Bungie as the root of Sony's problems in the live-service game direction: what the delay of Marathon means for the company's business

The situation surrounding Marathon reveals economic and managerial issues within Bungie and PlayStation. Even before its release, this shooter casts doubt on the viability of Sony's strategy in the live service game sector, and its potential failure could have serious repercussions for the company's gaming business.

Bungie introduced Marathon in May 2023, but a full showcase of this extraction shooter and its initial testing only took place in the past April. This delay was partly due to financial difficulties and the restructuring of the studio.

Since the announcement of Marathon, Bungie has conducted several rounds of layoffs, with at least two acknowledged officially. In late October 2023, the company laid off around 100 employees, reportedly 8% of its entire workforce, which was approximately 1250 staff members. In July of the previous year, Bungie let go of 220 team members, and transferred another 155 to other divisions of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).

According to the studio's CEO, Pete Parsons, at that time the combined number of developers for Destiny and Marathon was over 850. Certainly, the company also periodically hired people, but over the last year and a half, its workforce has decreased by at least several hundred employees.

Bungie's management eventually openly admitted — due to our grand ambitions, we exhausted financial reserves and began operating at a loss. This is a discouraging statement from a company that Sony acquired for $3.6 billion and expected to leverage its expertise to build its own portfolio of live service games.