New rumors have emerged that may make us reexamine how the Bungie Sony deal even came about in the first place.
When Sony first announced their acquisition of Bungie, Microsoft itself had already finished acquiring Zenimax and Bethesda, and they themselves just announced plans to get Activision Blizzard King. That Sony-Bungie deal was finalized at a whopping $ 3.6 billion, which seemed like a drop in the bucket compared to the $ 69 billion Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard King.
However, that comparison may have been misleading in and of itself. Not only did it make it seem like Sony’s deal was much more reasonable, but it also shut down any discussion on what Sony was actually paying for. And as perplexing as it sounds, no less than the former CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, seemed to have bought into this misleading comparison himself.
Jim said in September of last year that he believed that their acquisition of Bungie would be more valuable than Activision’s. In Ryan’s own words:
“When you look at the $69 billion for Activision compared to $3.6 billion for Bungie, we believe that Bungie can give us way more than a $69 billion acquisition of Activision. And that’s before considering the relative value of that particular transaction.”
This all certainly looks ridiculous now, especially after Ryan’s retirement. At the time, the expectation was that Bungie would make money for Sony in more ways than through their games. As we know, they were put to work to consult on Sony’s other live service projects.
But Sony was also hoping that they could get some cross media production going, with possible movies or shows or other content for Bungie projects, like Destiny. It’s certainly a shame that Destiny movie or show hasn’t come to light yet, because it could have justified these new revelations.
Jeff Grubb stated in the latest Giant Bomb Game Mess Mornings podcast that Bungie CEO Pete Parsons made promises to Sony when they made the deal, that put them in the position that they are in now. In his own Game Mess Decides podcast a few hours later, Jeff elaborated that Pete made bigger promises to Sony than what Bungie could keep, and as the saying goes, the chickens have now come home to roost.
Stephen Totilo backs up Grubb’s claims in his own report about Bungie. He said this in his tweet linking to his article on Game File:
“NEW: I spoke to ex-Bungie workers about yesterday’s big cuts
– This round was in the works prior to Final Shape
– Feeling is Bungie bosses oversold studio to Sony
– Not selling would’ve been worse? Source: “The alternate history is insolvency””
You can read Totilo’s report here. Since a lot of these seem to be hinging on Pete Parsons, we have to point out that he hasn’t had the opportunity to defend himself on these claims. If he wasn’t trying to fool Sony into saving the studio, maybe he truly believed that he and Bungie could deliver.
I know that doesn’t quite mesh with the recent demonization of Parsons lately, but let’s not forget that he is a Bungie veteran, having worked with the studio since Halo 2. Parsons was also there when Bungie decided to leave Microsoft, negotiate the deal with Activision, and also leave Activision.
All of this is not to excuse Parsons’ possible culpability in Bungie’s current situation, but to point out that his grave mistake here may not have been scamming Sony, but his own hubris about Bungie. It would certainly be regrettable if all of this hinged on an overconfidence that’s now fallen apart. It should also make you wonder what Parsons is really thinking, buying all those expensive cars and even having an employee over to look at them, days before he fired them.
Jeff Grubb said that Pete Parsons is expected to say as Bungie’s CEO, but now one wonders if that will really stay true for the coming months, or after Marathon comes out next year.
