Sony has shared a dire report for Bungie for this financial quarter.
They reported an impairment loss of $ 560 million on Bungie for this period, and a total $ 765 million loss for the fiscal year. This loss was reported on the same quarter they published Marathon.
Sony also did not reveal Marathon’s sales, or other figures. So we can’t gauge how accurate estimates by Alinea or others are ccurate.
As a reminder, WB Games suffered a $ 200 million impairment on Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. That followed immense layoffs in Rocksteady Studios, and a rush to end support.
A few weeks ago, Genvid founder and former Square Enix staffer Jacob Navok explained Sony’s dilemma with Bungie and this impairment. While Sony management may want to keep Bungie alive, if they continue to have low sales and performance, they will eventually have to ‘write down,’ AKA close the studio.
This is because they acquired Bungie for $ 3.6 billion, which was arguably overvalued even at the time. Jacob argued that Sony’s auditors will force Bungie’s closure if PlayStation doesn’t do it themselves.