Rumor: Bungie Was An Emergency Acquisition, Under The Red Line Before Sony Bought Them

A former Bungie employee has blown the door open on what was going on with Bungie before they were acquired by Sony.

Former Bungie community manager and accessibility person Liana Ruppert revealed this on Twitter:

Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition. If it wasn’t acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny. It was an emergency acquisition.

It’s notable that Liana has carefully worded her claim to avoid potential legal action. So while we believe she’s being truthful, we will consider this a rumor for now.

Sony first announced they would acquire Bungie when Microsoft had already acquired Bethesda, and announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. Last month, Sony reported a total $ 765 million impairment loss on that deal.

In accounting terms, Sony admitted that of the $ 3.6 billion they paid to acquire the studio, they overpaid by $ 765 million. If Sony reports another Bungie impairment in the future, they will admit to overpaying even more.