Sony finally said the quiet part out loud. During its Q2 FY2025 earnings call on November 11, 2025, CFO Lin Tao admitted that Destiny 2’s sales and user engagement have not reached the expectations Sony had when it acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion back in 2022. The admission came alongside a brutal $204 million impairment loss against Bungie’s intangible assets, reflecting Sony’s acknowledgment that it significantly overvalued what it was buying. And the player numbers back up Sony’s disappointment, with Destiny 2 hitting record lows on Steam of just 13,497 concurrent players this month compared to 314,000 peak in June 2024.
This isn’t just corporate accounting speak or normal business adjustments. This is Sony publicly stating that one of its biggest gaming acquisitions has underperformed dramatically, forcing the company to write down hundreds of millions in value barely three years after the purchase. For context, that $204 million impairment represents roughly 5.7% of the original $3.6 billion acquisition price being declared effectively worthless. And with Destiny 2’s player counts continuing to crater and community sentiment at all-time lows, there’s legitimate concern about whether things get worse before they get better.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
CFO Lin Tao’s comments during the earnings call were diplomatically phrased but devastating in substance. Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and the user engagement have not reached to the expectation we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie, she explained. While we will continue to make improvements, we downwardly revised the business projection for the time being and recorded an impairment loss against a portion of the assets at Bungie.
That impairment totaled 31.5 billion yen, approximately $204 million at current exchange rates. Combined with an additional 18.3 billion yen, roughly $118 million, in development cost corrections, Sony’s gaming division took a $322 million hit directly attributable to Bungie’s underperformance. Those development cost corrections likely relate to canceled projects or significantly reworked content that won’t generate the revenue Sony capitalized during development.
To put this in perspective, Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie specifically because of Destiny 2’s live service expertise and ongoing revenue potential. The company believed Bungie could help PlayStation build sustainable games-as-a-service franchises while Destiny 2 itself continued generating hundreds of millions annually. Instead, three years later, Sony is writing down hundreds of millions and admitting the acquisition hasn’t delivered expected results.
Player Counts Tell the Real Story
The financial impairment reflects what Destiny 2 players have watched happen in real-time throughout 2025. Steam player counts, while not representing the entire playerbase across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms, provide clear trends showing catastrophic decline. Peak concurrent players on Steam hit 13,497 this month compared to 314,000 in June 2024 when The Final Shape expansion launched. That’s a 95.7% drop in peak concurrent users within 17 months.
Third-party tracking tools using Bungie’s API estimate total active players across all platforms have fallen below the lows seen during Curse of Osiris in 2018, widely considered Destiny 2’s previous rock bottom. The Edge of Fate expansion that launched after The Final Shape reached only about one-third of TFS’s peak player count. Subsequent updates with the Portal-based content model have driven engagement even lower.
Recent Steam reviews sit at mostly negative, though overall reviews remain mostly positive thanks to years of accumulated positive sentiment. But momentum has clearly shifted, with long-time fans departing in large numbers and minimal new player acquisition to offset the exodus. Community forums and subreddits reflect pervasive negativity about content quality, monetization practices, and Bungie’s communication failures.
What Went Wrong After The Final Shape
The Final Shape expansion launched June 2024 as Destiny 2’s concluding chapter to the Light and Darkness saga that began with the original Destiny in 2014. Reviews were positive, player counts spiked, and the expansion felt like a triumphant finale. Then Bungie had to figure out what comes next, and that’s where everything fell apart.
Instead of traditional seasons with new activities, story missions, and gear, Bungie pivoted to a Portal-based content model delivering smaller episodic updates. The Edge of Fate launched as the first post-Final Shape content drop, and player reception was ice cold. The expansion felt thin on content, reused existing assets heavily, and failed to provide compelling reasons for engagement between major releases.
Bungie also moved away from seasonal content entirely, fundamentally changing Destiny 2’s cadence after years of conditioning players to expect quarterly content drops. This transition confused returning players and eliminated the regular engagement loops that kept people logging in every few months. Without seasons providing structure and goals, player activity plummeted as people finished available content quickly with no reason to return until the next major release.
Monetization controversies compounded engagement problems. Bungie announced plans to remove Unstable Cores currency from The Edge of Fate following community backlash about predatory monetization. The long-promised roadmap for Destiny 2’s future remains missing despite repeated requests from players desperate for visibility into what’s coming. And after massive layoffs at Bungie throughout 2024 and 2025, players legitimately question whether the studio has sufficient resources to deliver quality content at sustainable pace.
The Marathon Pressure Cooker
Sony’s disappointment with Destiny 2 creates immense pressure on Marathon, Bungie’s extraction shooter currently in development and targeting release before April 2026. Marathon represents Bungie’s attempt to diversify beyond Destiny while leveraging its multiplayer expertise in a trendy genre. But the game faces significant headwinds already.
The closed alpha received mixed feedback from participants who criticized various aspects of gameplay and design. More damaging were accusations of plagiarism against Bungie regarding Marathon’s visual design and concept art. Whether those accusations have merit remains disputed, but the negative publicity certainly didn’t help build hype for a game that needs to succeed commercially after Destiny 2’s underperformance.
Sony will be desperate to avoid another Concord situation with Marathon. Concord, Sony’s hero shooter developed by Firewalk Studios, launched in August 2025 and collapsed spectacularly, getting pulled offline just two weeks after release with estimates suggesting only 25,000 copies sold. Sony shut down Firewalk entirely, writing off hundreds of millions in development costs. Marathon cannot afford similar failure because it would vindicate critics who said Sony overpaid for Bungie and question whether the studio can deliver anything beyond Destiny.
Competitive Environment Challenges
Lin Tao specifically cited changes in the competitive environment as contributing to Destiny 2’s underperformance. The live service shooter market has become dramatically more crowded since Sony acquired Bungie in 2022. New competitors including The First Descendant, Once Human, and various other free-to-play looter shooters have fragmented player attention.
More significantly, Destiny 2 faces competition from spiritual successors and inspired alternatives. The Finals, while not directly competing with Destiny’s looter shooter formula, attracts similar audiences with innovative gameplay. Warframe continues thriving after over a decade, constantly evolving and maintaining player engagement through genuine innovation rather than recycling content.
Perhaps most damaging is that Destiny 2 itself feels dated. The game launched in 2017 using technology and design philosophies from even earlier. Eight years later, it shows age in every aspect from visuals to user interface to core gameplay loops. Competitors launching today benefit from modern engines, contemporary design thinking, and fresh approaches unburdened by eight years of accumulated technical debt and questionable decisions.
What Happens Next
Destiny 2’s Renegades expansion launches December 2025, offering Bungie a chance to course-correct and rebuild player confidence. Early marketing emphasizes the Star Wars collaboration, clearly hoping franchise crossover appeal attracts lapsed players and new audiences. Whether Renegades delivers substantive improvements over The Edge of Fate or continues recent content quality trends will largely determine Destiny 2’s trajectory through 2026.
Sony stated it will continue making improvements to Destiny 2 despite downwardly revising business projections. That language suggests ongoing investment and support rather than abandonment, but expectations have clearly been tempered. The question is whether continued improvements can stabilize player counts or if Destiny 2 has entered terminal decline that no amount of updates can reverse.
For Bungie employees, the situation creates existential anxiety. The studio already endured multiple rounds of layoffs throughout 2024 and 2025. Further underperformance could trigger additional cuts or even structural changes to how Sony manages Bungie. Some speculate Sony might integrate Bungie more directly into PlayStation Studios rather than maintaining the independence Bungie negotiated during acquisition.
The Goodwill Question
When asked whether this $204 million impairment represents the beginning of further write-downs, CFO Tao clarified that goodwill from the Bungie acquisition remains secure. Goodwill represents the premium Sony paid above Bungie’s tangible asset value, essentially the intangible value of Bungie’s reputation, talent, and potential future earnings.
Securing goodwill means Sony isn’t yet writing down the entire acquisition as a mistake. The company still believes Bungie holds value beyond current Destiny 2 performance, presumably through Marathon’s potential and the studio’s institutional knowledge about live service development. But if Marathon fails and Destiny 2 continues declining, that goodwill protection won’t last forever.
FAQs
How much did Sony write down for Destiny 2?
Sony recorded a $204 million impairment loss against Bungie’s intangible assets related to Destiny 2 during Q2 FY2025, plus an additional $118 million in development cost corrections, totaling approximately $322 million in charges.
Why did Sony buy Bungie?
Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022 primarily for Destiny 2’s live service expertise and ongoing revenue, plus the studio’s ability to help PlayStation develop successful games-as-a-service franchises.
What are Destiny 2’s current player counts?
Steam peak concurrent players hit 13,497 in November 2025 compared to 314,000 in June 2024, representing a 95.7% decline. Third-party estimates suggest total active players across all platforms have fallen below 2018’s Curse of Osiris lows.
When does the next Destiny 2 expansion release?
Renegades, Destiny 2’s next expansion, launches December 2025 featuring a Star Wars collaboration. It represents Bungie’s chance to reverse negative momentum and rebuild player confidence.
What is Marathon and when does it release?
Marathon is Bungie’s extraction shooter currently in development, targeting release before April 2026. The game faces significant pressure to succeed commercially after Destiny 2’s underperformance and mixed alpha feedback.
Will Sony shut down Bungie?
Sony stated it will continue making improvements to Destiny 2 and confirmed goodwill from the acquisition remains secure, suggesting no immediate plans for shutdown or major restructuring, though further underperformance could change that.
How does this compare to Concord’s failure?
Concord sold an estimated 25,000 copies before being pulled offline two weeks after launch, leading to Firewalk Studios’ closure. While Destiny 2 is underperforming, it still generates significant revenue and maintains a player base, making the situations different in scale.
Conclusion
Sony’s admission that Destiny 2 has underperformed validates what players have been saying for months: the game is in serious trouble. The $204 million impairment loss represents corporate acknowledgment that Sony significantly overestimated Bungie’s value and Destiny 2’s revenue potential when making the $3.6 billion acquisition in 2022.
The brutal reality is that Destiny 2 player counts support Sony’s pessimism. A 95% decline in peak Steam users from June 2024 to November 2025 isn’t normal post-expansion dropoff. It’s catastrophic player exodus driven by thin content, questionable design decisions, communication failures, and mounting frustration with Bungie’s direction. Long-time fans are departing in large numbers with minimal new player acquisition to offset losses.
Renegades launching December 2025 offers a chance for course correction, but it’s unclear whether one expansion can reverse trends this negative. Bungie needs to demonstrate it understands why players left, has concrete plans to address those issues, and possesses resources to execute on promises after multiple rounds of layoffs. The Star Wars collaboration might generate short-term buzz, but sustained engagement requires substantive improvements beyond celebrity IP crossovers.
For Sony, the Bungie acquisition increasingly looks like a strategic mistake. The company paid premium prices betting on live service expertise and ongoing Destiny 2 revenue. Instead, it got a struggling game, a studio that endured massive layoffs, and an unproven extraction shooter facing uphill odds in a crowded market. If Marathon fails, questions about Sony’s gaming strategy and acquisition decisions will intensify.
The next six months are critical. Renegades needs to deliver. Marathon must avoid Concord’s fate. And Bungie has to prove it can stabilize Destiny 2 while successfully launching new IP. Failure on any front could trigger the kind of restructuring that eliminates Bungie’s independence and fundamentally changes how Sony approaches live service gaming. The $204 million write-down is just the beginning if things don’t improve quickly.