Sony says Destiny 2 is underperforming against its acquisition expectations, lowering projections and recording an estimated $204M impairment tied to Bungie ahead of December’s Renegades expansion.
Sony has acknowledged what many Destiny 2 players have felt this year: engagement is down. Over the last few months, Destiny 2’s player numbers have slipped to new lows on Steam and, based on API-driven estimates, fallen below the lows seen during Curse of Osiris in 2018. Community sentiment has been rough.
Now, Sony has put a hard number on the business impact. In Sony’s Q2 FY2025 earnings call, Sony recorded an impairment tied to Bungie’s Destiny 2 assets, and says it has “downwardly revised” its projections for the near term.
The write-down is ¥31.5 billion, roughly ~$204 million USD at current exchange rates.
Sony says Bungie’s Destiny 2 is underperforming
This update comes straight from Sony’s Q2 FY2025 and CFO Lin Tao. During a pre-recorded message shared as part of Sony’s financial presentation, Tao said that Destiny 2 has fallen short of what Sony anticipated when it bought Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022. (with a significant portion earmarked for employee retention)
She explained that the ¥31.5 billion impairment “against a portion of Bungie’s intangible and other assets in connection with Destiny 2”, along with another ¥18.3 billion expense tied to development cost corrections, were the main reasons why PlayStation’s gaming segment, Game & Network Services (G&NS), saw a drop in operating income despite an overall sales increase during Q2 FY2025.
You can read Lin Tao’s comments during the pre-recorded message below. (transcribed by The Game Post)
“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. 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.
During the live Q&A portion of the earnings call, Lin Tao was asked whether this impairment could be the start of more write-downs tied to Bungie. She clarified that while the goodwill from the Bungie acquisition is tied to the broader PlayStation segment (and thus wasn’t impaired), other Bungie assets like Destiny 2 and Marathon still carry value that could be reduced in the future if they don’t perform.
“This is an impairment loss of [Bungie’s] intangible assets,” Tao said. “[These assets] are the target for the impairment loss.
“[As for] goodwill, that is supported by the whole game segment, so there will not be any impairment loss for goodwill. For this time, [Destiny 2’s] game performance did not reach the expectations we had when we acquired Bungie.
“We still have some intangible assets, and the question of whether there is still any risk remaining or not, Marathon, which is going to be launched, and Destiny 2, if the performance [does not] reach what we expect, of course, there is a risk of impairment loss, but we don’t believe this will impact the whole game segment. At least at this point in time.”
Sony acquired Bungie in early 2022 for $3.6 billion, roughly $1.2 billion of which was set aside as retention incentives for Bungie employees. The studio has since maintained operational independence, though Sony recently said that Bungie’s autonomy is getting “lighter,” as it absorbs more of the Destiny 2 developer.
Bungie, meanwhile, is preparing to launch Destiny 2’s next major content drop, the Star Wars–themed expansion Renegades, set to arrive on December 2, 2025.
What are your thoughts on Sony’s comments and the state of Destiny 2 right now? Do you think Bungie can bounce back with Renegades? Let us know in the comments.
