Hermen Hulst, the soon-to-be CEO of SIE’s Studio Business Group, praised Bungie for its significant contribution “in the form of process optimization and capability growth across SIE, particularly live services.”
According to Hulst, the benefits of Sony’s strategic acquisition of Bungie in 2022 are already evident, marking significant returns on their investment. “We have made significant progress realizing synergies across the organization,” said Hulst during the Games and Network Services Segment of Sony’s business segment meeting, earlier this week.
“For example, Bungie’s network operation expertise has allowed us to optimize the performance of our upcoming live service titles, which is really great. We expect to see the full integration of Bungie’s capabilities into our business operations by the end of this current fiscal year.
“We can’t disclose financials for individual studios in our portfolio, that includes Bungie. Whilst, we don’t expect profit contribution from Bungie in fiscal year 24 on a standalone basis, that is obviously to do with the fact that they are working on a new IP, that is yet to be released.”
Hulst emphasized that the integration of Bungie’s technical know-how is enabling SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) to deliver more robust and dynamic gaming live service experiences to its players and that Bungie’s role has been crucial as PlayStation continues to expand its portfolio of live service games.
“It’s really important to state that we are already seeing returns on our investment [in Bungie] in the form of process optimization and capability growth across SIE, particularly in live services. And, that was always the goal behind the acquisition, that has helped us to progress faster, it’s helped us with cost optimization.”
“With the upcoming releases of Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and later with Marathon, we are going to see significant revenues coming into SIE,” Hulst concluded.
One of the highlights of the GN&S segment was Helldivers 2, the new live service title from Sony Interactive Entertainment, developed by Arrowhead Game Studios. Originally released in February 2024, Helldivers 2 has sold over 12 million copies which Sony considers a “strong new entry to the PlayStation Studios live service portfolio.”
The Final Shape is the highly-anticipated upcoming expansion for Destiny 2, which will bring the epic 10-year story of Light and Darkness to a close. Despite this conclusion, Bungie has reassured fans that Destiny 2 will continue beyond this expansion.