Original Take
Sony’s Bungie Bet Shows How Lost AAA Gaming Has Become
Image credit: marathongame.com
Sony’s Bungie bet is starting to look a lot more expensive. After Marathon failed to land the way Sony hoped, MarathonGG’s X account said Bungie’s title portfolio “did not reach our expectations,” forcing Sony to revise the business plan downward and write down the full amount of fixed assets tied to Bungie, except for goodwill. That is not just a bad quarter. That is Sony admitting the plan for Bungie has changed.
MarathonGG’s X account also says engagement and retention remain strong, but the Steam charts tell a different story. Looking back one month, the game peaked at 15,378 players before falling to 11,850, with the trend still pointing down. That is not growth. That is a warning sign.
While this does not count console players, Steam charts are usually a good indication of where a game is heading. This may not be a failure on the level of Concord, but with AAA studios continuing to stumble while indie games keep leading the way, it raises a bigger question: where does the AAA model go from here?
Sony needs to stop putting all its eggs in one basket and relying on Marathon to make up the deficit. AAA studios need to go back to basics. Players want high-quality games that actually work, feel complete, and are enjoyable to play. They do not want the same recycled ideas repackaged and fed back to them every year.
AAA studios have started treating games like numbers on a spreadsheet, and too often, greedy executives treat players the same way. The industry needs to move away from that. We need to get back to the era when studios cared deeply about the game, actually played what they were making, and did not try to nickel-and-dime players to death.
To be clear, I am not saying Marathon is doing that specifically. But this has become a common problem across the video game industry, and it is something I plan to write about in another article.