Bungie Is Done With Destiny 2: Layoffs, No Destiny 3, and the Future of a Gaming Legend

Gregory (00:02.381)
Guardians, this one hits different. Today, we're talking about the end of an era. Bungie has officially announced it is shutting down live service updates for Destiny 2. And that's insane. A game that has been part of our gaming lives for nearly a decade is getting its final patch on June 9th, and if that isn't enough, significant layoffs are coming.

And Destiny 3? Yeah, that's that's not happening. This is the full breakdown where Bungie came from, what went wrong, and what comes next. But before we dive in, make sure to hit that subscribe button and also check out our press play gaming newsletter, which sends the latest gaming news to your inbox each week. Let's get to it. So

Bungie, Bungie, Bungie, Bungie, Bungie. They for a lot of people who don't know, like Bungie is what now 35 years old? 35. Founded in 1991 by two University of Chicago students. and I think they started on the Mac exclusively originally. And this is a fun fact that.

Uly (01:08.436)
Thirty five. Thirty five goddam years.

Ty (01:11.467)
Yeah.

Uly (01:21.469)
Yep.

Ty (01:22.552)
Sounds about right.

Gregory (01:25.535)
I've recently learned, so I don't know. I think people who probably were following Bungie from the beginning knew this, but 1994 Marathon launches, not the marathon that just came out, but their actual first game was named Marathon. And that basically put Bungie on the map with for FPS Deep War multiplayer. And it looks like they came back with Marathon again.

in a way to I guess go full circle, try to I don't want to say reinvent themselves, but get back to their roots. But seems like a awesome steps.

Ty (02:04.078)
how that works out.

Uly (02:07.235)
there's a lot of stumbles along the way.

Ty (02:09.39)
or out of stumbles.

Gregory (02:10.753)
Yeah. but in the year 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie, Halo Combat Evolve gets turned into their Xbox launch title. And basically it was Bungie that jettisoned Microsoft to the forefront for, you know, game consoles at the time. They were pretty much strictly PC. And then, you know, they did come out with their their platform, but everybody knows Halo, Xbox, they were synonymous. You you didn't have one without the other.

So it was like a match made in heaven for them. And then in 2007, Bungie split from Microsoft. but Microsoft kept the Halo IP. Bungie got to walk away free and immediately starts working on something new. And then in 2010, they signed a tenure deal with Activision, which I still to this day think was one of their biggest mistakes because of how messy that relationship is.

Ty (02:40.782)
Yeah.

Gregory (03:09.025)
To publish their next franchise that became Destiny. Now, everyone loved Destiny One. Destiny One was like it scratched that itch for people who may not have you know been playing Halo anymore, but they still wanted that Halo like feel, and it was still something fresh, something new. It had a very good story. Like I loved Destiny One. Like I I

To this day, it's my most played game in my entire library. I've not even come close to with another game in terms of hours. so yeah. But yeah, in 2014, that's when Destiny launched. Massive height, massive numbers. and then not long after, twenty seventeen, Destiny two launches, which was another massive launch, but it had a rocky start because they made a lot of changes. the OG Destiny fans, we really only had like three years to enjoy the first game.

And adapt and then they were hitting us with the second game. So we were like, okay. So they're there it was a little iffy and a lot of things were taken away that we got used to in the first one. and then twenty

Ty (04:17.162)
even say a little iffy, my beef with Destiny 1 still to this day, well Destiny 2 not Destiny 1, is they essentially made a live service game and they hyped up, hey this is gonna be our live service game, this is us getting to the forefront of things and then not long after, right, you essentially were creating Destiny 2 in the midst of you selling Destiny 1.

Gregory (04:35.469)
Yeah.

Ty (04:45.356)
because that game was so massive, it took more than two years to make.

You can lie to me all you want and say, nah, we had a short turnaround because we already had the assets. No, you were working on this prior. It could have been an upgrade. It just could have been an update. But.

Gregory (05:05.859)
We're saying that you know, I think people who like data mind were seeing that the Destiny 2 assets were already in Destiny and that they basically split the game in half instead of just making this updates and overhauls like most live service MMOs do. They just

Here's an expansion. Here's an expansion. that's where I feel like it was more I okay, I won't say it was, you know, just Activision, but I feel like Bungie with the hey, we did Halo, people love our our stuff, and Activision being like, Hey, we also worked on Call of Duty, people are gonna love our stuff, and we always resell new Call of Duty each year. Why don't we do that with Destiny 2?

break the game in half and then sell it as a whole new game. And I think that's what gave Destiny Two a really bad start in the beginning because everyone was like, you could have literally, like you said, they could have just made this an expansion and went from there. And I think they would have had way better results with Destiny Two had they done that.

Ty (06:23.042)
Yeah.

Gregory (06:24.695)
But yeah, but the Activision deal ended in 2019, right before COVID. And then I think the final nail in the coffin, Sony acquires Bungie for 3.6 billion. The creators of Xbox killer app are now a PlayStation studio, and the internet collectively lost its minds because it and I I'm guilty of this too. I think everyone was thinking that just because Sony got bungee.

we were actually going to finally get like our own Halo or like suddenly destiny was gonna become this end all be all of shooters.

Yeah.

Ty (07:08.768)
A lot of people said that though. A lot of people were like, Hey, here's destiny. Now this is our halo. This is everything else. And then they got pissed off when they realized that destiny was a multi-plat game for starters. then got really pissed off when they realized, Hey, destiny and halo don't have all that much in common. They do, but they don't. it's like,

Gregory (07:34.999)
Yeah.

Ty (07:38.446)
So what the fuck are we actually playing? Granted, granted, it got its love. It definitely has its love, but... When Destiny first came out, people were expecting this Halo-esque game.

and ended up with something more unique than that. I won't knock Destiny, right? Destiny 2, all day. But Destiny, I will not knock it. It was innovative for its own. And.

Gregory (08:00.312)
Mm-hmm.

Ty (08:15.112)
If Bungie knew how to sit still long enough within themselves, let alone within a parent company, I think things would be different.

Gregory (08:29.229)
Yeah. And that you know, and that's exactly what I was thinking too. I was like, you know, if if Bungie knew how to stay by themselves and just focused on their own IPs, yeah, they might not have had the limelight, you know, like they were used to. But I think they would have done a lot better with the quality and they probably wouldn't have been influenced to make these big cash grab moves that

also bit the player base that was loyal to them in the ass, one of them being when they pivoted to free to play in twenty twenty, which personally that pissed me off because I reserved my copy of Destiny 2. I paid.

Ty (09:13.886)
I remember you were in Texas.

Gregory (09:16.577)
Yeah. And then they come along and say, now we're going free to play. And we're like, okay, well, what about the people who paid for the game? Like, are we getting anything for that? And they were like, our unyielding thanks. Yeah, like, well, how how about like, I don't know, all the f early access to every upcoming DLC or something? Like, I don't know.

Ty (09:31.83)
love. Yeah, I love.

Gregory (09:46.84)
We paid you. And then Joe Schmo comes along and gets to play for free. And I still have to pay live service, you know, costs on top of what I already paid you. It was to me that was like that told me right then like Bungie stopped caring. That was also around the time I started teetering out from Dustin 2 because that really ticked me off. And I've had an on again, off again.

relationship with it because I really, really want to love what Destiny is. but it's such an abuse it was such an abusive relationship if we're gonna be completely honest. Like yeah. So and there's some of their some of their expansions were actually really good too. Like Forsaken was good.

Ty (10:25.1)
Mm-hmm.

Ty (10:31.031)
Yeah, I can't do that.

Gregory (10:43.255)
The Witch Queen, I think, was good, but then they did so many mishaps in between and after. It was like they were trying they were trying to do too much instead of ironing out what they already had. And it just became a mess. You get you get things like Lightfall and Beyond Light. And I I I lost count of like how many expansions they are. And don't even get me started on like

Ty (10:58.168)
Yeah.

Gregory (11:14.071)
becoming a new player right now because they're gonna keep the they're they're gonna keep the servers live and they're playable. Thankfully.

Uly (11:19.017)
For how long?

Uly (11:23.593)
Yeah, for how long are yeah. How long?

Ty (11:23.818)
So the question for how long?

Gregory (11:27.131)
well destiny's still running. So if that's any sign, they said they want to do it as least as long as they have destiny. Destiny servers are still up. And Destiny came out in 2014, and they technically stopped giving a new content in 2017 and it's still going. So you probably got a good, I'll say eight years of extra play time, which is way better than a lot of games in the live service category when they kill it.

Uly (11:54.792)
Yeah. No, it's

To be honest, Bungie, I wouldn't you said like them being bought by Activision and then being bought by Sony, or them having those deals, and then that was their downfall, I think that would have happened either way, even if they were with Microsoft the whole time. Because the way Microsoft is right now, it's the same way all these companies have been going. They followed a flow. They all tried to do the same thing, and each one did their mistake. If we probably would have ended up in the same boat now as

We did. Probably sooner, probably later. It would have been the same, same rocking boat, same sinking boat.

Ty (12:36.472)
So I'm gonna be the weird one on this and God, the fact I've been praising Microsoft so often lately. right. I genuinely believe if they would have stayed with Microsoft, Destiny would have never happened. Genuinely. I think we would have got a different set of Halos than we did with like

Gregory (12:45.163)
Yeah.

Uly (12:45.704)
No.

Ty (13:06.808)
before and after or no five and after.

Was it four or was it five that they left? No, was four. It was four.

So I think if they would have stayed, we would got like a weird halo, like a new halo from them, or we would have got like a different type of hybrid game. Because at the time, you also remember this is 2014, live service wasn't as big. It was there, it wasn't, live service on a console game wasn't as big.

Gregory (13:41.693)
It's like it's bad.

Ty (13:48.685)
So I think we would have ended up with either some kind of multiplayer third person shooter, but not a live service multiplayer third person shooter, if that makes sense.

And the pivot would have been weird. We'd probably ended up with like this hybrid Gears of War game from them. If they would have stayed with Microsoft.

Uly (14:12.243)
Probably like Halo Spartans involved or some shit like that.

Ty (14:16.238)
Something like that. Now if they were to stay with Activision, that would have been a whole other fucking monster.

Because them going to Activision, I think, was like the little push in the live service. Activision saw how well Bungie did, and this is whole different thing going into it. I'm not going to even mention the game, but RIP. I think that's where their whole push into that room started was with how they saw

the end results for, but, but, but, but Destiny, right? Cause let's be real, even hate love, hate Destiny or hate Destiny, it still did well. Love Destiny or hate Destiny too. It still did well. It's just that the good doesn't outweigh the bad long-term.

Gregory (15:16.897)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. especially too and like, you know, it seemed like Bungie was going all all in on the live service tropes for for Destiny Two. And and not even just w how they were handling Destiny Two, but like, there was rumors that the the work culture was also just bad. to the point that Sony at some point had to step in

And be like, hey, you know, you gotta fix this. And it seemed like Bungie's way of fixing it was like layoffs. I think the first wave was like eight percent of their workforce. And then it was seven seventeen percent of their workforce. And that was in twenty twenty four. so they started laying off, they pretty much had a layoff each year except last year. So twenty twenty three they laid they they laid off eight percent of their workforce, and then in twenty twenty four they did seventy percent of their workforce.

Ty (15:54.286)
Thank

Gregory (16:13.941)
And now there's gonna be another wave of layoffs and they're gonna wind up just being a super small studio again, which that's not a terrible thing.

Uly (16:25.673)
no, that that is kind of a bad thing. Mm-hmm.

Ty (16:25.738)
Mmm, I will argue that. I will. In their case, it would be a terrible thing.

Gregory (16:32.461)
Well if they're cutting because they're only focusing on one game right now. They're said they're gonna pitch other projects and I and don't quote me on this, but I was pretty sure I read that they had pitched ideas, but Sony didn't like accept any of them. None of them landed.

Ty (16:51.894)
And I think the reason it didn't land is the ideas they probably picked since Sony went, Sony bought them was in that timeframe where Sony was like,

We're hyper fixated on live service. We're hyper fixated on mass multiplayer games. We want in that market. So they kept pitching these ideas and they were like, well, that's not going to make us enough money. That's not going to make us enough money. That's not going to make us enough money. We need to justify 3.6 billion in destiny to is not justifying 3.6 billion. And that is why I think marathon got pushed the way it did because hey,

this is a live service, but also it fits in that room to where we're not completely screw front in the bill is what they were thinking, right? Sony this year pretty much came out and was like, we're focusing on single player games like we used to. And I think...

Gregory (17:49.963)
Yeah.

Ty (18:00.588)
That is where this whole bungee layoffs are starting to like really show. And going back full circle, this is why I think bungee would have a horrible time being a small studio again. They don't know how to do a single player game.

Uly (18:16.987)
I would argue that they do know how to make a single player game. It's just they push into these multiplayer games because of out outside forces. Cause if you think about it, Destiny 2 campaign could was a fun single player game if you could do like if you take that out, it it's a fun single player game. But they just added all these extra like multiplayer components to it. They could still do it. They could still have a decent single player game.

Ty (18:32.491)
Yeah.

Uly (18:45.423)
It's just whether Sony will allow them to do that or will Sony like well we know from the Prophet's call they're still pushing Marathon to be a thane.

Ty (18:55.234)
Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. Like them going from what they are right now to a small studio would be more of a hindrance than a like perk, right? Yeah. They got so used to doing these type of projects reverting back is going to be like taking five steps back.

just to make two steps forward. Not a lot of people can make that pivot well.

Gregory (19:28.365)
I they're gone.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially, you know, with today's gaming ecosystem, it definitely would be difficult. And one of the things that really hurts too, especially like with Bungie as a whole, is they already were doing that. They would take a step forward and then two steps back because they technically like Destiny didn't die on its own. Like

Spongy was basically managed to death, like poorly managed to death, because every time the community came back, something pushed us away. And Julie and I, we just talked about this on the previous episode, things being sunsetting gear and the content vault. Like why would you do things to take away away the rewards that the players earned and invested their time in playing your game? It was more of it was a punishment.

And the one thing you should not do is punish your loyal player base. And that's what it was. And that's what was killing their community. They were managing their community into the ground to push new gear. I'm and I was saying, I'm like, look, people are going to use the new gear, or you can just create content that hey, you can use your old stuff. It's just not going to be effective on XYZ boss for XYZ reason. We suggest.

Using this new stuff, yeah. Like, come on. They could have done that. And since they didn't, they eroded the trust. Players fell off. Some would come back, but most never came back. They never looked back. And even on when we s we had a comment on the YouTube channel said, Yep, that's what made me leave. And I never looked back. And gamers are less tolerant today than they were 10 years ago. Like less

Ty (21:02.178)
the new shit.

Uly (21:28.133)
my god, their attention span is s or our attention span is slow, low, low.

Ty (21:33.647)
Part of that is COVID, but we're not gonna go into that. Part of that is being trapped in the house and all you could do was either game or other things that I shall not say. So when you have gaming ADHD, like I like to call it, and you can't focus on, and there's plenty of you out there where you sit there, you start a game,

you play about 33 % and then you're switching to another game to play 25 % of that. Then you switch to another game that you have a comfort with that you've already beat, but you're still playing that. And by people, I mean me.

Uly (22:21.674)
no, trust me, I would have jumped from Destiny to whatever new game I bought that week, then back to Fallout.

Ty (22:29.112)
Exactly my point so like Ten years ago Not as bad still bad not as bad people usually sat down with a game and went with it nowadays not so much and then Also doesn't help like with these live service games you miss Let's say a week you miss a week of that game, right?

If there is an event in that timeframe you missed out on, like a short term event, and you missed that event, you're already backpedaled like two months, even though you only missed that one event that only lasted like a week. Yes, I know I'm exaggerating a timeframe.

Gregory (23:15.885)
Okay.

Uly (23:18.269)
my god. Who who was I've I've the the the the the seller what was that dude's name I can't believe I can't remember him the one that sell you the exotics like you would find him only on a certain day and if you miss him that one week you have to wait yeah Zerk there we go you miss him it's like the dude he's got the legendary that you've been looking for I'm like all right bet I don't have the time to get to the game and then you miss it

Gregory (23:19.191)
That only I don't do that never

Gregory (23:26.195)
For

Ty (23:32.056)
that is important.

Gregory (23:41.997)
We got you had three days to get to him.

Ty (23:44.878)
And now look, you are SOL for you.

Gregory (23:49.356)
Yeah. yeah. Friday. I remember those times too. Like Fridays, I didn't I hated when I had duty on Fridays because I was like, Zur's here. I need to know what exotics he's had. And this was before this was for Destiny One, before the apps came out that could tell you what he was selling, so you knew in advance what would you know, if you wanted it or not. So you had to go f and then you had to find him. man. Yeah.

Ty (24:13.175)
Yeah.

Uly (24:13.885)
And you had to make sure you had the right currency, the right amount of currency to buy everything.

Gregory (24:16.949)
Right amount of give of strange. And see, that's what I'm saying. Like destiny had so much potential. That could have been going for years and would have never gotten old. Because the they they expanded the world. And the other thing, when they closed off planets, why?

Uly (24:35.403)
because it was in the story that the darkness destroyed it. It d and I'm like, I d do Mars. You took Mars away from me. Sometimes I would just fly around in Mars or just walk around. That's all I would do. Just

Ty (24:36.066)
Because gaming is a thing.

Gregory (24:47.555)
Mars was making on spot.

Ty (24:49.59)
Again, gaming ADD, that's all it came down to. People don't know how to sit still. So...

Trying to...

Ty (25:04.558)
15 years ago, if a game like this would have been around on console, on console people before y'all sit here and give me shit. If 15 years ago was 2011, the game like this would have been on console or 2011, people would have sat still with it a little bit better, right? Nowadays, man, no. Like, hell no, that's not gonna happen. So, on one hand, I blame them.

But on the other hand, I blame the parent studios they've had because the expectation was, hey, yeah, now you need to make it like this and make it like this because we need you to push out this content. We don't care if the fan base is missing out on shit. We need you to push out this content to stay fresh, to stay relevant, even though

They're pushing it out so fast. You can't really stay relevant with that. Like, why is this event only lasting a Friday?

Gregory (26:11.203)
Yeah. Well, they think because FOMO FOMO's a bitch and that's what live service relies on heavily is FOMO. and games certain games can get away with doing it because their player base is so massive that when they switch gears to start doing stuff like that, the players there's just so

It's either the only game they play or they're just e reprogrammed to be like, okay, it's the only game I really care that does it and, you know, they dedicate their time to it. Destiny wasn't one of those games. Destiny was always a a niche game and they went into an element they really didn't have any business going into. And then they put them they first of all, they wrote themselves into a corner because then the story became

So, like if you weren't playing as the expansions came out, you got screwed. Because when you try to replay the missions and the stories, it's all disconjointed. And then sometimes, especially with strike missions, they kind of were like, Yeah, you could play all the strike missions and everything. So if you went for a strike run, the game didn't take into account that you might not have played the expansion, the story, or anything. They'll drop you in a mission.

Ty (27:17.41)
Yes.

Gregory (27:36.195)
for something you haven't done yet. And then you like, yeah, yeah, so so, yeah, yeah, yeah, man. I yeah, when they died. And I'm like, what? Well when did this happen? Okay, if you know I didn't play that part of the story, why are you putting me in strike missions that that should be a requirement for that was just poor management.

Ty (27:56.162)
Yeah?

Gregory (27:57.176)
Like, how hard is it to put a tracker of where you are in the story? See them outlying for is like raids. Like, I don't feel you should be forced to do raids because not everyone can get a group to do raids, and not everyone meshes well with other people. So the story was cultivated where you could reach an ending as a single player. And then I'm like, okay, it just have that tracker along the story, so then people are getting dropped in the mission space.

Ty (28:01.589)
more effort than people need.

Gregory (28:26.177)
that they know what the heck is going on and all the expansions make sense as they go along. Like it it became just a

Uly (28:33.821)
think they did add that in Destiny Two, like a story tracker that just it would just tell you where the story is now.

Gregory (28:41.709)
But the they had so many expansions that came out that if you had ADHD and you were like, Well, I kind of just want to do some strikes, I just want to see if I can get some loot to drop. Everything became a mess. It became a hot mess. And then because they didn't, I guess they wanted to be hands off, everything was open to you. So like you could wind up going anywhere. Like

I know a lot of people probably don't like things that are closed off because it means they gotta put in a little extra work and effort to get things unlocked, like parts of the story.

Uly (29:16.256)
no, I gotta work hard.

Gregory (29:17.929)
yeah, gotta put in a little extra effort. so Destiny thought they were like, you know, we'll do you a favor and everything's unlocked, everything's open, you can drop anywhere. And that's the other thing. The open world progressed without you. So if you're a returning player, while certain things are world changing, universe changing, I get that. The little nuances to the story, you were lost. You were totally lost.

Ty (29:42.786)
Cheers.

Gregory (29:44.908)
And that's where a lot of people were like, they came back and they left again because they're like they didn't incorporate it in a way that a new player can really understand what's going on. Someone coming in when Mars still existed in the beginning of D two is gonna be completely lost.

Uly (29:59.426)
Or are you started early on on D2 and then you waited till the last DLC and then you're just a big open triangle on the traveler and you're like, what the hell's going on?

Gregory (30:08.099)
Yeah, you're completely confused. You're like, what?

Ty (30:11.662)
And that goes into the whole, well, hey, Destiny wasn't really new player friendly. Well, Destiny 2 wasn't actually, yeah, no, fuck it, both of them weren't really new player friendly, right? If you didn't get that game before the first DLC dropped.

Uly (30:23.961)
Both of them.

Gregory (30:31.107)
You were FUBA.

Ty (30:33.833)
Good luck.

Uly (30:35.521)
I would just I would just tell people it's like just open up YouTube, find like the thirty minute recap video. Good luck.

Gregory (30:42.826)
Yep, and yep, good luck from there.

Ty (30:45.698)
Like get you a squad, hope for the best.

Gregory (30:49.655)
I will say this, and this is two different spectrums, but one of them is actually legitimately good writing but intentionally confusing, and then this is destiny just being destiny. It's like trying to explain the destiny lore is like trying to explain someone all the intricacies of the fate lore.

Ty (31:11.756)
Sorry.

Uly (31:14.673)
I was gonna say it's worse. It's probably trying to explain the intricacies of your D and D campaign.

Ty (31:20.269)
Nah, remember when Daniel asked me to explain fate? And he was like, just tell me what order I gotta watch it at. I was like, I can't. I was like, I can't. He's like, you just don't wanna tell me. I'm like, that's not what it is.

Uly (31:23.95)
yeah, that I

Uly (31:29.489)
I wish I could. I wish I could.

Gregory (31:31.213)
I can't No, I can't. I literally can't. And which part of the fate universe are we talking about?

Uly (31:36.989)
There we are.

Ty (31:42.018)
Like how deep in this fucking or what he wanted me to explain Jojo.

Gregory (31:45.966)
See. So yeah, it's like it's just a it's just a tangled mess of of a story. Bungie should have focused on it a lot better, but they basically just were like, hey, this is what we got. And we don't really know what we're doing with it anymore. So here you go. Have at it. But

Uly (31:46.049)
Uly (32:15.923)
Bucket, throw Pac Man in there.

Gregory (32:16.139)
I guess. Yeah. Later. Go on to our to our final segment. Where does Bungie go from here?

Ty (32:21.485)
do that.

Uly (32:22.473)
Just a giant walka walka waka waka waka.

Uly (32:31.951)
Easy, easy, easy. It's an easy fix to fix Bungie. This is what you do. You close it.

Ty (32:39.374)
Damn.

Gregory (32:41.559)
You know

Uly (32:42.369)
It's fuck to say, but like Bungie can come back. Bungie can make a comeback if they do two to three really good games. Marathon, I'm sorry, it's not a game for everyone. Those those types of games, those extraction shooters, are not a game for everyone.

Ty (32:59.736)
But that's the thing with Bungee. Bungee has never made games for everybody. okay. Halo would be in the weird red stepchild.

Uly (33:04.157)
No, no, no, hold on. I will

Ty (33:08.884)
Halo's their weird red-headed sub child that worked for everybody. But Halo, starting off, was very niche.

Uly (33:15.773)
Very much.

Ty (33:17.986)
Bungie is known for niche.

Uly (33:22.611)
They gotta do something, like they gotta make one or two not great but decent games that God make make make back into their to their original worth. 'Cause what was the what's the value they lost? Like seven hundred million dollars or something like that?

Gregory (33:38.903)
Seven hundred and tw seven hundred and sixty five impairment loss.

Ty (33:40.46)
Yeah, something around a twenty-something.

Uly (33:42.93)
Yeah, they lost their value. They lost a lot. They they're no longer like that three point six, like what, two point nine now? So they they gotta recoup that value in a way it's either either make a good game or somehow fucking MacGyver Marathon to be a one of the best games there is.

Ty (33:49.837)
Yeah.

Gregory (34:03.395)
I also will say I you know I I like Sony, but I'm also I'm not a super Sony fan. Like when they do stupid shit, I'm gonna call them out on doing stupid shit. And I think that their initial lack of involvement with Bungie was to that was a bad move because it it seemed like they just picked them up and said, now make something great. It gave them like no direction.

Ty (34:30.719)
Nah, what Sony did was they picked up a studio from their arrival and was like, we're gonna be petty bitches.

Gregory (34:37.249)
Yeah, and they did nothing with They did nothing with Bungie and they gave them no direction and it fell into total disarray. And now Sony's kind of like, Okay, you're costing us money. What are you gonna do to fix it? Yeah, I'm like, Well, I don't know, Sony maybe actually give them to work with l you know.

Uly (34:37.768)
no, that was a petty bitch move.

Ty (34:52.728)
Huh?

Ty (35:00.514)
Give it something to work with.

Uly (35:04.849)
No, they they've been throwing out ideas. Like you said, they've been throwing out ideas, and Sony's like, no, no. Fucking pick one and let's go with it. Let's let's run it.

Gregory (35:09.432)
Yeah.

Ty (35:13.634)
But again, this goes back to the whole Sony was hoping for a live service game and all their forays in live service have not fucking worked out for them. So now that they pivoted back to, hey, we want to focus on single play more single player games. You have a company that doesn't know that.

Gregory (35:24.642)
Nope.

Gregory (35:34.163)
Only and the thing is, you know, this this is marathon has been their biggest success in that realm. And that's that big of a success because they only have something like a max of like fifteen thousand concurrent players. That is not a three point six billion dollar game.

Ty (35:39.618)
Mm-hmm.

Uly (35:45.352)
Nope, 10,000. It's been at a 10,000. 10,000. I think like since launch, they've dropped. Okay, yeah, I got it right here. I'm looking at we're going by Steam Charts. It's not the most accurate, but it's the best we have to track these kinds of games. On Steam, their peak was 88,000 players. That's on Steam. And now we're currently sitting at eleven, ten thousand players. That is a big drop off in a month.

Two months.

Gregory (36:15.339)
Yeah, that's a huge tra that's a whole steep cliff fall.

Uly (36:20.829)
That is

Ty (36:22.37)
Yeah, but it's better than some of these other live services that happened this year. Look at all the live services that are DOA.

Uly (36:28.817)
Gotta have conquered.

Gregory (36:30.355)
You know what else I think too? And this is as I always do in every episode, this is just my personal thought. It's there's no facts backing it. I'm just thinking this. I think the fact that Microsoft started giving pretty much until recently, until you know the new CEO was like, Yeah, no, we're gonna stop that. when Microsoft was just giving away their IPs and PlayStation finally got their

Ty (36:32.206)
Yeah.

Gregory (36:58.645)
hands on at least one of the halos. I think Sony just kind of looked at Bungie and was like, So what do we need you for?

Ty (37:06.892)
Yeah, see.

Gregory (37:08.291)
So what do we need you for?

Uly (37:09.679)
I I love to say this though. Bungees to this day is still one of my favorite companies that does shooters right. Like I'm I'm not a fan of Marathon. I love their shooting mechanics. Like that alone makes it fun. It's just I'm not that gamer that likes to go in and potentially lose everything.

Ty (37:28.046)
I mean, this would be a whole different topic and I'm not gonna go into it. I'll talk to y'all on a personal note on that later, but it deals with FPSs in this year. I'll talk to y'all in a personal manner, not on the pod right now, because that would add like 30 minutes. Huh?

Uly (37:42.845)
Yeah, he's gonna say a lot of no no words.

Gregory (37:44.931)
It's good w when when Ty gets triggered, he gets triggered.

Uly (37:48.87)
He gets triggered.

Ty (37:49.902)
I already triggered bitches.

Uly (37:52.519)
No, he starts like if we had to edit the video, he starts starting like R two D two.

Gregory (37:57.156)
But you know, it it sucks right now. not that I think it should have existed. I still think if they were gonna keep going, it should have expanded. but Destiny three. they're stopping support literally short of ten years. It'll be nine years. It would have been ten in September of next year. So they came up short.

Uly (37:59.946)
Ha ha ha.

Gregory (38:25.685)
And that would have been a huge milestone for them. And that probably could have been enough to propel them forward.

Ty (38:34.542)
To be fair, that's a huge milestone for a lot of games. How many games you could have pulled that off?

Uly (38:37.041)
Gregory (38:37.675)
She

to to fall at the f all at what could have been a finish line and made them to the taking them to the next steps, but it it really it really sucks and it's just you know brings home the reality that you know

Nothing nothing good lasts forever. Nothing great can come from all of these consolidations of studios. While in the in the beginning it sounded exciting when your favorite developer was working with your favorite console. It was exciting.

Uly (39:16.017)
Has has any game that that that been bought out by these c developers like has any game actually been like super amazing?

Ty (39:24.194)
bought out by a developer, I can't answer that, but I'll give you a prime example of something that Greg just said. Street Fighter V was Sony exclusive because Sony fronted the bill. Street Fighter V is probably a Street Fighter that gets a lot of controversy because a lot of people either, you either loved it or you hated it. There was no in between with Street Fighter V. And the amount of work they had to go do.

even though they originally said, hey, we are not going to release a arcade edition or upgraded edition, then turn around and do that because of the fact they were losing money because it was a Sony exclusive because Sony paid for this shit. Yeah. That is an example of why a studio going, hey, we'll front the bill for this shit. It's never a good sign to me. Fucking scale bound.

Gregory (40:17.975)
Never again. Never again. Anytime I hear someone's being bought, my heart sinks. I start to cry and I say it nice. Yep, it's it's so frustrating, but what do you guys think? Is it you you give it done? No. They closed the studio. So

Ty (40:26.286)
Panic a little.

Uly (40:36.199)
I'm still trying to think of a game. I'm I'm like Hi Fi Hi Fi Rush.

Ty (40:38.552)
you

Uly (40:42.503)
They closed the studio. Yeah, I forgot. It's it was a great game. I I don't know why they shut it down.

Ty (40:42.968)
Tango Studio got shut down. Hi-Fi Rest was one of my favorite fucking games of 2023.

Gregory (40:50.251)
Exactly. So even if they don't care. Yeah.

Ty (40:51.302)
you don't know it lost money tango lost money Tango lost money being an Xbox exclusive and then they ended up shifting it over to the PlayStation But they still lost so much money that the studio ended up shooting down long time shutting down long time Right pisses me the fuck off because high-fi rush was probably one of the perfect platforming action games with a music component. Fuck you

Uly (40:52.997)
No, I no. of course. No course.

Uly (41:15.081)
I was like like I'm here like dude the Bethesda got bought out the first game they released, not good. Bungie got bought out. Destiny didn't really settle up to the hype after that.

Gregory (41:16.323)
Yeah.

Ty (41:28.47)
Look at respawn. That's all I'm going to Just look at respawn.

Uly (41:30.663)
Okay. Yeah. Don't

Gregory (41:30.859)
Yeah. We're not even gonna go. We are not even gonna go in that rival. But final thought, not Mungie related, and I I I we gotta touch on it really, really quick because it's just too funny to ignore. How how you think the GTA fans are feeling at this point? 'Cause I can I just say

Ty (41:51.586)
Like Tina Turner? I'm sorry.

Uly (41:53.998)
Wa Wa

Gregory (41:56.807)
So anyway,

Ty (42:01.314)
That was an Ike joke for anybody that didn't know.

Gregory (42:04.099)
All I'm gonna say, and I know the keyboard warriors are ready to type away, and you will probably argue with me on this. That's fine. I will take your tears in my glass and drink them with joy in my heart. Thank you for the ad revenue. if you guys want GTA 6 to drop, you have got to stop playing GTA Online. You've got to stop playing GTA Online. How are the two related?

Ty (42:29.642)
Not gonna happen, but yep.

Gregory (42:33.097)
If you had a cow that you could milk for billions of dollars, and then a new cow comes along and they say, Yeah, this new cow will make you money, but you you gotta stop milking that cow that's guaranteed to make you money in order to milk this one. You can't do them both at the same time. What do you think you're gonna do? Are you gonna stop milking?

Ty (42:55.842)
Well, the GTA V cow looks like a runway model in 1986.

Gregory (43:03.997)
As long as that cow is making them billions of dollars. Because here's what people don't understand. GTA six is coming out at an increased price because they already know when GTA six comes out, GTA 5, GTA Online, all of it is going to take a huge drop. It's going to be instantaneous. And they are not looking forward to that monetary descent.

It's going to be small over the time frame, but it's still a huge amount of money. They're not willing to lose. So what they're trying to do is compensate by raising the price of the game. And then they realize, okay, well, even if everyone spends $100 on a game, that's not even going to be a fraction of what they make off of GTA Online. Not even close. So they're still trying to figure out a way to put the game out.

And not lose all the money they make off of GTA Online. Because what everyone's gonna want when GTA 6 comes out is GTA 6 online. And no one is going to be comfortable going back to GTA Online when they've got GTA 6 in their systems. And as

Uly (44:20.371)
Well they don't gotta have the data to to hold G T A online and G T six.

Gregory (44:25.943)
Yeah. Most people who are like super dedicated will probably go back. But most players, like we said earlier, they got ADHD. They're not gonna go backwards. They're not

Ty (44:36.822)
Listen man, I got my trap house in five. What you talking about?

Gregory (44:40.035)
They're not gonna go backwards, especially with and we've got what they announced it in twenty twenty three and we've only got two trailers. I'm just saying if you

Uly (44:49.683)
Something like that.

Ty (44:50.862)
Yeah.

Uly (44:54.057)
Well, let me see.

Ty (44:56.108)
Yeah, let's look so someone's not like, y'all have Google right there.

Gregory (44:59.723)
Yeah, right. Sure, it was announced in 2023. And we've only gotten two trailers. The pre-orders were supposed to come out on the 19th. They didn't. Now there's rumors that it's gonna come out again in the beginning of next year. If you want to know where I'm getting this idea from, if you don't know because you're a console player, just ask how abusive the Star Citizen relationship is.

Uly (45:24.405)
God, don't so all right. There was there was confirmation. Confirmation twenty twenty two, announcement in December twenty twenty three.

Ty (45:26.824)
I mean, do you want me to say it? I can say it.

Gregory (45:26.842)
Ask anyone.

Gregory (45:35.648)
Okay. Confirmation twenty twenty two. Announcement twenty twenty three. Got it. So I'm just if you guys don't if you want an example of a s a game that has been pushing back its full release because they make more money not releasing the game, Star Citizen. Just look at this just literally type Star Citizen and look up any article about the biggest scam in gaming history.

Ty (45:42.754)
meaning.

Ty (45:59.021)
Yeah.

Uly (46:04.723)
Mixtape.

Ty (46:06.072)
But do you blame them? I don't.

Gregory (46:10.227)
And the thing is, I don't I don't like that they're doing it, but I can't blame them because if it's working and people aren't putting two and two together, at that point it's on us. So I'm

Ty (46:22.594)
Yeah, cause Star Citizen is making so much money off of a beta.

Uly (46:23.517)
Coming from two of the people that paid for that game.

Gregory (46:27.863)
Yeah. If you want either of those games to come out, you've got to stop playing what they're milking you for. You gotta stop playing GTA five GTA online and you gotta stop playing Star Citizen in Gyro. Just yeah, like 'cause both of them are making money. So why would they ruin their formula that is a proven to work?

Ty (46:49.816)
Good God.

Gregory (46:55.169)
I'm just just it's just my little rant on that one 'cause I was like, that's the only reason we're not getting GTA six yet. People keep playing GTA online and paying it.

Ty (47:03.602)
I to be fair, again, I have my trap house. I haven't touched the game in a long time, but I have my trap house.

Gregory (47:04.611)
I promise if See?

Uly (47:06.973)
To be found.

Uly (47:14.249)
How many of us has the goddamn the the base with the orbital cannon on it? my bad.

Gregory (47:14.615)
Gregory (47:19.639)
Not I I got nothing.

Ty (47:22.594)
I don't. I sold it.

Uly (47:25.129)
Well, Greg, just watch out when you play with me in the near future.

Gregory (47:27.135)
No, the early days before before they had the guardrails in place to help people that didn't want to get grief the day they got on. I couldn't stand it. I was like I got on, it was like day two of it being online and it was just a lawless zone. I couldn't I couldn't even walk five feet without someone already having an RP PG and blowing me up as soon as I came out of the police station or whatever. It was annoying.

Never went back.

Uly (47:57.242)
good times.

Ty (47:58.894)
I don't agree people

Gregory (47:59.497)
Wait baggage. That's probably you probably

Uly (48:02.748)
It. Definitely me.

Ty (48:04.098)
But a bitch can get hit with a drive-by if they fuck with me too much.

Gregory (48:08.791)
But yeah, so

Ty (48:10.924)
Yeah people, we say all that to say this, stop playing GTA Online if you want Six to come out because Six ain't coming out if I can make a billion dollars off of all online.

Gregory (48:20.353)
Just saying. Just saying.

Uly (48:21.321)
Consistently.

Gregory (48:23.809)
But that's it for Chop Shop for today. The Dest C two air is closing and whatever comes next for Bungie, we'll be watching.

Uly (48:32.521)
Do you think they'll still call them shark cards or they'll call them iguana cards when GTA Six Online comes out?

Ty (48:32.792)
Godspeed.

Gregory (48:39.341)
We get it to come out first.

But anyway, make sure you're subscribed to Press Play Gaming Newsletter so you never miss a beat. Until next week, take care of yourself and each other. Later.