You guys - Sony just laid off nearly half of Destiny 2's development team at Bungie after last year's failure and still claims they will "bravely keep sending live services out". Let me break down what this actually means before anyone dismisses it as corporate speak, because the numbers alone are alarming. Roughly 185 people were laid off by late December from a team that should have been at least double that size for Destiny's scale — we're talking about one of the highest-selling games in history and its live service backbone just got cut in half. This wasn't an isolated hit either; it happened alongside Sony cancelling eight out of twelve live services planned for 2025, which is a clear signal that their entire GaaS strategy at PlayStation is under massive internal pressure right now even as they double down publicly on the commitment to continue building them.
Shigeru Yasuda - former Sony exec and industry veteran who has been vocal about why this fight matters — defended live services by pointing out that "live service and multiplayer work, but they require immense dedication" and he's seen both sides of this story as someone who was once at Bungie's inner circle. His defense carries weight because he understands the difference between a good idea and an executed one. Sony claims it will keep sending live services ahead while cutting behind the scenes, which is not bravery - it's managing decline under pressure. The remaining Destinarians are working roughly double capacity now to maintain Destiny 2 even as its developer count dropped from over 300 down toward 165 and each team member takes on twice the workload to compensate for the layoffs. Live services fail when they can no longer get fresh content, and that's what happens when you cut half a dev team - there just isn't anyone left to add new things because everyone else is busy maintaining the old stuff.
The DWS saga adds another layer of complexity to whether this fight will ever be won. Epic Games sued Bungie over Destiny World Entertainment Systems (DWS) in 2016 and lost, which means Activision/Blizzard now owns the IP's live service rights - a messy legal tangle that has plagued Sony for years. This isn't just a new failure; it's an old one replaying under different management with fresh paint on it. So when you hear "bravely keep sending" I want to stop and ask what that actually means in practice: will Destiny 2 get better or is this the slow burn of a service getting worse until it dies? That's not a matter of opinion - it's going to become observable over the next year, and we should pay attention because live services are how many people play Sony games every day.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/sony-games-boss-says-company-will-bravely-keep-sending-live-services-over-the-top-despite-cancelling-8-of-the-12-ones-planned-for-2025-and-wiping-out-most-of-Destiny-2s-developers/
Shigeru Yasuda - former Sony exec and industry veteran who has been vocal about why this fight matters — defended live services by pointing out that "live service and multiplayer work, but they require immense dedication" and he's seen both sides of this story as someone who was once at Bungie's inner circle. His defense carries weight because he understands the difference between a good idea and an executed one. Sony claims it will keep sending live services ahead while cutting behind the scenes, which is not bravery - it's managing decline under pressure. The remaining Destinarians are working roughly double capacity now to maintain Destiny 2 even as its developer count dropped from over 300 down toward 165 and each team member takes on twice the workload to compensate for the layoffs. Live services fail when they can no longer get fresh content, and that's what happens when you cut half a dev team - there just isn't anyone left to add new things because everyone else is busy maintaining the old stuff.
The DWS saga adds another layer of complexity to whether this fight will ever be won. Epic Games sued Bungie over Destiny World Entertainment Systems (DWS) in 2016 and lost, which means Activision/Blizzard now owns the IP's live service rights - a messy legal tangle that has plagued Sony for years. This isn't just a new failure; it's an old one replaying under different management with fresh paint on it. So when you hear "bravely keep sending" I want to stop and ask what that actually means in practice: will Destiny 2 get better or is this the slow burn of a service getting worse until it dies? That's not a matter of opinion - it's going to become observable over the next year, and we should pay attention because live services are how many people play Sony games every day.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/sony-games-boss-says-company-will-bravely-keep-sending-live-services-over-the-top-despite-cancelling-8-of-the-12-ones-planned-for-2025-and-wiping-out-most-of-Destiny-2s-developers/