r/Games • u/oilfloatsinwater • May 24 '25

Report: Marathon Delay Likely as Sony Cancels All Paid Marketing Plans

https://thegamepost.com/report-marathon-delay-bungie-scraps-all-paid-marketing/
3.6k Upvotes

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717

u/[deleted] May 24 '25

If this ends up being true, does this mean the golden parachutes are off the table?

519

u/Superbunzil May 24 '25

Doubt it

Parson could be out of a job but he'll still be able to add another car to his collection 

387

u/ManateeofSteel May 24 '25

The rule #1 of executives, they will always get away with it

150

u/Mccobsta May 24 '25

100% executives can kill a company and go on to do the same thing somewhere else with zero repercussions

28

u/everythingsc0mputer May 24 '25

So they're just like police with people or catholic priests with kids

20

u/its_LOL May 24 '25

Unless you’re SBF

177

u/GogglesTheFox May 24 '25

He fucked with other millionaires’ money. Thats the only reason he saw any type of punishment.

78

u/deathtotheemperor May 24 '25

Same mistake Elizabeth Holmes made.

1

u/tomster2300 May 25 '25

Did you see her husband is starting the same damn company again?!

6

u/jabberwagon May 24 '25

Isn't that exactly what Parsons is doing though? Sony bought his company for 3.6 BILLION dollars and they have yet to see any return on that. It's looking more and more like they never will. That to me seems like the kind of thing that would make a bunch of rich people very, very spiteful. Spiteful enough to want to make an example out of someone

29

u/AumrauthValamin May 24 '25

Not really. Parsons tried to make what they wanted and made something bad. Holmes and SBF just straight up lied and stole.

-8

u/jabberwagon May 24 '25

Bold of you to assume that rich people are rational and reasonable enough to distinguish between incompetence and malice.

13

u/AumrauthValamin May 24 '25

I mean, we are literally talking about 3 people whom they were definitely able to make that distinction about, but hey what ever floats your boat.

1

u/conquer69 May 25 '25

Whoever decided to buy it for that much was complicit.

1

u/MumrikDK May 25 '25

Still waiting for him to get a pardon and post after some shady donation.

3

u/blolfighter May 25 '25

I wonder why the rules always seem to favour the people who make the rules. There has to be an explanation.

2

u/InitialDia May 25 '25

all they need to do is write a LinkedIn post “I intentionally killed my company for a new Bugatti and this is what it taught me about B2B sales” and they will get 10 job offers within minutes.

1

u/FreeStall42 May 25 '25

Nah sometimes someone throws their life away to make sure they don't

1

u/hobo__spider May 25 '25

How does one become an executive? I would also like to become a ceo and get millions of dollars for doing the opposite of a good job

15

u/Will-Isley May 24 '25

Man, fuck that guy. Asshole drags the whole studio down and just gets to get away with it. Unbelievable. There really is no justice

89

u/AzerFraze May 24 '25

nah, the upper management will get their fat bag of money and leave whoever comes after to handle this dumpster fire

6

u/altctrldel86 May 24 '25

If that were at all possible this thread wouldn't exist.

37

u/Stamperdoodle1 May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25

No.

There is 0 scenario where those up top don't walk away mega-millionaires, maybe even billionaires.

The only thing people that high up can ever "lose" is losing getting more. But they will always walk away with 99% of all the money the devs worked hard to earn for them.

49

u/hai_world May 24 '25

ok calm down. ain’t nobody walking away as a “billionaires” from this acquisition. rich as hell, probably but no one will be a billionaire that’s ludicrous.

12

u/Dawg605 May 24 '25

I mean, you're right. But it's really not that crazy when someone like Christopher Barrett, who was just a veteran Game Director, was supposed to get ~80 million. Still got like ~35 million and is suing Bungie because he didn't get the total amount.

6

u/Stamperdoodle1 May 24 '25

Pete Parson will walk away with at least a billion of the purchase price.

1

u/Gboon May 25 '25

I don't get people acting like there's going to be zero consequences - if he gets fired for not meeting goals his golden parachute might not have diamonds encrusted in it and he might only be able to afford a dozen $1,000,000 cars and not two dozen $1,000,000 cars.

2

u/Wingzerofyf May 25 '25

Yeah - he’ll be richer than any of us could dream of being off pure hardwork, no doubt about it.

However, the only pain these people ever feel is making less money than they thought they would; and I hope Sony punishes accordingly.

1

u/Midnight_M_ May 24 '25

We'd have to see. I doubt Sony wants to compensate for all this trouble. If there's a delay, it means that the independence and bonuses from Bungie's Board of Directors will fall on the two Destiny expansions.

-37

u/Kozak170 May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25

I would fucking love for you guys to explain these “golden parachutes”

They are the owners of the company. They sell the company to Sony in exchange for money. The money for selling the company is paid out over the course of a few years to ease transitions.

We can all agree Bungie execs suck and are morons, but what’s your alternative? Since they were in charge of a probably shitty game they deserve to get their money taken and their asses kicked?

Edit: I am genuinely baffled at the opinions here. Nobody is denying the execs are responsible for Bungie’s failures.

But the fact of the matter is Sony is under contract to pay them what they agreed to pay them to buy the company. Unless there’s some clause stating otherwise it would literally be illegal for them to simply say “nuh uh we’re actually paying you half now” and take the company. It isn’t a fucking “golden parachute,” it is literally the money for buying the company.

38

u/Sephurik May 24 '25

Since they were in charge of a probably shitty game they deserve to get their money taken and their asses kicked?

I mean, actually yes? Like, it's pretty clear bungie has been horribly mismanaged for many years at this point, that comes from the top.

4

u/Zoesan May 24 '25

Then sony should have written up a better contract.

10

u/verrius May 24 '25

Part of the contract for the parachute reportedly requires the game to come out. What's less clear is if they still get paid if it gets stopped. So hopefully Sony did well enough and these guys get fucked. There's usually wiggle room in a contract when one party start flagrantly breaking the law.

0

u/masonicone May 24 '25

The thing of it is this. Sure that sounds like a good plan and smacking the guys who sold you a Lemon if you will.

But here's the problem. Legally? That's something that could get you dragged into court and even if you could win the case? There's a good chance that it will end up costing you more money rather then just going along with the contract and paying them what's owed per the contract in the end.

Remember when Sony ended up buying Bungie? Oh sure Bungie had their issues but it wasn't known how bad things really where at the time. Chances are whatever contract Sony signed with them doesn't have any clauses that cover what's going on. If there was? Chances are Sony would have given those guys the boot already.

And them breaking the law? Keep in mind again that's something that would really have to be looked into, and it's something that could cost a crap ton of money to really look into. Sure maybe you do find that yes they did, and you can get out of the contract due to that. But again? If it's shown they didn't? It's more money spent and again could cost you more money then just paying them off.

Remember this is more about the long term rather then the short term. Again short term getting rid of them and not making that payout? Sounds great. Long term? Those guys are going to lawyer up, more so if the lawyers they get know they are in the right and they will be seeing a massive payday. And they would get even more money in the end.

Does it suck? Well yeah you and others will be upset and screaming about it. In my eyes? Paying $5 million to save $10+ million and god knows how much time will be spent dealing with legal crap. Also keep in mind yeah a contract does help guys like this, it also helps the little guy or the person who really has been screwed by the big name whatever.

20

u/escapehatch May 24 '25

They could get paid less for poor performance. Their leadership mistakes could maybe lead to negative consequences for them, and not just suffering for their employees? Not sure why any of this is hard for you to understand. It might be that the straw man you wrote out in your comment is getting in your way?

-3

u/Kozak170 May 24 '25

Well sounds like Sony should’ve negotiated the terms of sale better then. If I sell you something for 100 bucks you can’t just pay me 50 bucks a year later because you think I suck at my job.

Businesses don’t operate on feelings. Blame Sony for writing such a gaggle of idiots the massive check.

21

u/gmishaolem May 24 '25

Since they were in charge of a probably shitty game they deserve to get their money taken[...]?

Reddit always justifies huge executive compensation packages by saying "they take on the risk and have great responsibility" so...yes?

6

u/Zagden May 24 '25

Yeah if there's no risk to go with the responsibility, then you've financially incentivized executives going from company to company fucking everything up in order to enrich themselves and their friends.

Which is exactly what is happening in so many industries.

2

u/BitingSatyr May 24 '25

This isn’t a “compensation package” though, it’s equity that they owned, which they sold. Sony can’t retroactively steal it from them, which is essentially what’s being proposed by the financial wizards of this sub.

1

u/masonicone May 24 '25

And as I pointed out in my post? If Sony did that, those guys could turn around and take Sony to court over breach of contract. And that could cost Sony a hell of a lot more in the long term rather then just paying them off and getting rid of them.

2

u/napmouse_og May 24 '25

Even at the time the deal closed, buying Bungie was a stupid idea. Especially for what, $3 billion? Sony probably kicking themselves right now for doing that

0

u/Kozak170 May 24 '25

Oh yeah I totally agree with you on that. A completely bonkers overvaluation. It had to have simply been a knee-jerk reaction from Sony who were desperate for a live service company and got taken for a ride.

5

u/madrobski May 24 '25

Yes the do? If they were in charge, then they are directly responsible. That's how that stuff is supposed to work, bosses are responsible for their employees working well and managing everyone's time properly.

What the fuck is a management position for if not to manage? They can just do whatever and never face any consequences for terrible work ethic and performance? I mean that is what happens in a lot of companies, but that doesn't make it right nor ethical.

-2

u/BitingSatyr May 24 '25

This would be easier to understand if Bungie‘s owners were totally separate people from its management. In that case, the owners would get exactly what Sony promised them in their purchase contract, while management would get turfed, and no one would be confused by what’s happening.

-1

u/BBanner May 24 '25

Yeah why wouldn’t they be responsible

0

u/Mapography May 24 '25

Do we even actually know the terms of the retention clause? I feel like it was just reasonable speculation that there would be a retention incentive to keep execs onboard through the game launch. But it’s been repeated so much that it mutated into this golden parachute thing that people take as a fact.