Helldivers 2 is a “huge success” while Destiny 2 falls short — Sony’s expectations of Bungie don’t magically equate to revenue

Sony recently shared a detailed report with investors about its gaming performance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. Notably, the report even mentioned Xbox, which is unusual. Despite some challenges, Sony still expects to see a 3% increase in sales, reaching approximately $29.8 billion for the year. This growth is largely attributed to favorable exchange rates.

Sony’s operating income remained around $3.3 billion despite a $200 million impact from tariffs this quarter. The company noted the continued strength of the PlayStation platform, with monthly active users rising 3% to 119 million and overall playtime increasing by 1% during the quarter.

Games that are constantly updated with new content, known as live-service titles, are now a huge part of our business, bringing in over 40% of our revenue from first-party software. We’ve seen very different results from two of our biggest live-service games: Helldivers 2 has become incredibly popular since launching on Xbox, but Destiny 2 hasn’t performed as well, leading to financial losses for Bungie.

Helldivers 2 became available on Xbox on August 26, 2025, and it quickly proved to be a hit. Initial sales figures indicated over 900,000 copies were sold in the first six days on the platform. This is a significant increase compared to its original PlayStation launch, which saw around 633,000 units sold in the same timeframe.

As an analyst, I’ve been closely watching Helldivers 2, and the initial strong launch clearly wasn’t a fluke. We saw continued player engagement on Xbox throughout September and October – it wasn’t just a week-one surge. This data indicates the game successfully attracted a significant new audience on the platform, and the decision to expand cross-platform availability is demonstrably working.

Sony confirmed this in its Q2 FY2025 report. It said:

Helldiver 2 has been very successful since its release on Xbox in August. It’s not only bringing in new players on Xbox, but also getting more people to play on PlayStation 5 and PC, leading to a big jump in overall sales compared to last year.

Sony Q2 FY2025

The language used hints that Sony was surprised by how well competing hardware is doing. This also makes us wonder how Sony will handle future game releases. Since Microsoft is planning a console that combines Xbox and PC gaming, PlayStation games are already accessible on that device through Steam. To earn extra money without harming its own PlayStation platform, Sony could logically release more of its older games directly on the Xbox Series X|S.

Bungie hasn’t been the success Sony wanted

In 2022, Sony invested heavily in Bungie, purchasing the game studio for $3.6 billion while letting it continue to run on its own. But in May 2025, Bungie faced criticism and controversy.

The upcoming game Marathon, a shooter that has received some negative feedback, was discovered to have improperly used artwork created by an independent artist. The game studio apologized and promised to thoroughly check all of its game assets. Shortly after, in August, Sony announced that Bungie, the studio developing Marathon, was becoming less independent as it became more integrated with Sony’s operations.

During a recent earnings call, Sony spoke directly about the drop in Destiny 2’s player numbers and overall performance. They stated:

Destiny 2 hasn’t performed as well as we hoped since we acquired Bungie, partly because of shifts in the competitive gaming landscape. While we’re still working to improve the game, we’ve lowered our financial expectations and taken an accounting loss on some of Bungie’s assets.

Sony Q2 FY2025

Sony’s recent financial report for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 revealed a $204 million loss related to the game Destiny 2, and an additional $118 million in adjustments to development costs for its gaming division. Sony explained that these losses occurred because Destiny 2 didn’t perform as well as they had anticipated after acquiring the game’s developer, Bungie.

FAQ

Is Helldivers 2 actually selling better on Xbox than it did on PlayStation?

Initial sales figures indicate Helldivers 2 is performing better on Xbox in its first six days than it did on PlayStation when it first launched. While Sony hasn’t shared exact numbers, they’ve confirmed the game is a big success.

Why is Destiny 2 considered underperforming by Sony?

Sony reported that Destiny 2 isn’t performing as well as they’d hoped since they bought Bungie, with both sales and player activity falling short of their initial projections.

Does this mean Bungie is no longer independent?

While Bungie still functions as its own company, Sony has indicated that it’s becoming less independent as the two companies work more closely together.

Did the Marathon asset controversy affect Sony’s financials?

Sony hasn’t stated the Boston Marathon bombing directly caused the write-down. However, the company did receive public backlash earlier in the year when unofficial artwork appeared in the game.

Did Sony directly confirm that Helldivers 2 is a success on Xbox?

Sony reports that Helldivers 2 is performing very strongly on Xbox, bringing in new players and increasing activity on PlayStation 5 and PC.

2025-11-11 15:52