Sony Backs ‘Marathon’ Even After $765 Million In Bungie Impairment Losses

InnovationGamingSony Backs ‘Marathon’ Even After $765 Million In Bungie Impairment LossesByPaul Tassi,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet.Follow AuthorMay 08, 2026, 09:04am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.MarathonBungieWhile most of Sony’s recent earnings news this week was positive, there was one very glaring red mark in the books. That would be Bungie, for which Sony revealed another $565 million in impairment losses, joining the $200 million it had announced previously. Despite that, Sony said it is backing Bungie’s recent underperforming release, Marathon, and continues to support the studio. But there’s a lot to dissect here, so let’s go through it. What is now $765 million dollars in impairment losses against Bungie is not something as simple as “Bungie games are $765 million in the red.” Rather, what impairment losses are doing is acknowledging that Bungie is not as valuable an asset as Sony thought it was when it bought it for $3.6 billion, so it keeps knocking that number down.Sony, looking ahead to FY2026, says it believes those impairment losses for Bungie will be absent, or at least way less than the 120.1 billion yen/$565 million from this year. It remains rather wild that Sony ever thought Bungie was worth $3.6 billion, which was eyebrow-raising at the time, and from an outside perspective, it still seems that it’s probably worth less than Sony is saying, especially given recent events.Despite this, Sony has at least publicly backed Bungie’s continued work on Marathon, saying: “Player reception to Marathon is strong, receiving a Metacritic score of 82 and more than 90% of the player reviews on Steam being positive. Engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level. Going forward, we aim to improve the performance of the game b...