On Wednesday, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced in a blog post on the company’s website that the studio is implementing another significant round of layoffs, reducing its workforce by 220 positions, or about 17% of its staff.
“It has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon,” he said, as well as outlining the major shift the studio is making and detailing their deeper integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Over the next few quarters, 155 current roles at Bungie will integrate with SIE. This is to retain as much talent as possible and lessening the impact of the layoffs. “SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify roles for as many of our people as possible,” Parsons noted. The affected employees will be given “generous” exit packages, including severance pay, bonuses, and health coverage, something that was substantially missing during the company’s last round of layoffs.
According to Parsons, many factors contributed to this round of layoffs, including an economic slowdown, a “downturn in the gaming industry”, and quality issues with Destiny 2: Lightfall. The company’s goal to develop games in three major franchises led to several incubation projects, stretching the talent and support structures beyond their limit. Parsons explained, “We eventually realized that this model stretched our talent too thin, too quickly. It also forced our studio support structures to scale to a larger level than we could realistically support.”
“We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red,” he said. “After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough.”
Also coming out of this letter, however, was a new game announcement. Bungie is working with PlayStation Studios to spin out one of its yet-to-be-titled incubation projects into a brand new studio within PlayStation Studios itself. This action game is set in a new science-fantasy universe and will continue development under Sony’s watch.
Bungie still employs over 850 people who are currently developing new content for Destiny and Marathon.
“This will be a time of tremendous change for our studio,” Parsons said, “but we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players’ expectations.”
What are your thoughts on the Bungie’s current round of layoffs and the continuing threat of layoffs at these major studios? Let us know in the comments or in our Discord Community.
Read our Destiny 2: The Final Shape Review here.
Source: Bungie.net Blog
Corey Dirrig is the Founder and President of Boss Rush Media. He is the host of The Boss Rush Podcast, Nintendo Pow Block, Tower Casuals: The Destiny Podcast, and cohosts a variety of other podcasts and content. You can follow Corey on Bluesky, on X/Twitter, and on Instagram or connect with him on LinkedIn for Business Inquiries.
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