We know that Bungie has just completed a rather substantial round of layoffs at the company. The news broke yesterday when the Destiny 2 maker confirmed that 100 staff members would be let go from the studio and that both in-development projects have been delayed. Destiny 2: The Final Shape has been pushed back into June 2024 and the recently-announced Marathon game has been delayed into 2025.
What Bungie hasn’t shared yet is how the staff layoffs took place. According to direct reports from staff members, Bungie employees had been “begging” management to make necessary changes across Destiny 2 in order to bring players back into the game. Staff claim that Destiny 2 player sentiment was at an all-time low and there were lower-than-expected pre-order numbers for Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
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Due to this forecast, Bungie cut down staff by 8% resulting in around 100 people being let go without any notice at all. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons says that the company had kept “the right people” to work on Destiny 2 going forward. This is in an attempt to fix the 45% drop in revenue projections for the year ahead.
Under the surface, there’s a lot more going on than the average layoffs. Staff claim that Bungie has been recklessly spending money on unnecessary things. One of which is the studio’s new and very expensive headquarters.
Staff also claim that Bungie didn’t notify them at all about being let go. They arrived at the office to read an email with the news. They weren’t allowed to share any information online and by the time they packed up and left, their ID card had already been deactivated.
Additional reports claim that Bungie arranged the layoffs specifically for the 30th of October to avoid extra employee benefit costs. If staff were fired on the 1st of November, Bungie would have to fit the bill for another month of benefits. Essentially, staff only had one day remaining.
Reports also claim that Sony had nothing to do with these layoffs. The company purchased Bungie in 2022 and is now officially the owner of the Destiny 2 maker. However, staff who were at the studio when the acquisition took place claimed that they were promised bonuses and shares. That will no longer happen now due to the layoffs.
Other reports say that these layoffs are actually linked to Sony’s revamp which the company is currently undergoing. This revamp is focused on cutting down costs by reducing staff across a number of studios. Bungie included.
Fans are clearly upset about the news. Even more so given how negative the feelings were against Activision when the publisher dropped Bungie in 2019. Many seem to think that perhaps Bungie was the issue all along.
