Destiny 2 developer Bungie has announced new large-scale layoffs and restructuring to bring down its total workforce.
In a post on the company’s official website, Bungie revealed that it’s letting go 220 people from the company, or roughly 17% of the workforce. On top of the layoffs, 155 people will be moved over to Sony while another 75 will be moved to a new studio.
“Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie,” CEO Pete Parsons said. “Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.”
Parsons says that the changes to bring the company from 1,300 employees to 850 will “support [Bungie’s] focus, leverage Sony’s strengths, and create new opportunities for Bungie talent”.
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Why Did Bungie Make The Layoffs?
As far as how Bungie got to the point of needing to make these mass layoffs and move talent, Parsons says that a number of factors played into the decisions.
“For over five years, it has been our goal to ship games in three enduring, global franchises,” he said. “To realize that ambition, we set up several incubation projects, each seeded with senior development leaders from our existing teams. 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, given our two primary products in development – Destiny and Marathon.
“Additionally, in 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, our quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the need to give both The Final Shape and Marathon the time needed to ensure both projects deliver at the quality our players expect and deserve. We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red.”
It’s then said that a change of “course and speed” was needed. Despite doing “everything” they could to avoid the layoffs, it wasn’t enough, according to Parsons.
Insider Gaming has reached out to Sony for comment on the Bungie layoffs.
What do you make of the layoffs at Bungie? Let us know in the comments below.
Just close Bungie down already it seems the acquisition is hurting the other studios and shut down EVO too
Bungie has the right to be spun off again they should take that opportunity or see if a buyer can take them off Sony