The days of joy and excitement at Bungie appear to be over. Now, it seems to be a place of dread and woe.
In a new report from IGN, the morale at Bungie is said to be “soul-crushing” after the latest round of layoffs and delays at the studio. There’s also worry about a complete takeover of the studio by Sony.
According to the report, Bungie is “struggling to meet the necessary targets to keep its last vestige of freedom” from Sony. Recently, it was announced that Destiny 2 The Final Shape was delayed from February into June, pushing it out of the current fiscal year. There’s also work on the upcoming Marathon reboot that is receiving heavy investment.
RELATED: Bungie Releases Official Statement After Staff Layoffs
With the morale within the studio being low, IGN’s Rebekah Valentine reports that management within the studio doesn’t seem to be trying to improve it.
Sources told her that when employees expressed their “frustration and sadness” about the layoffs, many were met with “a surprising amount of indifference or even outright flippancy or hostility from management.” There also wasn’t any sort of guarantee that more layoffs weren’t coming while many said they were discouraged from talking about the layoffs.
One source said that those still at Bungie expect more layoffs if The Final Shape doesn’t do well when it’s released. That coincides with overheard discussions of possible outsourcing of work from Bungie.
“Multiple individuals across various departments told [IGN] they’d heard discussions within their teams of plans to increase outsourcing both before and in the wake of the layoffs,” the report reads.
What do you think of the state of things over at Bungie with company morale seemingly being at an all-time low? For more Insider Gaming, check out the latest on the closure of Insurgency developer New World Interactive.
