Update [Wed 1st Nov, 2023 00:00 GMT]:
Following the initial announcement of layoffs at Bungie, a new report by Bloomberg has now revealed the the decision was made to cut "an estimated 100 jobs", which equates to about 8% of staff overall at the PlayStation-owned studio.
There was apparently a meeting a few weeks ago, where executives revealed Bungie was running 45% below its revenue projections for the year. After the release of the Lightfall expansion, Destiny 2 has struggled to retain players. The next expansion 'The Final Shape' has been pushed back from February to June next year.
Employees who have been let go will apparently receive "at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid" health insurance but other benefits apparently ended on Monday. However, it seems many are set to lose shares. Here's how Bloomberg explains it:
"Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month."
The layoffs at Bungie are reportedly part of a "larger-money saving initiative" currently taking place within PlayStation, with various other studios impacted.
Original story [Tue 31st Oct, 2023 00:00 GMT]:
There's some concerning news coming out of Sony today, with the studio behind Destiny 2 (and former Halo developer), Bungie reportedly letting go of an "undisclosed number of staffers".
This information comes from Bloomberg, and is according to "people with knowledge of the matter". The source has also seen an email issued by Bungie Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons who informed the studio's employees they would be "hearing some news today" and a team meeting would follow. This has since been confirmed by Parsons, who said it was a "sad day" for the company:
Bungie has most recently pushed back its next Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, which will no longer make the current fiscal year and its revival of the Marathon series, which will reportedly be an extraction shooter, has now apparently slipped back to a 2025 release.
Sony only acquired Bungie last February for the sum of $3.6 billion, at the time Bungie said the potential for its universes with Sony Interactive Entertainment was "unlimited". PlayStation has also recently said goodbye to a number of key figures including boss Jim Ryan and veteran Connie Booth.
If we hear any updates, we'll let you know.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 22
It's always saddening to hear when staff are laid off, especially those with tons of industry experience, like Liana Ruppert. 😭
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@GuyinPA75
How so? I play a lot of Destiny 2 but I'll admit that I don't really keep abreast of the social media and/or community side of Bungie.
@Strawbnyan @Markatron84 Her days at Game Informer. If anyone brings up or hints to her name there, that comment gets deleted immediately. So pretty sure she did not "choose" to leave there. And if shown the door, she honestly brought it on herself and deserved the boot.
Not be surprised if my comment here about her is deleted as well.
@Strawbnyan If you were around for her Game Informer days you would absolutely see everything I said.
@GuyinPA75 all he's asking for is an example. The industry cannot burry everything.
@GuyinPA75 so you're not willing to actually provide examples of her behaviour, despite numerous requests, nor can anyone find examples of said behaviour when they look? One would think that if you feel that strongly about it, you'd be eager to prove it or at least give specific examples. This just sounds like a forum and/or comments section disagreement in which you felt slighted in some way and are holding resentment over, to be honest.
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@GuyinPA75
No one was asking you to recount years' worth of this woman's online transgressions; you're not under oath 🤣
We were simply asking for actual examples that provided more information than "she was a b*tch at Game Informer", because you claimed to have some insight into both what she's like as a person and her career and/or online presence prior to joining Bungie.
To be honest, most of what you said in your last post - by your own admission - sounds like conjecture and, as you put it, your own "observations". Hell, at least half of your last post was you assuming things or speculating about her home and work life.
Perhaps the reason your comments regarding this woman keep getting deleted is because you're so quick to badmouth her, all while remaining overly vague until pushed on the matter and still providing very little to no proof as to why she's such a bad person. Just my observation.
It’s sad that they’re losing players and having to make cuts. I wish that I could get back into Destiny, but the difficult ramp to start the new content is just way too high for me. I keep getting killed in the first dark zone.
Remember when Activision owned Bungie and they were downtrodden under the foot of their oppressors? Since gaining independence they’ve been an even worse, disgraceful, anti consumer dev in their own right. Anyone who thinks Bungie was a good acquisition for PlayStation is very narrow minded.
They’re one of the most disgusting development teams out there and have been for years now. Bungies best years are waaaay behind them. I’m not gonna pretend to be sad that people there are losing their jobs.
Couldn’t get into destiny. I liked their work on Halo but I think they could have worked on other projects besides just destiny in the last decade.
343 shoulb employ them, same thing for the innovative should employ naughty dogs layed off employees to suck some the expériences those stodios had
@Fenbops
I agree with you on what Destiny/Bungie has become as a whole. I play Destiny 2 regularly, but damn it's one of the most aggressively over-monetised games around right now; between expansions, season passes, dungeons and cosmetic microtransactions for guns, armour, ships, sparrows, ghost shells, emotes and shaders it feels like they're trying to nickel and dime players at every turn.
But decisions around monetisation are coming from the higher-ups at Bungie. The people being laid off aren't the ones making those decisions, yet as is always the case when these sorts of decisions result in tough times for a game or studio, it's the rank and file staff - who either genuinely enjoy what they do or are just there to do a good job - who suffer the consequences. To be glad that they're losing their jobs is both short-sighted and unnecessary.
@Markatron84 I never said I’m glad, I just don’t care.
I realised what Bungie had become back when I was playing the original Destiny and dropped it without a second thought. Shame too because the gameplay was great. They’ve only gotten worse since.
Sony is on a rampage with job cuts at the moment. Hope those that lost their jobs find a new one with another studio without too much trouble.
@Fenbops
That's not better.
@Markatron84 maybe not but at least I’m honest.
@LoquaciousB it's affecting the whole industry
@Mephisto2869 Yes, I know that. My point remains that Sony in particular appears to be cutting a lot of jobs across their studios.
@LoquaciousB yeah Sony is having some MAJOR happenings going on. Jim Ryan (leaving) Connie Booth fired, her team basically wanting to quit, Factions on ice, Firesprite in extreme mismanagement, now this? Sony’s future is simply not that rosie right now and their future roadmap is anyones guess. Meanwhile, xbox has a clear roadmap of what they want to do and how they want to achieve it.
I think Sony has been hiding the trouble of long term sustainability with console sales. Not to mention PSVR2 is going the way of the Vita at this point.
No idea what is going on but it ain’t good over there right now.
I feel bad for the people who got laid of this sucks. This is just the result of poor management. Why does the guy in charge for making these ***** anti consumer decisions never have to take the fall. Look at it this way at one point in destiny you could buy and get everything with one purchase and they were making money and had tons of players. Then some ***** decided hey lets charge people extra to see the sunshine and dungeons and add a pass for being able to play the game. Were going to get tons of cash! Except now their making less money and firing people who had nothing to do with it and have pissed of the people they depend on making money off.
It is just greed running amok I have no issue with them making cash. I pay full price for most of my games these stupid loot box and pass shenanigans are killing games.
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