The bloodbath of layoffs in the video game industry does not seem to be far from ending, but in some cases it is getting worse. The most recent cases are those of Humble Games, Microsoft, Take-Two and Avalanche Studios. Now it is Bungie’s turn, which has just lost a whopping 415 employees, who are divided between those who were laid off and those who were transferred to PlayStation.
It’s almost a year since Bungie’s last wave of layoffs, which took place due to a restructuring. Studio president Pete Parsons is back on the scene to explain what happened to make so many employees redundant. Any Destiny 2 or Marathon fans should be concerned when they see the numbers.
Of the 450 employees Bungie has lost, 220 have been laid off. That’s 17% of the current workforce. Parsons has indicated that they will receive good treatment, a bonus and their corresponding compensation. However, the loss of life for the studio has only just begun.
As for the rest of the workforce, 155 will be transferred to PlayStation to avoid layoffs, and 40 will form a new studio under the Sony umbrella to work on a new IP that had been shelved until now, as Jason Schreiner indicates. How did Bungie get to this point? Pete Parsons explains:
We realized that this model (having multiple projects) spread our talents too thinly, too quickly. It also forced our studio to grow on a larger scale than we could realistically handle, due to our largest development products: Destiny and Marathon.
Our rapid expansion in 2023 led us headlong into an economic slowdown, a 180-degree turn in the gaming industry, the qualitative downfall of D2 Eclipse, and the need to give The Final Form and Marathon the time they needed to ensure they both met our players’ expectations. We were overly ambitious, far exceeded our financial safety margins, and started to go into the red.
Parsons also explains that they have tried to take all possible measures to avoid another wave of layoffs, but that it has clearly not been enough. Bungie is left with just over 850 employees spread across Destiny 2, Marathon and the rest of the projects in mind. This is a huge blow that will surely be felt especially in the adventures of the Guardians of Destiny.
At VidaExtra | Not even my absent-mindedness has managed to deprive me of the epic battle against the Witness in Destiny 2: The Final Form. Goodbye, my friend
At VidaExtra | Destiny 2 has a big problem: its story is incomplete and that confuses players
