Bungie Is Laying Off Employees: What This Means For Destiny 2 And Beyond?

Posted by By George 11/01/2023
Bungie Is Laying Off Employees
Bungie Is Laying Off Employees

Bungie’s latest round of layoffs looks to include a number of studio veterans who have been with the company for more than 24 years, dating back to before the original Halo.

Michael Salvatori, a well-known composer, is one of the most prominent figures in the fan conversation. Salvatori has been a part of every Bungie product for the past 25 years, beginning with Myth: The Fallen Lords and progressing to the first five Halo games and, most recently, Destiny and its eventual sequel.

Bungie is Laying Off Employees

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly informed remaining staff in an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday wave of layoffs that touched numerous divisions that the business had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

Bungie took responsibility for the layoffs, rather than blaming parent company Sony, after speaking with various current and recently laid off employees. Parsons informed staff that the layoffs were primarily the result of Destiny 2’s underperformance over the last year, as well as lower-than-expected preorders for the planned DLC The Final Shape.

The Final Shape has been delayed until June 2024, and Marathon has been internally postponed until 2025 after being in development since 2019.

Employees were also advised that player sentiment in Destiny 2 was at an all-time low. According to sources, this issue had been raised with management several times in the months leading up to the layoffs, with employees pleading for the required improvements to win back players.

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One former Bungie employee recounted being repeatedly told that there would be no layoffs following Sony’s acquisition of Bungie in 2022 and referenced an item from a Sony quarterly report that claimed $1.2 billion of the $4 billion investment was going explicitly toward worker retention.

Multiple employees confirmed that money was distributed to fully vested employees, with money divided into multiple payments over time and changing according to discipline and seniority.

Other employees said that they were incredibly dissatisfied with the layoffs because the firm had just finished construction on a spanking new headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, which was more than double the size of its prior office and likely a costly upgrade.

Parsons was chastised in some areas for referring to the layoffs as a “sad day at Bungie” in a tweet, which enraged numerous employees we spoke with.

The actual number of those affected is still unknown, though several sources we spoke with suggested approximately 100 employees, which Bloomberg also reported earlier today.

Multiple individuals said that Bungie leadership attempted to conceal the numbers and departments of those affected while discouraging employees from raising these issues in corporate conversations.

Layoffs have already been reported affecting the community team, art, engineering, recruiting, legal, audio, QA, creative studios, and IT, affecting both the Destiny 2 and Marathon teams, as well as many members of the company’s diversity committee and accessibility club.

Those affected will receive at least three months of severance pay and COBRA health benefits. However, other corporate gifts will be discontinued immediately.

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George
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Since I adore investigating new topics, I've chosen journalism as my profession. I take great pleasure in following current events through the media. Working as an SEO editor allows me to combine my two favorite activities: reading and writing. I can usually read a book when I'm not glued to my screen working on a computer or watching the most recent news.