Image: Bungie
Destiny 2 developer Bungie is losing hundreds of staff amid ‘rising costs of development’.
Destiny 2 developer Bungie is terminating 220 staff this week in a series of massive workforce changes that will see the studio go from having 1,300 people on staff to just “over 850.” Another 155 people are also moving to Sony Interactive Entertainment while 40 others will form a new studio to develop a game formerly in development at Bungie.
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons shared the news in a blog post, attributing the layoffs to “to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions.”
Bungie loses hundreds of staff to focus on Destiny 2 and Marathon
Bungie is firing roughly 17% percent of its workforce this week, amounting to 220 developers. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced the news in a blog post, writing that “due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon.”
The blog post confirms that all affected staff members will be offered “a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.” It also explains that, despite the critical success of Destiny 2’s recent expansion The Final Shape, shedding the studio’s staff was necessary to “refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials.”
In addition to these layoffs, the studio is also moving 155 members of its workforce into other roles at Sony Interactive Entertainment. 40 more developers are reportedly setting up a new studio to work on “an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe,” that was formerly an incubation project at Bungie.
The blog post ends with a brief explanation for these mass layoffs. Parsons wrote: “For over five years, it has been our goal to ship games in three enduring, global franchises. To realize that ambition, we set up several incubation projects, each seeded with senior development leaders from our existing teams.”
However, this strategy had forced the studio to “scale to a larger level than we could realistically support, given our two primary products in development – Destiny and Marathon.” A rapid expansion of the studio didn’t mix well with “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.”
Parson’s blog post admits that the studio was “overly ambitious” and began running in the red after exceeding its financial safety margins. These layoffs appear to be the studio’s attempt to course correct. The blog post ends by saying that “Bungie will continue to make great games. We still have over 850 team members building Destiny and Marathon, and we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players’ expectations.”
Current Destiny 2 global community lead Dylan Gafner took to Twitter/X to call the layoffs “inexcusable." He continued, "industry leading talent being lost, yet again. Accountability falling upon the workers who have pushed the needle to deliver for our community time and time again.”
Other former staff at Bungie are also placing the blame on CEO Pete Parsons, saying “Pete is a joke” and “Step down, Pete.”
Another former employee claimed that Parsons “invited me to come see [his] new cars TWO DAYS before [he] laid me off.” Parsons has reportedly purchased 17 cars since 2023, forking out over $2.3 million in the process. His Twitter/X account briefly went private, presumably in response to the heavy amount of online criticism levied against Bungie’s leadership today.
These layoffs add to a worrying trend in the games industry. According to an online tracker, roughly 11,400 people have been fired from their roles in various game companies this year alone. That includes mass layoffs at PlayStation Studios, Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts.
