Update: Bloomberg has reported again on the situation at Bungie to shed further light with claims that studio management had held a meeting with employees to warn of cost-cutting measures in the face of poor results – revenue was supposedly running 45% below projections – and a delay in Destiny 2’s next expansion, The Final Shape.
According to the outlet, employees were first told of less drastic measures like salary and hiring freezes and travel reductions but eventually it came to be that around 100 Bungie employees, roughly 8% of its workforce, were told they’d be let go with a severance package.
Destiny developer Bungie is the latest in a string of studios hit by significant layoffs in 2023. News of the job cuts broke today as Bungie employees starting sharing their individual situations on social media. While the full scale of layoffs at Bungie is still yet to be confirmed, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier had reported that CEO, Pete Parsons, had called a meeting with staff to share the news internally:
Parsons later took to social media to publicly address the loss of jobs at Bungie, saying “Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio. What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future.”
These cuts come as Bungie has also reportedly delayed of two of its upcoming projects, at least internally. Both the Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansions as well as the studio’s PvP reimagining of its classic FPS, Marathon, have apparently had their target release dates pushed back, again according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.
Schreier writes that The Final Shape has been pushed back to June 2024 from its original February release date, while Marathon – which hadn’t actually been given a public release date – has slipped into 2025.
PlayStation acquired Bungie early last year for the sum of $3.6 billion USD, and was widely believed to be tapping into its expertise in live service video game models for a push into that sector from PlayStation and its own IP. Now, with layoffs at more than one of its studios and the potentially-grim outlook of The Last of Us multiplayer project, it could be assumed from the outside that PlayStation might be walking back its “Games as a Service” aspirations before they’ve borne fruit.