Destiny 2 Gamers Outrage Over Bungie's Layoffs

The 2024 gaming industry has been hit hard by this startling and bizarre event. Layoffs in the gaming sector are still going strong, which is a sad trend. This time, Bungie did it, yet again, and the developers involved in developing and maintaining the Destiny series have also been affected. Surprisingly, the layoffs were announced as a reward for producing the finest Destiny 2 DLC, The Final Shape, the series that fans have seen so far. So now there are around 850 employees left at Bungie, down from 1300 due to this announcement.

Bungie's new game, the PvE Extraction Marathon, is there, and Destiny, the mainstream series, is still a priority. Beyond that, it's reasonable to conclude that everything has been impacted significantly. We know that Destiny will still continue, but we won't pretend that this will not impact the game's operations, however. The three-year wait for Destiny 3 doesn't appear to have impacted the schedule in any way; nevertheless, we're unaware of Bungie's current production pipeline, and it is obvious that the leaders' efforts to implement one have been fruitless.

 

The statement from Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie begins with a handful of concerns, and begins with -

This morning I'm sharing with you all some of the most difficult changes we've ever had to make as a studio. Due to the rising cost of development in 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. That means beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of the workforce.

The disparity between 1300 and 850 is so large that this does not accurately reflect the true figure. There are some noteworthy changes that you will notice. Even though they are no longer officially employed by Bungie, those individuals have been reassigned to other teams.

Pete Parsons goes on saying this - I realize all of this is hard news, especially following the success we have had with the final shape, but as we've navigated the broader economic realities over the last year and after exhausting all other mitigation options, this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials.

The 45% revenue shortfall that occurred last year with Destiny 2: Lightfall seems to have been caused more by the indecision of those responsible for establishing the statistics than by the quality of the developers' actual work. Aside from the layoffs, we are seeing a migration to Sony.

Pete Parsons then mentioned - So first, we are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12% into SE over the next few quarters. SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify the roles for as many of our people as possible, enabling us together to save a great deal of talent that would have otherwise been affected by this reduction in force.

After this merger and Sony's acquisition, we were hopeful Bungie would finally put a publisher's capabilities to use instead of completely ignoring them. Sony has the financial means to assist Destiny and Marathon, but our faith in the company's leadership, product quality, enthusiasm, and concern for the individuals involved is seriously doubted. We won't debate which side is superior, but failing to use a publisher's resources is most apparent in the years after Sony's merger.

Given Bungie's current dilemma, it is difficult to say how much the outcome would have been different had other Activision Studios assisted them, as was the case with pre-Activision's split. However, no such cooperation was obvious with Destiny, and our current understanding of the issue is limited. However, it should be noted that a team formerly working on a different game is being transferred to a new company affiliated with PlayStation Studios rather than Bungie as part of this reorganization. So, this only goes to show that Destiny and their next title, Marathon, are Bungie's top priorities.

 

Pete Parsons also wrote - Additionally, in 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the game industry, and our quality missed 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. We were overly ambitious; our financial and safety margins were subsequently exceeded and we began running in the red.

After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed and we did everything we could to avoid today's outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough.

Pete Parsons’ statement then ends off with this - Bungie will continue to make great games. We still have over 850 team members building Destiny Marathon and we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players' expectations. There will be a time to talk about our goals and projects, but today is not that day. Today our focus is on supporting our people.

The gaming industry is experiencing some very wild times. Bungie's leadership has always been an issue, and current developments have shown that the same individuals responsible have been in charge all along. Indeed, Bungie is facing an issue, and it may be attributed to Pete Parsons. Those who are responsible for these ongoing problems are not being held responsible for their poor direction, and the fact that the Destiny franchise is now receiving what it deserves as a result of the impact on people's lives.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed