This year has been filled with reports of major video game companies laying off employees, and now Bungie has joined the long list of companies downsizing. Sony-owned Bungie has laid off an undisclosed number of employees, and CEO Pete Parsons emailed the staff about the meeting where they were told more about the layoffs.
Bungie also delayed the Destiny 2 expansion called The Final Shape and its next game, Marathon, which will now reportedly be released in 2025. The reason for the layoffs hasn’t been revealed by Bungie yet, but it isn’t the only PlayStation studio to lay off employees.
Bungie Is the Latest PlayStation Studio to Layoff Employees
The layoff at Bungie was first reported by Bloomberg, is considered part of a wider operations restructuring, and seems to have affected several departments as many employees confirmed that they were laid off. The expansion of Destiny 2, The Final Shape, has also been delayed to June 2024 from February 2024, and Bungie’s next title, Marathon, is reportedly “slipped to 2025.”
CEO Pete Parsons took to X, formerly Twitter, and confirmed the layoffs, calling it “a sad day.” However, Parsons did not address the reported delays and only addressed the cuts and advocated for the hiring of affected employees if there were any openings. Parsons wrote:
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 are truly talented people. If you have openings, I would highly recommend each and every one of them.
Destiny 2‘s expansion The Final Shape is an ambitious one and will conclude the main storylines of the franchise. It was first expected to be released in February 2024 for both Xbox and PlayStation. On the other hand, Marathon is based on a first-person shooter title, is expected to be a PvP “extraction” game, and will now be released in 2025.
The layoffs have impacted departments such as editorial, recruiting, and quality assurance, as employees such as social media lead Griffin Bennett, Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert, and franchise editor Jason Guisao confirmed that they were laid off. Liana Ruppert announced on X that she was affected by the latest layoffs. She stated:
Working in games when you have high anxiety during a mass layoff trend (across the whole industry) is panicking at every new meeting invite like “Is this the one where I lose everything” and that’s super fun.
She further added:
Well… my heart is breaking for all affected. I am now looking for opportunities. I have 21 years of games industry experience in media, production, and community management. I’m processing, I’m so heartbroken. I don’t know what to do from here… this was my home. I feel so lost.
Bungie was acquired by Sony earlier last year for $3.6 billion. The Japanese giant has cut off employees across its PlayStation division, with companies like Naughty Dog and Media Molecule laying off staff. The layoff in the video game industry is one of the most depressing trends of this year, with several giants cutting staff.
Earlier this month, Naughty Dog, the developer behind The Last of Us, cut the contracts of several of its staff, and Media Molecule, the developer behind Little Big Planet, laid off 250 developers.
This is mostly seen as a step to cut costs and get stability at the studios, however; it’s brutal to see people cut off from the jobs they love.
Fortnite maker Epic Games also laid off around 900 employees last month, including employees at Bandcamp and Fall Guys developer Mediatonic. Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red also laid off employees in several rounds this year, with other studios like Telltale Games and Team17 going through deep cuts.
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