In shocking news, Destiny 2 developer Bungie has announced that it’s laying off 220 employees from the studio. In addition to these, 150 will be working with Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This message has been shared by the company’s CEO, Pete Parsons, in a bittersweet blog post that speaks about the company’s current state and how this will affect its future going ahead.
17% of Bungie’s Workforce Leaves the Workspace
Recently, Bungie’s official website published an article by CEO Pete Parsons. With a heavy heart, he has announced that 220 employees on the team will be resigning.
According to him, this comes as a result of cost-cutting and an effort to focus further on projects like Destiny and Marathon. Furthermore, the team’s cooperation with Sony Interactive Entertainment is strengthening.
He writes about the ongoing transition, highlighting major changes:
We are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters.
The article further expands on the company’s vision as it moves into new territories.
We are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.
While there’s no concrete evidence supporting which game and studio are mentioned here, it does seem like the company’s focus is growing beyond Destiny 2, and we’ll likely hear more about this soon.
How Does This Change Affect Destiny 2’s Future?
With the release of The Final Shape, players stepped into a brand-new storyline and content that brought in many players. While this may seem harmonious on the surface, the narrative behind the scenes has certainly been a bit dicey.
In the article, Pete Parsons explains how the focus on upcoming content (including Marathon) pushed the team to take up changes that will likely affect its future. Unfortunately, this resulted in the termination of talented employees.
Such a change can indirectly affect everyone in the team, and this transition will have an impact on Destiny 2 and how its future shapes up to be. Conclusively, Pete Parsons has acknowledged that the coming weeks and months will be a tough time for the team, and the company will act accordingly.
At present the studio has over 850 members working on Marathon and Destiny, and the company’s vision isn’t deterred. However, only time will tell how these layoffs affect the future of Destiny 2 and everything that’s yet to come.
What do you think about these layoffs? How do you think this will affect the company’s future? Let us know in the comments below.
