Destiny 2 developer Bungie has announced that a restructuring of the company will see more than 200 jobs eliminated.
The developer is the latest in an exhaustingly long list to make significant job cuts, and it comes not long after the successful release of Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape (albeit with some unfortunate technical hiccups). Bungie will now lose 17% of its workforce, and confirmed it affects every level of the company, including executive and senior leader roles.
In a statement, Pete Parsons detailed the reasons behind the elimination of 220 roles within the company. There are myriad reasons behind the decision, including integrating a portion of its workforce into Sony Interactive Entertainment. But the common factor is money.
Bungie Statement on Mass Layoffs
”This morning, I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio. 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.
That means beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of our studio’s workforce.
These actions will affect every level of the company, including most of our executive and senior leader roles.
Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.
I realize all of this is hard news, especially following the success we have seen 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.
We are committing to two other major changes today that we believe will support our focus, leverage Sony’s strengths, and create new opportunities for Bungie talent.
First, 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. SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify roles for as many of our people as possible, enabling us together to save a great deal of talent that would otherwise have been affected by the reduction in force.
Second, 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. ”
This will be a time of tremendous change for our studio.
You can read the full statement here. It explains exactly why Bungie made such dramatic cuts.
Destiny 2 developer latest to suffer mass layoffs
Earlier this year, Sony Interactive Entertainment laid off 900 staff at its PlayStation division, which amounted to around 8% of its global workforce. That also saw it close its London offices. other studios under the banner including Insomniac have also been hit with layoffs.
The wider industry has also been rife with job losses this year after an already grim 2023. At Microsoft, several studios were outright closed earlier this year, including Prey developer Arkan Austin and Ghostwire Tokyo and The Evil Within creators Tango Gameworks.
It was only a while back it was reported Bungie developers felt they were working in a ”soul crushing” atmosphere amid fear of a full Sony takeover of the company. Sadly, that fear looks a bit more real today.
The post Bungie Layoffs Eliminate 200+ Jobs at Destiny 2 Developer appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.