‘Destiny’ Creator Bungie Blames Mass Layoffs On Tough Economy But Fans Cry Foul, Point To Years Of ‘Virtue-Signaling’

Jorge Arenas |

Jul 31, 2024

Screenshot: Bungie Logo via Playstation Studios Wiki

This morning, Bungie’s CEO Pete Parsons announced significant changes for the game development studio. The top of those chances will be an almost 20% reduction of their workforce through layoffs. Parsons is blaming rising development costs, industry shifts, and enduring economic conditions.

Because of this, Bungie will refocus its development efforts entirely on its flagship franchises, Destiny and Marathon.

This morning, we shared an important update with the Bungie team on the difficult decision to eliminate 220 roles at Bungie.

You can read the full statement below. — @Bungie via X

Impact on Workforce

Starting today, 220 roles will be eliminated. The mass layoffs represent about roughly 17% of Bungie’s workforce. This will impact all levels of the company, including executive and senior leadership positions. Parsons acknowledged the difficulty of this decision and expressed gratitude for the contributions of all departing colleagues.

“This will be a challenging time at Bungie, and we’ll need to help our team navigate these changes in the weeks and months ahead,” Parsons said.

Launch trailer for Destiny 2: The Final Shape (2024), Bungie

Strategic Changes

In addition to workforce reductions, Bungie is implementing two major strategic changes. First, the studio will deepen its integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). Over the next few quarters, 155 roles, or roughly 12% of Bungie’s workforce, will transition to SIE. This move is aimed at preserving talent that would otherwise be lost due to the layoffs.

Second, Bungie will collaborate with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of its incubation projects, an action game set in a new science-fantasy universe. This project will form a new studio within PlayStation Studios, allowing it to continue its development independently.

Destiny 2 (2021) - Gameplay (PC UHD) [4K60FPS] — A Guardian prepares for battle in *Destiny 2* (2021), Throneful

Reasons Behind the Restructuring

Parsons detailed the factors leading to this decision. Over the past five years, Bungie aimed to develop three enduring, global franchises. This ambition led to the creation of several incubation projects, stretching the studio’s talent and resources thin. The rapid expansion in 2023 coincided with a broad economic slowdown and a downturn in the games industry. Compounding these challenges were issues with Destiny 2: Lightfall and the need to ensure high quality for both The Final Shape and Marathon.

“We were overly ambitious, and our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded,” Parsons stated. The studio’s financial challenges necessitated a change in course, despite exhaustive efforts to avoid layoffs.

Destiny 2 ECHOES - Act 2 - week 3 -final - gameplay with no commentary — A Guardian checks his HUD in *Destiny 2: ECHOES* (2021), Wolfius

Reaction Online

Reactions online were swift and pointed to multiple instances of hypocrisy by the studio and its CEO. In one instance, X user @Mangalawyer pointed out how the studio spent the better part of two years focusing on “virtue-signaling” instead of working on its own products.

Bungie spent two years virtue-signaling about everything except video games. During this time, their developers aggressively attacked gamers and became obsessed with pronouns and claims of justice, often targeting white males. Two years later, the same company fired 200 people 😆 — @mangalawyer via X

But Mangalaywer wasn’t done quite yet. They zeroed in on CEO Pete Parsons himself and the virtual signaling found within his X account. Mangalaywer said in part “This is what happens when you prioritize sending a message over quality.”

Bungie CEO: The communist LGBT symbols, the audacity of promoting 'Be Kind' while firing 25% of the workforce—catering to the same type of people who will ultimately eat you alive. This is what happens when you prioritize sending a message over quality. It's beautiful to watch — @Mangalawyer via X

But it wasn’t just Mangalaywer, it seems that Parsons is getting it from all sides. @MynameIsByf roasted the CEO and studio leadership for what they saw as “reckless” behavior behind the scenes that cost developers their jobs. Like many online, this user called for leadership change within the studio.

Leadership needs to be changed.

Their decisions have consistently led to disaster for everyone who has actually been making the games we play.

They’ve been reckless with the studio, its employees, and its franchises.

The problem is clear. Bad leadership. It needs to change. — @MyNameISByt via X

And the stories are continuing to pour out about Parsons’s treatment of employees in the past. Liana Ruppert, Community Manager for Fallout on Amazon Prime, had some choice words as well. Liana provided a story where they were speaking with a co-worker who couldn’t afford to pay for groceries that week. When they were discussing their food affordability issues, apparently Parsons came up to “brag” about new cars he had bought.

They went on to blame elements of leadership within the studio for the poor treatment of departments such as quality assurance and others.

I remember the Friday before the first layoffs, me and another CM were in the lobby and I was literally talking about how I didn't have enough money for groceries and that employee services was an angel for helping me have food since I was told to drop all of my side jobs when Chew got laid off. Pete walked right up to us and bragged about a few new EXPENSIVE cars he bought and that we should come to his house and see them. After hearing how we weren't making enough money (we did not make Dylan's money, Dylan was senior and we were not allowed to go for any senior roles without our department - he also made shit money when he first started - the pay was atrocious if you were in soft skills)

I remember looking right at them and being like "Was that weird, why couldn't he look us in the eye" and just having a bad feeling. I was told I was being too paranoid, but it didn't sit right. Cue Monday morning getting an HR invite at 6 am - even though I said specifically I would never talk to HR without a manager present due to horrible interactions with the head of HR there (she's gone, thankfully). When I couldn't get a response on what the meeting was, I knew.

Then I started digging. And I have not stopped digging since October. There's so much more to this that won't come out for a few more years to protect people, but I just want to say this: This falls squarely on leadership. There were amazing members of leadership, Joe and Catarina among them, but the problem at the top has been a problem since the 90s. How QA has been treated, how the devs have been treated - If you dared to ask any questions about "Hey, this doesn't seem right" you were instantly labeled " Anti-Bungie. Some members of LT didn't want a studio, they wanted a cult to worship their legacy. So we're going to take your legacy, because it is owed. ESPECIALLY the people you threw away that have spent their entire careers - some close to 20 years - with you. For you. In spite of themselves. — @DirtyEffinHippy via X

Others such as @LegacyHillaHD saw the bigger picture. On X they pulled up the numbers for game industry-related layoffs and the numbers are quite staggering. In the last 18 months, the industry has seen over 20,000 jobs lost. This of course included giants such as Ubisoft, EA, Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, and other well-known studios.

And all of those come with a greater focus on developers’ online activity, which showed a greater focus on DEI content programming within games instead of a focus on quality content for players.

Well over 20,000 jobs in the video game industry have been lost in the last 18 months...

Bungie, Bethesda, Ubisoft, PlayStation, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, EA, Xbox, etc.

https://publish.obsidian.md/vg-layoffs/Archive/2024

That's fucking insane. — @LegacyKillaHD via X

What Now?

As we can see, reactions online are quite hot as many are pointing fingers at Pete Parsons and the leadership at Bungie. Many are speculating about the future of Bungie. Some see the studio as slowly being folded into Sony PlayStation. While others are wondering out loud if the DEI talking points are just a smoke screen for other issues within the studio.

Either way, this is a difficult middle of the week for over 200 former Bungie employees.

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