Recent Bungie Job Cuts Reportedly Needed In Order “To Stop Continued Losses”, Leadership Said To Have “Overstated The Studio’s Financial Prospects To Sony”
According to a new report, the recent round of job cuts to hit Destiny franchise developer Bungie were due not to worsening “economic conditions”, but rather the studio having lied to their parent company Sony about their “financial prospects”.
As previously reported, on July 31st, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced that “due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions,” a total of “220 of our [roughly 1300] 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,” Parsons explained. “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,” he said. “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.”
To this end, the CEO then noted that the studio would be “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,” Parsons detailed. “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. ”
Yet, despite Bungie CEO’s framing of the studio’s recent layoffs as being a recent decision, in reality, it seems they may have been anything but.
Per two alleged former studio employees who purportedly spoke to Game File’s Stephen Totilo, “The cuts were not a sudden move. A sizable new round of layoffs had been planned by Bungie management for months, before the launch of the studio’s acclaimed Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape this past June”.
Further, another trio of ex-Bungie staff members supposedly revealed that the studio’s 2022 purchase by Sony was completed on false pretenses, “as Bungie’s leaders had overstated their studio’s financial prospects to Sony”.
Thus, they added, “Wednesday’s cuts were needed to stop continued losses that amounted to an ongoing reality check.”
Speaking to Totilo on condition of anonymity, one source opined to the reporter, “I think Sony overpaid for Bungie. I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver.”
As of writing, neither Bungie nor Sony have yet to offer any public comment on Totilo’s report.
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