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.
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.
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]](https://boundingintocomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-31-123201.png?w=1024)
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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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.