Bungie, the developer of “Halo” and “Destiny”, announced that it will lay off 220 people, accounting for about 17% of its total employees.
Bungie’s Pete Parsons announced the news in an open letter, blaming rising development costs and ongoing economic factors.
“Due to rising development costs, industry transformation and ongoing economic conditions,” Parsons said. “This means that starting today, we will eliminate 220 positions, accounting for approximately 17% of the studio’s employees. “
Parsons went on to discuss two other major changes. The first is that Bungie’s 155 characters will be “integrated” into Sony. Parsons commented that these were people “who would otherwise be affected by the reduction in troop strength.”
Bungie has also partnered with Sony to build a new studio around one of their projects currently in the incubation stage. The new game is apparently set in a “new science fiction universe.”
Parsons continues to try to justify Bunge’s eventual position.
“For more than five years, our goal has been to publish games in three enduring global franchises,” Parsons wrote. “To achieve this goal, we set up multiple incubation projects, each seeded by senior development leaders from our existing teams. We eventually realized that this model was leaving our talent too weak and too weak. Soon. Given the two major products we’re working on, Destiny and Marathon, it also forces our studio support structure to expand beyond what we can actually support.”
Parsons said the company’s “rapid expansion has led to an overall slowdown.” He cited the “lack of quality” in Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion and the need to give Final Shape and Marathon more time to cook.
“We were overly ambitious and then exceeded our financial margin of safety and we started to lose money,” Parsons said.
Parsons claimed that Bungie and Sony went to great lengths to avoid this outcome. Back in October 2023, Bungie laid off 100 employees.
“Bungie will continue to make great games. We still have over 850 team members working on Destiny and Marathon, and we will continue to create exciting experiences that exceed player expectations.
Bungie has seemed to be in trouble for quite some time, but the problems plaguing the company appear to have worsened since Sony acquired it. In December 2023, IGN published an article describing Bungie’s “soul-destroying” atmosphere and fearing that Sony would completely take over the company.
