It’s been a rough year for Bungie despite the release of the year’s most critically acclaimed expansion, Destiny 2’s Final Form. In October last year, the developer laid off about 100 people, or about 8% of its workforce. Earlier this week, the studio laid off an additional 220 employees — a staggering 17% of its workforce — while also transferring 12% of its remaining employees to parent company Sony.
Bungie executive Pete Parsons said the massive layoffs were due to “rising development costs,” “industry transformation” and “ongoing economic conditions,” which affected “a majority” of Bungie’s executive and senior leadership positions. Given the loss of leadership, it’s no surprise that the studio is entering a period of what senior executives call “tremendous change.” As for the large-scale transfer of former Bungie employees to Sony, Parsons explained that the move was intended to “deepen the integration” of Bungie and the company – a statement that attracted a lot of attention.
While it’s easy to view these layoffs as the latest in a series of widespread job losses in the industry, it also illustrates the trend of larger companies acquiring high-profile developers, and how it ultimately leads to significant changes in staffing, priorities and operations. ,potentially,identity. This week, Tam and Lucy discussed the impact of these layoffs on Spot On and what it means for the future of Destiny 2, Marathon, and Bungie overall.
Spot On is GameSpot’s weekly news show where Managing Editor Tamoor Hussain and Senior Producer Lucy James talk about the latest gaming news. Given the highly dynamic and never-ending news cycle of the massive video game industry, there’s always something to talk about. Unlike most news programs, Spot On will delve into a single topic rather than recapping all the news. It airs every Friday.
