Destiny 2 developer Bungie, which was acquired by PlayStation last year for $3.6 billion, is the latest game maker to target layoffs in 2023. Various former Bungie employees took to Twitter today to announce that they were fired, and Bloomberg It confirmed with its sources that an undisclosed number of staff were laid off today.
Bloomberg Bungie CEO Pete Parsons told staff he was “hearing some news today” and following that, reported that a team meeting would be held today to “discuss today’s events”.
As for why the employees were laid off, that remains unclear, especially as the company prepares to release a massive Destiny 2 expansion — Final Shape — that will end a decade-long saga that began with the first Destiny game. Bloomberg Months after the release date was first announced on February 27, 2024, the final shape has been internally delayed to June 2024, its sources say.
Game Informer PlayStation has reached out and will update this story if it learns more.
In January 2022, Sony announced the acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion; It completed the purchase in July 2022. These layoffs come two years after purchase.
These Bungie layoffs unfortunately join the list of layoffs affecting studios behind games released in 2023, which, by all accounts, was one of the best years in gaming in terms of releases. In January, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees amid its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was completed earlier this month.
In August, Striking Distance Studios, the team behind last year’s The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees, and the same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including longtime studio veterans. The following month, in September, Immortals of Avium developer Ascendant Studios laid off about 45% of its staff.
Just this month, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees and Telltale Games laid off employees, although the actual number of laid off employees has not yet been revealed. And last week, Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees.
hearts Game Informer Staff are with everyone affected by these layoffs and still at the studio.
(Source: Bloomberg)