Bungie blames the job eliminations on "rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions." The Sony subsidiary says it needs to make...
It’s a sad case of another day, another round of mass layoffs at a game studio. On this occasion, Destiny developer Bungie has announced it is letting go of 220 employees, or 17% of its workforce. CEO Pete Parsons said the eliminations were due to “financial challenges,” which isn’t going down well, especially after it was discovered he may have spent over $2.4 million on classic cars after Sony acquired the company, and continued buying them even after the previous layoffs.
Bungie blames the job eliminations on “rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions.” The Sony subsidiary says it needs to make substantial changes to its cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon.
The cuts will impact every level of the company, including executives and senior leader roles – but not Parsons, obviously.
It was only in October 2023 that Bungie made its last round of layoffs, and the news comes just under two months since the launch of Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which has been well-received.
In December, Bungie devs told IGN that the atmosphere at the company was “soul-crushing” due to fears of more layoffs, extra cost-cutting measures, and a loss of all independence from Sony if Bungie’s financials did not improve. Staff said earlier this year that they feared more job cuts were coming.
The latest layoffs have led to many angry posts on social media from current and former Bungie employees. Destiny 2’s global community lead Dylan Gafner (AKA dmg04) called the move “inexcusable,” and noted that it’s a case of “Accountability falling upon the workers who have pushed the needle to deliver for our community time and time again.”
What’s angering people even further is the discovery of what seems to be Parsons’ account on a car bidding site called Bring a Trailer. It shows he has spent $2.4 million on classic cars since September 2022, which includes $500,000 since the October layoffs.
Man as a long term destiny player, this has just been heartbreaking. The latest expansion was absolutely amazing and you could tell the devs really put their heart and soul into it. And now a lot of them are gone. The narrative leads, longtime leaders of the franchise, all canned.
Rumors about what’s upcoming suggest a major downsizing in the content that’s going to come out for players too. So I’m not even sure how they plan on continuing to make money.
I know it’s a long shot, but I sincerely hope that if (when) Sony takes over management at Bungie, they at least try to hire back some of their talent that worked on TFS.
It just seems like it’s dug it’s own grave so effectively that there’s no way to climb out.
In theory I love their aim of player retention, but they focused on it so exclusively that it became a challenge to start playing, or to come back. The new player experience isn’t just bad or non-existent, it’s basically actively hostile. Most of the story content isn’t accessible anymore, so you’re depending on dozens of hours of Youtube videos to catch up on a decade of in-jokes that you can’t experience. It’s like Eve, but worse because it was written, not just player interaction lore. Even as someone who played D1 and the first few years of D2, looking at current screenshots and trailers is alienating. They’ve revamped and juggled currencies and what power levels are so much that basically nothing is the same.
The pivot to seasons/microtransactions while ignoring recruitment of new players was a wild choice.
I never even realised they were owned by Sony. I’m sure I remember them saying they left Microsoft to have greater control internally. Seems mad to go for more of the same.
70% of that $2.4 million should have been taxed and he can do whatever he wants with the remaining money. OR he can get paid what he actually deserves and leave the rest for the company to become stronger.
You lot are constantly talking about how workers are uniformly short-changed on their labor by their employers, underpaid for it and therefore being a profit source for employers, but you never explain why any business would do layoffs like this if that was the case, lol. Do these people who got laid off make the company money or not?
Ok, I get it, 70% of what he earned should have been taken in taxes instead of the abysmal 37% minus all the deductions that generally only apply only to the rich. Point remains the same. Tax these fuckers.
That’s the thing, it might have been company funds. Back when Sony bought Bungie, they made a giant fund for severance in case of layoffs, so that devs would have a bit of a safety net if worst came to worst. Fast forward to October 30th, 2023, and that money is just… Gone with the wind. My facts may be a little muddled but I’m fairly certain that’s how it played out.
Developing one MMO forever is not a great strategy, and I’d argue they aren’t executing it like the Warframe devs (which is its direct competitor I guess).
I’m fine with content being vaulted to make room for new content. What I have an issue with is when the new content isn’t even half of the quality of what they removed. I quit playing shortly after menagerie was removed for exactly that reason.
Wanna know what’s even more sad? That 2.4m is only enough to pay for salary of 10 employees. This is salary, benefits, and additional respurce costs and personel usage. Basing this based on my friends who work for bungie and their salary is nothing enough for this areas cost of living.
So instead of spending money on extravagant expenses they could have fired 5% less people this round… Compared to what the money is spent on that still sounds good.
Though it indeed makes little difference in the big picture, this is still a bad image.
I just cannot fathom this absolutely brainlet, short-term thinking. Yeah, these people have created some of the best content we’ve ever made (according to player feedback). Let’s fucking fire them all!
When did “investing” die and rise as a revenant obsessed with burning down the building to get one more penny? Do billionaires know something we don’t and are burning everything down because the planet’s gonna explode?
It’s because of the MBA class of people. They cannot innovate. They are bizzaro engineers, rather than improve and solve problems while making new products, they take existing labor and ideas, destroy them and the company attached, and somehow collect money.
this company is about to implode, no doubt. there’s no way they recover from this when they launch whatever comes next (I hope I am wrong, but this is just so messy)
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Man as a long term destiny player, this has just been heartbreaking. The latest expansion was absolutely amazing and you could tell the devs really put their heart and soul into it. And now a lot of them are gone. The narrative leads, longtime leaders of the franchise, all canned.
Rumors about what’s upcoming suggest a major downsizing in the content that’s going to come out for players too. So I’m not even sure how they plan on continuing to make money.
Fuck Parsons.
I know it’s a long shot, but I sincerely hope that if (when) Sony takes over management at Bungie, they at least try to hire back some of their talent that worked on TFS.
Same :(
It just seems like it’s dug it’s own grave so effectively that there’s no way to climb out.
In theory I love their aim of player retention, but they focused on it so exclusively that it became a challenge to start playing, or to come back. The new player experience isn’t just bad or non-existent, it’s basically actively hostile. Most of the story content isn’t accessible anymore, so you’re depending on dozens of hours of Youtube videos to catch up on a decade of in-jokes that you can’t experience. It’s like Eve, but worse because it was written, not just player interaction lore. Even as someone who played D1 and the first few years of D2, looking at current screenshots and trailers is alienating. They’ve revamped and juggled currencies and what power levels are so much that basically nothing is the same.
The pivot to seasons/microtransactions while ignoring recruitment of new players was a wild choice.
Guys, all of you are being really mean. Do you know how many cars he would have to give up buying if he didn’t lay all those employees off?
At least one. Probably.
I never even realised they were owned by Sony. I’m sure I remember them saying they left Microsoft to have greater control internally. Seems mad to go for more of the same.
Looks like Sony only bought them in 2022 source
You finally found out you’re just a digit.
TAX THE FUCKING RICH!!!
70% of that $2.4 million should have been taxed and he can do whatever he wants with the remaining money. OR he can get paid what he actually deserves and leave the rest for the company to become stronger.
It’s literally post-tax income already, lol.
That just illustrates a more fundamental problem
You lot are constantly talking about how workers are uniformly short-changed on their labor by their employers, underpaid for it and therefore being a profit source for employers, but you never explain why any business would do layoffs like this if that was the case, lol. Do these people who got laid off make the company money or not?
Ok, I get it, 70% of what he earned should have been taken in taxes instead of the abysmal 37% minus all the deductions that generally only apply only to the rich. Point remains the same. Tax these fuckers.
I’m all for fixing the system but why does the employee CEO of company not get to spend his wages on whatever he wants just like the rest of us?
Was it company money he spent it on? Is he a maj shareholder?
That’s the thing, it might have been company funds. Back when Sony bought Bungie, they made a giant fund for severance in case of layoffs, so that devs would have a bit of a safety net if worst came to worst. Fast forward to October 30th, 2023, and that money is just… Gone with the wind. My facts may be a little muddled but I’m fairly certain that’s how it played out.
He should’ve resigned before anything else. His direction is what put the company into a shaky financial situation.
It would also be another thing is this was a “hero” CEO.
But… what has Bungie done that’s interesting besides Destiny? Was his plan was to just keep doing that?
Destiny was supposed to be their “forever” game, the problem is that after 2 dozen expansions:
Live service games just won’t last forever like they want them to.
Precisely.
Developing one MMO forever is not a great strategy, and I’d argue they aren’t executing it like the Warframe devs (which is its direct competitor I guess).
I’m fine with content being vaulted to make room for new content. What I have an issue with is when the new content isn’t even half of the quality of what they removed. I quit playing shortly after menagerie was removed for exactly that reason.
Wanna know what’s even more sad? That 2.4m is only enough to pay for salary of 10 employees. This is salary, benefits, and additional respurce costs and personel usage. Basing this based on my friends who work for bungie and their salary is nothing enough for this areas cost of living.
So instead of spending money on extravagant expenses they could have fired 5% less people this round… Compared to what the money is spent on that still sounds good.
Though it indeed makes little difference in the big picture, this is still a bad image.
At the average American salary (approx. $60,000) Bungie could have employed 40 people for one year on what this guy spent on cars.
FWIW that is not the average salary in the tech industry.
I just cannot fathom this absolutely brainlet, short-term thinking. Yeah, these people have created some of the best content we’ve ever made (according to player feedback). Let’s fucking fire them all!
When did “investing” die and rise as a revenant obsessed with burning down the building to get one more penny? Do billionaires know something we don’t and are burning everything down because the planet’s gonna explode?
The fastest way to make money is to buy a company, liquidate its assets, and sell off the IP.
There needs to be a legal minimum time for investment.
You bought part of a company? Great!
You can sell in 10 years.
It’s because of the MBA class of people. They cannot innovate. They are bizzaro engineers, rather than improve and solve problems while making new products, they take existing labor and ideas, destroy them and the company attached, and somehow collect money.
I guess the final shape ended up being a garage full of cars that will never be driven.
This is exactly correctly astute
removed, stop buying your metal scrap and pay your devs. I wanna play Marathon this century
this company is about to implode, no doubt. there’s no way they recover from this when they launch whatever comes next (I hope I am wrong, but this is just so messy)