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.
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.
