Destiny developer Bungie laid off 220 employees, roughly 17 percent of its total workforce

Destiny developer Bungie has furloughed another 220 employees, representing about 17 percent of the studio’s total workforce.

In the month of October last year, The studio laid off 100 employees At that time, about a quarter of Bungie’s 1,200 employees were laid off. This means that Bungie has laid off about a quarter of its employees in the last nine months.

The news was shared in a Facebook post today. Blog post from Bungie CEO Pete ParsonsHe described the decision as “one of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio”.

“Due to rising development costs and changes in the industry, as well as continued economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts solely on Destiny and Marathon,” Parsons said.

“These actions will impact every level of the company, including the majority of our executives and senior leadership.

“Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of whom have made significant and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by these job cuts, we will offer a generous exit package, including severance, bonuses and health coverage.”

“I realize this is all very sad news, especially after the success of The Final Shape. But as we have understood the macroeconomic realities of the past year, and having exhausted all other mitigation options, this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and a viable financial position.”

Parsons said Bungie is committed to two major changes.

First, deeper integration with Sony, “integrating 155 of our roles, about 12 per cent, into SIE over the next few quarters”. Sony buys Bungie for $3.6 billion in February 2022,

Second, Bungie is moving one of its early development projects — an “action game set in a new science-fiction universe” — to PlayStation Studios and creating a new studio.

Collectively, between staff relocations and layoffs, Bungie has downsized significantly, though Parsons explicitly stated that the studio still has “over 850 team members building Destiny and Marathon.”

Parsons explained that over the past five years Bungie has attempted to ship games in “three enduring, global franchises”, but later realized that this “diluted our talent too much, too quickly”. This is in addition to a “massive economic downturn”, a “sharp decline” in the games industry, and a “lack of quality”. Destiny 2: Lightfall,

Parsons speculated that “we were overly ambitious, exceeded our financial safety net, and began running at a loss.”

“When this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change course and momentum, and we did everything possible to avoid today’s outcome. Despite the exhaustive efforts made by our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were not enough.”

Bungie global community lead Dylan Gaffner called the decision “inexcusable” in a post on X. “The industry is losing leading talent once again,” he wrote. “Accountability is falling on employees who work time and time again for our community.”

These new layoffs at Bungie are the latest across the industry. In February, Sony itself fired 900 PlayStation employees and closed the London studio altogether.

Meanwhile, just last week, Humble Games lays off several employees as part of restructuringwhich later influenced other studios such as Coral Island Developer Stairway Games,

Back in May, Eurogamer reports that over 10,000 people have been laid off from the games industry this year alone, that number Now the number is estimated at 11,200.

In December, Bungie employees reportedly worried about the studio’s futureHe described this environment as “soul-crushing”.