Bungie will reportedly lay off around 50% (or 400) of its staff this summer, according to a French journalist. The reason is related to the sunsetting of Destiny 2 and the underwhelming performance of Marathon.
“After speaking with my sources, including some at PlayStation, what stands out is mainly internal resistance/strong pushback [to stop the development for Destiny 2],” wrote French journalist Sylvain Trinel on X. “Many people at PlayStation don’t understand the decision made at the top to discontinue D2.”
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“Some have told me that there’s a kind of desire for « revenge », as Sony’s leadership reportedly blames Bungie for a number of issues with their GaaS strategy. The exact number of layoffs planned at Bungie is still being determined, but I’ve been told repeatedly that the target is indeed 50%.”
Adding further credibility to the layoff concerns was Forbes’ Paul Tassi, who wrote, “I don’t want to commit to a percent, but it’s going to be significant. They don’t have a greenlit new project, and they can hardly throw 400 more devs on Marathon. You will also see some leadership/OGs leave in I believe July, which is when Sony deal cash vests for many of them.”
The layoff speculations should not come as a surprise, though. Since PlayStation has not greenlit Destiny 3, keeping around 800 staff on payroll for doing nothing is far from sustainable.
Destiny 2 final update success hasn’t helped Bungie
A reliable insider has revealed that the success of the server slam that happened on the day of Destiny 2’s final update hasn’t improved things at Bungie. Fans turned up on the last day of the update and played the game together, hitting new concurrent player heights and beating Marathon’s peak player count.
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Tassi discussed the current state of Bungie and Destiny 2 in his latest YouTube video. According to him, when he tried to inquire about the success of Destiny 2’s final update, which saw the game rise to the third most-concurrently played game on Steam, the simple response he got was, “No”.
According to the insider, the game was receiving a ‘final hotfix’. What this means is that even though the game is still playable, there will be no ongoing support for the title. The only time the team will intervene is if there is a game-breaking moment.
“There are not even keeping a small team around to do like the bare bones of what it would require to keep this game from breaking,” Tassi said.
Are you worried about the future of Bungie and the employees who work at the studio? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
