In the wake of mass layoffs at Bungie throwing the future of Destiny 2 into chaos this week, additional reporting has come out, and is still coming out, about what’s going on at Bungie, how this happened, and what’s going on now. There’s what Bungie has stated publicly, and what’s going on behind the scenes according to some insiders, a few things I’ve heard myself.
It is incredibly hard to parse it all as it’s Twitter threads spiraling and getting telephoned into other stories, so I’m going to try to straighten it all out here, and keep it updated, as at the time I’m publishing this, it’s ahead of a Jason Schreier article coming out later, though we’ve already heard from him to a certain extent about a few things.
What Bungie Said:
- Bungie laid off 220 roles, in addition to the 100+ they laid off last year. This spans all disciplines and even upcoming projects like Marathon.
- They are moving 155 roles to places within SIE
- They are spinning off a new sub-studio under Sony to work on an unannounced sci-fi/fantasy action game. Jason Schreier says this is around 40 people.
- 850 people continue to work on Marathon and Destiny. We don’t know how that’s split.
- Announced plans for Destiny and Marathon have not changed, which is two more Destiny Episodes this year and something called “Destiny 2: Frontiers” which has not been explained. Marathon is supposed to release in 2025.
Jeff Grubb Info (Grubb is a reliable insider, especially with Sony info, but none of this is explicitly confirmed):
- Bungie has shelved a Destiny-related project called “Payback,” that was not technically Destiny 3. This happened a while ago, not in the wake of these layoffs.
- But as of now, Destiny veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, who were working on Payback have left the company. Grubb says they left because of the restructuring and did not have roles anymore but were not part of the “layoffs.” I also heard they resigned. Jason Schreier says they were fired. It may sort of be semantics. The end result is that they are no longer there, confirmed by other Bungie employees, and they have made no statements.
- Grubb says that Bungie will move away from its current content format with no more large-scale expansions. They’re not even using the word “expansion” internally anymore, referring to new drops as “content packs.” A separate, unconfirmed leak outside of this says the yearly plan is now two “content packs” and two seasons, and no more weekly story timegates.
- Grubb says Bungie maintains Marathon will be out in 2025 though he seems somewhat skeptical on that front.
- Grubb believes Sony will slowly assume direct control of Bungie and it will soon be under the purview of SIE’s Herman Hulst. He says this is the first major step.
Stephen Totilo Info (from his newsletter Game File)
- His ex-Bungie sources believe Sony overpaid for Bungie and Bungie leadership oversold the company and what they would be able to produce.
- Contrary to the narrative that Sony’s purchase ruined Bungie, an insider says the alternative was total insolvency for the company as an independent entity. That echoes was Pete Parsons reportedly said around the time of the first layoffs, given the year they’d had after Lightfall which included a 45% revenue miss.
- Despite The Final Shape being a hit with critics and fans, sources say it still ultimately sold less than Lightfall. But there was likely no level of success that could have been reached to avoid what’s currently happening based on long-running problems.
Jason Schreier Info (I will update this section with whatever is in his piece later, but he’s already said a few things):
- Destiny 3 was not cancelled and it was never in development.
- Rather, there was early work done on the Payback spin-off which was cancelled a while ago.
- Bungie did not “kill” Naughty Dog’s multiplayer game, it gave them advice which made them realize it was not a smart idea to go all-in on a live service game as a single player studio. Shortly after, Naughty Dog declared they would remain a not-live-service studio.
Pete Parsons Info
- The Bungie CEO has reportedly spent $2.3 million on cars at an auction site since the Sony acquisition.
- No one, publicly or privately, seems to understand how Pete Parsons is still at the company.
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