Bungie layoffs 'inevitable' even if Destiny 2 The Final Shape delivers 'blockbuster performance', report says

This week's mass layoffs at Destiny studio Bungie were planned months ago, former employees told journalist Stephen Totilo on Game File (paywall). According to Totilo, Bungie leadership “overestimated the studio's financial expectations” for Sony after the latter acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022. The report notes that the latest cuts were necessary to prevent continued losses after Bungie missed Sony's targets following the release of Lightfall last year.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Bungie was laying off 220 people, roughly 17% of its workforce, across multiple departments including design, art, narrative, and audio. They also announced that another 155 roles were being transferred to SIE with the aim of establishing a new PlayStation studio working on an “unnamed incubator project.”

CEO Pete Parsons attributed the turmoil to dire financial straits at the studio, saying “a broad economic slowdown, a sharp decline in the gaming industry” and “our lack of quality with Destiny 2: Lightfall.” While Totilo's sources indicate that the well-received Final Shape actually sold worse than the critically acclaimed Lightfall, the recent layoffs appear to have little to do with Final Shape's commercial performance either way and “could not have been avoided” even if The Final Shape had been a “blockbuster.”

The layoffs appear to be a continuation of cuts made last October, which saw the layoff of around 100 employees, including veteran composer Michael Salvatori. The report also notes that Bungie's financial troubles existed long before the Sony acquisition, with one former employee saying that “alternate history would have been bankruptcy” if the studio hadn't been acquired, adding that “Destiny is an incredibly expensive game to make.”

As for Destiny 2's future, Kotaku's Moises Taveras paints a much less timely timeline for the FPS, which isn't surprising considering the studio no longer has much critical talent. “There doesn't seem to be any certainty that Destiny will exist in a few years,” Taveras writes, “or whether it's a priority for the studio outside of being a microtransaction-filled cash cow.”

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