Today Destiny 2 developer Bungie shared unfortunate news, as the company is looking to lay off 17% of its workforce.
According to the announcement made on the official website and signed directly by CEO Pete Parsons, 220 roles will be eliminated, while 155 more roles (representing 12% of the company’s workforce) will be integrated into the studio’s parent company, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The layoffs won’t hit just the base of the company but will also include “most” of the studio’s executives and senior leaders.
Parsons promises that those affected will be supported “with the utmost care and respect.” Everyone will be offered “a generous exit package, including severance, bonus, and health coverage.”
According to the executive, this was a necessary decision taken to refocus the studio and its business with more realistic goals and viable financials after “exhausting all other mitigation options.”
Another consequence of this refocusing is that an action game in development at Bungie based on a new sci-fi IP, defined as “promising,” will be pinned out to a new studio within PlayStation Studios. Bungie will continue to work on Destiny 2 and its semi-recently announced Marathon.
This is not the first time Bungie has to lay off a significant part of its employees. About 100 of them were let go late last year, causing a delay of both Destiny’s latest expansion The Final Shape, and Marathon.
This is another unfortunate episode of the many layoffs that hit the gaming industry over the past year or so, including the recent case at Humble Games.
In the meanwhile, the unionization effort is continuing and starting to take root, with Blizzard Entertainment’s team working on World of Warcraft creating a wall-to-wall union involving every department.
