Destiny 2 developer Bungie has announced mass layoffs less than two months after the release of the game's massive expansion, The Final Shape. The layoffs were announced in a post on the official Bungie blog.
"This morning, I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio. Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon," began Bungie executive Pete Parsons.
The result is Bungie eliminating 220 roles, which represents roughly 17% of the studio's workforce. The layoffs are said to be at every level of the studio, including "most" executives and senior leader roles. Bungie promises to provide anyone impacted by the layoffs with a "generous exit packing" that includes severance, bonus, and health coverage.
The layoffs are a bit surprising given the reported success of the Final Shape, but Parsons explained "as we’ve navigated the broader economic realities over the last year, and after exhausting all other mitigation options, this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials."
Alongside the layoffs is essentially a studio restructuring. Around 155 roles, or roughly 12% of the studio, are being integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment. Bungie became a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment when the studio was acquired back in July 2022.
Additionally, Bungie is working with Sony leadership to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue the development of one of the developer's incubation projects — an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe.
Parsons pointed to various factors that led to these layoffs, including a rapid expansion in 2023, a quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and a sharp downturn in the games industry. "We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red," he admitted.
Bungie still has over 850 employees working on Destiny and Marathon. There is speculation that these layoffs will impact the potential future of Destiny 3. During the Game Mess Mornings podcast, industry insider Jeff Grubb claimed that Bungie's project, codename Payback, has been canceled. There is some belie that Payback was the codename for the next Destiny, although nothing official has been announced by Bungie.
Development on Marathon — a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter — will presumably continue as is.