Bungie announced today that it’s laying off more of its employees — specifically, it’s laying off 220 people, or about 17% of its workforce. In addition, it’s also integrating 155 roles into Sony Interactive Entertainment. The developer previously laid off around 100 people in October 2023.
As part of the announcement, Bungie also revealed it was working on a new game. The company plans to spin off development for this project into a new studio in partnership with Sony.
Pete Parsons, Bungie CEO, described the troubles that led to the layoffs in the announcement post. He described how the team stretched themselves thin trying to “ship games in three enduring, global franchises,” and how the economic issues in 2023 began to affect them the same way they did the rest of the games industry, also citing the failure of Destiny 2: Lightfall. “We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red.”
One of those projects was the aforementioned new game: an action title set in a new sci-fi universe. PlayStation Studios plans to form a new studio to continue its incubation and development. According to Parsons, Sony also assisted in finding roles within its own ranks for 155 employees who otherwise might have been part of the layoffs.
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Parsons added that the company made efforts to avert a second round of layoffs. “After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough. ”
He added that the layoffs would affect every level of the company, including the executive and senior leadership roles. Several of the laid-off employees have already spoken up on social media, giving a picture as to who within the company has been affected. So far, these include members of the player support team, the creative department and communications, among others.
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