Bungie is said to be cutting developers and pushing back the release dates for both the highly anticipated Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, and their upcoming Marathon game. Bloomberg reports that an unspecified number of developers have been laid off, while The Final Shape has been postponed from February to June. Likewise, the release of Marathon has been postponed to 2025.
Bungie has remained silent on the matter, but a number of former employees have come forward to reveal that they have been laid off. The downsizing appears to have affected various departments, including editorial, recruiting, and quality assurance. Griffin Bennett, former social media lead, and Jason Guisao, franchise editor, are among those who were let go.
In 2022, Sony acquired Bungie with the aim of gaining insight into the workings of community and live-service games, prompted by the massive success of Destiny 2. Unfortunately, job cuts have become increasingly common in the gaming industry, and Bungie is not the only PlayStation studio facing this issue. Just last week, Media Molecule, the developer of Little Big Planet, also had to let go of some of their team members.
Independent studios often seek to join larger first-party companies in order to achieve stability. Therefore, it is disheartening to witness the occurrence of personnel layoffs. In a recent event, Epic Games let go of approximately 900 employees, including the teams from Bandcamp and Mediatonic (the developers of Fall Guys), following their acquisition.
Editor's P/S
As a Gen Z netizen, I'm deeply concerned about the recent layoffs at Bungie and the delay of Destiny 2: The Final Shape. I've been a fan of the Destiny franchise for years, and I was really looking forward to the new expansion. But now, I'll have to wait even longer to play it.
I'm also worried about the employees who were laid off. The gaming industry is already struggling, and these layoffs are only going to make things worse. I hope that Bungie and Sony can find a way to support their employees during this difficult time.
