85%
Highly Likely
Just yesterday, we reported a rumor from French journalist Sylvain Trinel (BFM TV) that even PlayStation Studios would be affected by the latest wave of layoffs in the games industry, and now he has specifically named Bungie.
The studio, based in Bellevue, Washington, and known mainly for creating Halo and Destiny, might be about to hit hard, according to Trinel's sources:
And if that weren't enough, Bungie is expected to undergo massive layoffs this summer. I'm treading carefully here, but I've heard that at least 50% of the workforce (both permanent and contract employees) will be affected following the end of Destiny 2 and the situation with Marathon. This really hits close to home for me because Bungie is a studio close to my heart, and none of this would have happened if things had been handled properly. It’s very sad, and my thoughts go out to the developers who poured their hearts and souls into their respective worlds.
This news, however, was far from unexpected. Bungie recently announced that Destiny 2's development had reached its end with the Monument's Triumph update; shortly after that announcement, Bloomberg reported that Destiny 3 was not in development and "significant layoffs" were inbound.
The studio's most recent game, the sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon, isn't doing that great, either. Despite a strong critical reception, it failed to gain traction, even after the release of the experimental PvE-only mode that debuted earlier this month in Season 2: Nightfall. So, it's not really much of a stretch to imagine parent company Sony will cut a sizable number of jobs soon, especially after booking an impairment loss of $800 million under Bungie's name, recognizing that their worth is lower than anticipated (and definitely much lower than the $3.6 billion Sony paid in 2022 to purchase the studio).
Ironically enough, this happens just as Destiny 2 has re-entered Steam's weekly Top 3 chart by revenue. Granted, that's partly because the whole Destiny 2 collection is currently 52% off.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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