Bungie studio head and chief executive officer Pete Parsons has announced that after 23 years with the studio, he is stepping down from his role and leaving the studio, and will be replaced by chief development officer Justin Truman.
The news was announced with a blog post on Bungie's official website, with Parsons saying he is "passing the torch" to Truman, whom he has "full confidence" in as the person to move Bungie forward. Parsons has been the studio head since 2015, and has overseen the studio through some of its biggest highs, including the initial launch and success of Destiny 2, and more recently, its greatest lows, with multiple plagiarism cases, several rounds of mass layoffs, and a significant amount of internal turmoil, with former Bungie employees pointing the blame for all of Bungie's woes directly at Parsons and the rest of Bungie leadership.
"Today marks the right time for a new beginning. The future of Bungie will be in the hands of a new generation of leaders," Parsons wrote.
For Truman's part, he reflected on his 15 years with the studio so far, as he moved from engineer, to designer, to producer, and to his current role before taking over as studio head as the chief development officer.
"Across all of these different roles, Bungie’s purpose has stayed clear: 'We create worlds that inspire friendship,'" Truman wrote. "When we’re at our best – we create those worlds alongside you, our player community, and build something that matters. Something that’s worth your time, your passion, and your investment in us. Something that I’ve learned, hopefully, overdelivers."
Truman continued to briefly address the fact that Bungie has been having a rough go, to say the least, in recent years. To that end, Truman says he "personally learned a lot over the years," and that he is "committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them."
Will this really be a time of change for Bungie going forward? Only time will tell, but seeing as how Truman is part of that leadership suite that former employees were blaming Bungie's issues on, it could be more of the same. Hopefully, those former employees, and everyone else who has lost faith in Bungie in recent years, can be proven wrong.
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