Following the shocking news that Bungie is ending any further development for Destiny 2, Bloomberg reports that the studio is about to suffer a significant round of layoffs. That's because there is currently no new game project to reassign those employees to, and even Destiny 3 is not in active production. That refutes rumors shared in late 2025 by Bungie leakers who had claimed that the next installment in the franchise was already in early development. It is sad news for all the millions of players who are fond of the sci-fi universe created by the studio, though this is not the end.
Bungie does plan to pitch new games, including in the Destiny IP. Even the official news mentioned they would start "incubating" projects, but there's no guarantee any of them will ever be released, especially in the challenging economic environment. It does not help that the costs of running the studio in expensive Bellevue are quite high. While these new pitches move forward, the studio will be hard at work improving and expanding Marathon, its newly released extraction shooter game that was well received by critics but has not yet found a large audience.
This will be the third round of layoffs at Bungie since Sony acquired the company for $3.6 billion:
- October 2023: Around 100 employees were laid off, alongside delays to two game projects.
- July 2024: A further 220 employees were cut, representing roughly 17% of the studio's total workforce at the time, along with 155 more roles being transferred to Sony Interactive Entertainment rather than eliminated outright.
Combined, those two rounds brought Bungie's headcount from around 1,200 to roughly 850 employees, a staggering 40% reduction in under a year. CEO Pete Parsons acknowledged at the time that the studio had been "overly ambitious" in its expansion plans. Parsons eventually left Bungie in August 2025, replaced by Justin Truman.
In the latest Sony financial report, we also learned that the Japanese corporation was forced to book an $800 million impairment loss, acknowledging that Bungie's value is lower than their original estimate.
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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