Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 2 Author Share Posted August 2 Bungie's deep job cuts were in the works prior to Destiny's most recent release, sources say WWW.GAMEFILE.NEWS The acclaimed studio has been shedding jobs since Sony bought it, but employee ire is focused on Bungie leaders more than the bosses at PlayStation Quote A sizable new round of layoffs had been planned by Bungie management for months, before the launch of the studio's acclaimed Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape this past June, two former Bungie employees told Game File. Quote But Bungie's leaders had overstated their studio's financial prospects to Sony, and Wednesday's cuts were needed to stop continued losses that amounted to an ongoing reality check, three ex-Bungie sources told Game File. "I think Sony overpaid for Bungie," one of the former insiders said, on condition of anonymity to avoid damaging their career. "I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver." Two of the ex-Bungie workers said the studio repeatedly missed financial targets promised to Sony and had been losing money since the release of February 2023's Destiny 2 expansion Lightfall. Lightfall's struggles, along with the decay of the aging Destiny 2's player base and repeated delays to the company's next big game, Marathon, led managers to to a dire conclusion last year: Bungie, a studio initially granted continued autonomy when it was purchased, would need to make deep cuts to show Sony's executives that it was taking its finances seriously, the two sources said. Last October, Bungie laid off around 100 workers, but employees sensed that might not be the end. In March, IGN reported that Bungie developers feared more cuts could follow the June 2024 release of Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape. Those cuts in 2023 were indeed understood internally to be insufficient, two of the ex-Bungie sources told Game File, at least by early early 2024. As a result, Bungie's leadership planned another round. Those cuts couldn't be avoided even if for Destiny 2's 2024 expansion, The Final Shape, had a blockbuster performance, three sources said. Quote (A critique of how Bungie management spent the studio's money popped up unexpectedly last year via a trial exhibit from a lawsuit over Microsoft's bid for Activision. An internal 2021 Xbox document analyzed potential acquisition targets, including Bungie, which Microsoft had owned from 2000-2007. One of the listed risks: "Company is known for its high burn rate.") Quote Multiple Sony executives sit on Bungie's board, as reported by IGN in December, but Bungie leaders have held a majority. Sony nevertheless has leverage over Bungie managers to perform, lest they lose their jobs, two sources noted. For all the stresses of the Sony deal on Bungie, one well-connected former worker at the studio, told Game File, the alternate history where Sony doesn't buy Bungie is worse. "The alternate history is insolvency," they said. Quote At the moment, only Destiny 2 is making the studio any money. The game's June expansion, The Final Shape, was critically acclaimed and hailed as a high point in the decade-long Destiny saga. "And yet it sold less than Lightfall," one of the former Bungie sources told Game File, comparing the two expansion's launch sales. Even the rosiest sales for Final Shape probably couldn't have single handedly turned things around. "The financials just don't work," they said. "Destiny is an incredibly expensive game to make." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy4000 Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 Bungie feels a lot like Rocksteady to me at this point. The difference is I lost all interest in them a decade ago, before Destiny had a name, when they said their goal in essence was to make an MMO shooter. I’m not really a fan of games getting persistent expansion packs for years and years after release. It beats a dead horse, prevents the developers from moving on and pushing new technology. There should still be a place for these sorts of games in this industry, but it’s a shame that Bungie of all companies adopted the model. As a result we get Marathon as a heist game. Ugh. Next we’ll get Oni as a hero shooter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysDyingX Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 On 8/1/2024 at 1:33 PM, Best said: Not surprising but it still is unfortunate. I think only @AlwaysDyingX is the guy here still playing Destiny. With 343's work on Halo Infinite I think Halo is in pretty good hands. But I do miss the Bungie of Halo 1,2, and especially 3. Yep. Still a destiny guy. No game gun play can hold a candle to shooting in Destiny. Halo is a fucking mess. Final Shape was great. 9/10. If thats Destiny's ending I'm ok with it. I have zero faith in Bungie and even less in Sony. I never thought we would see a d3 and I never bought they were working on it. They will milk d2 to the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 Can't trust nobody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 8 Author Share Posted August 8 Sony Details Bungie Restructuring As Large Portions Move To SIE WWW.FORBES.COM While there is not a “takeover” of Bungie by Sony right now, there are large chunks being carved out of the studio that are moving under SIE Quote Sony President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki has now revealed what exactly is happening with a Bungie restructuring in a recent briefing. Among the details: All of what remains of Bungie itself, about 850 people, will be contained and concentrated into Destiny 2 and Marathon development. There are no plans to stop development on Destiny 2 despite recent issues, though as behind the scenes reporting has indicated, content will shrink in scale for the foreseeable future. Everything else besides Marathon and Destiny 2 will move under SIE, this includes back office functions at Bungie, including many roles that were hit by layoffs, and also “other title development” at Bungie will move under SIE. This includes Bungie’s “Gummi Bears” project which is reported to have 40 people moving to SIE in a new sub-studio, but this is the first we’ve heard that this will apply to other projects Bungie is incubating, of which there are a few more. There is more general talk about “cost restructuring, portfolio optimization, optimizing studio structure and enhancing efficiency” at Bungie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal-El814 Posted August 8 Share Posted August 8 This never would have happened if Halo remained a Mac exclusive. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 SIE probably means that contractor abusing sweat shop in San Diego 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brick Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 On 8/1/2024 at 2:18 PM, Spawn_of_Apathy said: All while being extremely cagy on what was coming after Final Shape This is something I've seen mentioned by Datto, Paul Tassi, and others wondering if there will even be any more expansions after TFS, and I've never understood it. When have we EVER known about what's coming after a major expansion before that expansion is ever out? We didn't know what was coming after Forsaken until the Shadowkeep showcase. We didn't know what was coming after Shadowkeep until the Beyond Light showcase. Even though the Beyond Light showcase did tease the next two expansions of The Witch Queen and Lightfall, we didn't know anything about them other than their names. Sure we figured The Witch Queen was going to be about Savathûn but we didn't know it would be about her getting the Light and take place in her Throne World until the showcase for The Witch Queen. We didn't know Lightfall was going to be about Calus invading Neomuna on Neptune, and us getting Strand until the Lightfall showcase. Just like we didn't know The Final Shape was going to take place in The Pale Heart of the Traveler as The Witness corrupts it until The Finale Shape showcase, and even then they didn't reveal everything as we didn't learn about Prismatic and The Dread until months later. Bungie never talks about what comes next until their yearly showcases, so I'm sure we'll have to wait for the next showcase to learn what the next major thing is, even if unconfirmed reports are saying they may be scaled down expansions, which if true would have been planned well before these layoffs took place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted August 9 Share Posted August 9 Sentiment Around Bungie's Marathon 'Not Great,' Says Jason Schreier THEGAMEPOST.COM Jason Schreier shares a troubling outlook on Bungie’s Marathon, describing the sentiment as "not great." Quote "Not great, from what I've heard," Schreier said when asked about the sentiment around Marathon. "There's a reason it was planned for this year and slipped a whole year." "People that I've talked to are a little pessimistic about it even hitting its current planned deadline, but we'll see. I don't know exactly when that is, sometime in 2025, I'm not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 2 hours ago, Brian said: Sentiment Around Bungie's Marathon 'Not Great,' Says Jason Schreier THEGAMEPOST.COM Jason Schreier shares a troubling outlook on Bungie’s Marathon, describing the sentiment as "not great." I'd dare say that sentiment surrounding the entirety of Bungie itself could probably be described as "not great". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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