The lauded expansion has apparently sold worse than the panned Lightfall
This week’smass layoffsatDestinystudio Bungie were planned out months ago, former employees have told journalist Stephen Totilo atGame File(paywalled).
According to Totilo, Bungie leadership “overstated their studios financial prospects to Sony” after the latterbought Bungie in 2022for $3.6 billion.
The latest cuts were necessary to prevent continued losses, says the report, after Bungie missed Sonys targets following the release of last years Lightfall.
On Wednesday, it emerged that Bungie were laying off 220 people - about 17% of their total workforce - across multiple departments including design, art, narrative, and sound.
Additionally, they announced the transfer of a further 155 roles to SIE, with the aim to form a new PlayStation studio working on an untitled incubation project.
CEO Pete Parsonsattributedthe upheaval to dire financial straits at the studio, mentioning a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, and our quality miss withDestiny 2: Lightfall.
Although Totilos sources point out that the well-received Final Shape actually sold worse than the panned Lightfall, the recent layoffs seemingly have little to do with the Final Shapes commercial performance either way, and couldn’t be avoided even if The Final Shape had “blockbuster performance.
The layoffs sound to be a continuation of the cuts made last October, which saw around 100 staff laid off, including veteran composer Michael Salvatori.
The report also suggests that Bungies financial troubles existed long before the Sony acquisition, with one former employee saying the “alternate history is insolvency” if the studio werent acquired, adding “Destiny is an incredibly expensive game to make.
As for the future of Destiny 2 itself, Moises Taveras at Kotakupaints a pictureof a much-diminished on-going timeline for theFPS, which is unsurprising given how much critical talent is no longer with the studio.
There looks like it’s no certainty that Destiny will even be around in a few years, writes Taveras, or that its a priority to the studio outside of being a cash cow riddled with microtransactions.
