Summary
Bungieis apparently still hiring after the company laid off 220 employees on July 31. The redundancies amounted to approximately 17 percent of the game studio’s total workforce and wiped out some teams entirely. This decision byBungiecame less than two months after the launch of The Final Shape, by many metricsDestiny 2’s most successful expansion to date.
Along with the significant number of Bungie employees who unexpectedly found themselves without employment, another 12 percent received news that their roles would be integrated with Sony Interactive Entertainment in the coming months. This move will help prevent furtherlayoffs at Bungie, according to CEO Pete Parsons, which he states were a necessary cost-cutting measure despite the positive reception of its latest release.
It’s also been noticed that there are still four open job roles posted on Bungie’s career website. Two of these are for the developer’supcoming PvP extraction shooterMarathon, one listing is for aDestiny 2gameplay designer, and the last is for a release manager in the marketing department. Granted, websites are not always immediately updated to reflect nascent events. It’s also to be expected that, while some roles have been cut, others might still need filling. However, in light of the layoffs, the optics for Bungie are not ideal.
Roles Bungie May Be Hiring For
The recent events at the studio are particularly painful for employees becauseBungie was just hit with layoffs in October, making it the fourth Sony subsidiary to receive cutbacks that month. Layoffs in the gaming industry have been happening with concerning regularity for the past couple of years. Some of these have been attributed to overhiring during the pandemic, as well as the subsequent economic downturn. Others, including these latest redundancies at Bungie, have been laid at the feet of management.
In fact, in astatement released on July 31, CEO Pete Parsons explained that Bungie had been “overly ambitious” and consequently “stretched [its] talent too thin, too quickly.” Simultaneously, the company scaled to an unsustainable size that — coupled with instability in the games industry, the disappointing performance ofDestiny 2: Lightfall,and general economic conditions — caused it to fall financially into the red. These admissions, along with Pete Parson’s personal spending habits, have caused Bungie employees to believe that this most recent round of layoffs could have been at least somewhat avoided.
Nevertheless, even in the wake of employment uncertainty, recently affected Bungie staffers are still proud of the work they did during their time at the developer. One former member of the QA team took to social media to express herexcitement for the nextDestiny 2raidand stated that she’ll probably still play it at launch.
