Bungie announced today a significant round of layoffs due to ongoing challenges with the rising costs of game development.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape received critical acclaim, but even this well-regarded conclusion to the Light and Darkness saga could not avert today’s unfortunate news. In a post on their website, Bungie's CEO disclosed that the studio has laid off 220 employees, representing 17% of the company's workforce. Parsons attributed the layoffs to increasing game development costs and continued global economic uncertainty.

He explained that the company had expanded too rapidly, stretching its team thin across Destiny 2, Marathon, and several ambitious incubation projects. According to Parsons, this dispersal of talent led to issues, resulting in the heavily criticized Destiny 2: Lightfall being a 'quality miss' and causing delays for Marathon. Ultimately, Bungie was operating at a loss.

Further Integration with PlayStation Bungie was fully acquired by Sony in 2022 but remained independent from PlayStation Studios, operating autonomously as long as the studio performed well. Initially, there was optimism that Bungie could provide valuable expertise to Sony's upcoming live service games. However, the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall led to a decline in engagement and in-game purchases. Rumors of a PlayStation takeover have been circulating, and it seems this is now coming to fruition.

As part of today's announcement, Bungie revealed that 155 employees will transition to roles within PlayStation. Additionally, 75 employees working on an incubation project will form a new studio under PlayStation to continue their work. It is currently unknown if Herman Hulst, CEO of the Studio Business Group, will oversee Bungie going forward.

Bungie's Future Despite the significant reduction in workforce, Bungie still employs over 850 team members. While PlayStation will manage the new IPs Bungie has been developing, the studio will continue to focus on Destiny and Marathon. Destiny 2 is currently in the midst of its first "Episode" of post-launch support, hinting at future expansions. Today’s news could potentially lead to the development of Destiny 3. As for Marathon, Bungie has not provided additional details since its initial reveal in May 2023.