Bungie Reportedly Made Layoff Decisions, Not Sony

New information reveals further details regarding the layoffs that hit Destiny 2 developer Bungie, with Bungie allegedly choosing to terminate staff.

[stonecold3]

the fanboy and destin made a. video out yesterday tried to blame sony for destin need to make a video out of the developer who left ms

[ravens52]

Destin is a fanboy. I'm subscribed to his channel, I know lol.

[PunksOnN4G]

Lol yep I still remember when little Caesars roasted him on Twitter cuz he was mad as hell about thier promo with ps lol

[Eonjay]

Destin doesn't try to hide that he is a fanboy. One hopes he is able to separate that from his professional job at IGN.

[DivineHand125]

Don't mistake fan for fanboy. When Xbox screws up, I usually see a video from Destin roosting Xbox. A fanboy would never do that.

[Hypertension140]

@Eonjay

Looking at the Forza Motorsport vs GT7 video, he really isn't.

Using words like "miles better" to describe the things he thinks look better on Forza to calling things "Exaggerated" when GT7 does it better.

He also skipped over the car models and physics and only mentioned the VR once, like it didn't matter.

[Obscure_Observer]

Destin is calling Sony out on their recent decisions just like a few PS fans on N4G has the courage to do.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[ModsDoBetter]

If only quicksilver had the courage to do us all a favor and stop hiding behind alt accounts when they go full keyboard warrior.

[itsmebryan]

Sony has a lot of people "leaving " or getting laid off lately. Interesting 🤔

[jznrpg]

Wait until you see the aftermath of the ABK deal. A lot will be redefined from a few to actually a lot.

[BehindTheRows]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/0...

Nothing "interesting" about it. It's simply a tough time for the tech industry.

[Good-Smurf]

After his shady FM vs GT7 comparison, I'm not surprised.
He's still the same nerdy Xbox fan and influencer that treats his audience like idiots.
He just got paid more to be seemingly "neutral" by IGN.

[-Foxtrot]

Got to remember aswell, Sony even gave them $1.2 billion to keep employees at the studio yet this shit still happened

https://www.eurogamer.net/s...

[BeHunted]

Sounds like Fraud

[Redemption-64]

Could depend on who they are laying off. If memory serves me right, they went on a hiring spree when Sony acquired them

[DivineHand125]

They fired the guy who made the sound track for the Halo games and the 2 destiny games. This one raised a few eyebrows.

[Redemption-64]

@DivineHand125

Not really sure why. They could have found a cheaper person or they couldn't agree with something. At the end of the day, I can't say what is going on, and these lay offs across the industry is becoming alarming. Also, if am not mistaken, didn't both Bungie/343 have issues with the guys that made the soundtrack to their games?

[OptimusDK]

They are firing veterans to avoid paying bonuses from the Sony boyout. Dick move by bungie

[PapaBop]

Looking at how it's unfolding, I think Sony actually should get involved, have an internal investigation then get rid of like 90% of the upper management. Let go of some of their most talented developers like Michael Salvatori at possibly one of the worst times of the year to do it, while the untouchable higher ups get their nice fat juicy christmas bonuses. It's disgusting.

[kayoss]

Bungie is a public traded company. They have to answer to investors. The fact that they missed their projections by 45%, they needed to make cuts from somewhere to account for those numbers. In a lot of videos ive seen, a lot of people seems to not know the difference between being fired and laid off.

[--Onilink--]

Except they arent, they are now just a division of Sony and only answer to Sony.

Even before they werent technically publicly traded as in an IPO, they were an LLC. They still answered to members, not shareholders and they didnt issue stock either

[sparky77]

This missed their revenue target by 45% apparently no wonder there were layoff.

Destiny just isn't growing anymore.

[-Foxtrot]

The thing about Destiny is it has its fans and it will only have its fans, it's not something they can grow where they will produce something which will change peoples minds. If people didn't care for the first game and then tried out the second and still didn't care for it even letting all the expansion and updates fly by then they aren't coming back....and I think Bungie know that.

It's why I don't understand they are still continuing their GaaS push on games like Marathon rather than having a remake of the original

[Dandizzle]

Not true, Destiny senior leadership and devs are comprised of some OG Halo guys. They created two huge franchisees, I wouldn't count them out just yet.

[-Foxtrot]

Sure if you want to think that

People tried Destiny - Some didn’t care for it and left

Those same people then tried Destiny 2 - Give it another chance, most of them didn’t stick around

The expansion probably weren’t even touched by them aswell

So what makes you think a lot of the people who tried and tried again are going to try Destiny 3 or future expansions?

They won’t stick around, Destiny has its core fans and that’s as much as they are going to get.

[kayoss]

@foxtrot
I think you're spot on. This is why over the past few years, Bungie added an easier way for new players to jump right in. However, with any live service game, it charge you to use those incentives.

@Dandizzle
Destiny 2 will be played for many more years, however their player count will never be the same again. I believe that Lightfall was the turning point and now the news of layoffs is the straw that broke the camel's back,

[Neonridr]

Destiny is in its swan song at this point. The Final Shape will be the last expansion, with a planned 3 seasons (to carry through a full year). After that it will be drip content to try to keep the hardcore around. But basically this game is dead come summer 2025.

[ChronoJoe]

No way. The final shape is the end of its current narrative ark. They still have tens of millions of players, there’s no way they’ll throw that away.

Post final shape might mean Destiny 3, or it might mean a revamp of Destiny 2, we don’t know. But Bungie won’t give up on the series, it’s literally their lifeblood.

[Neonridr]

@ChronoJoe - the bulk of the team has moved on to Marathon. Destiny is dying its slow death. I assure you.

[PapaBop]

Yeah, they let go all the people who actually cared about the future of the game and actually understood the fanbase and contributed great ideas that would have improved things, then kept all the idiots upstairs who denied those same great ideas.

The game isn't growing because it's a complete clusterf**k, it's so difficult for new players to get into and then they took all the great things they've done over in Beyond Light and Witch Queen and then ruined all that with Lightfall which story is so bad, it makes the original Destiny story look like a masterpiece.

[EmperorDalek]

It looks as though Bungie inflated their revenue target prior to the Sony sale to prop themselves up, it was never a realistic target. Especially not when they release a below par expansion like Lightfall in a year as packed as 2023.

[Gamer75]

Wouldn't Sony have been made aware of what was going to happen seeing as they own Bungie or were they kept in the dark ?

[Gamer75]

I don't know what people are disagreeing for as I'm asking along the lines of did Bungie inform Sony about what was going to happen or did they keep it to themselves

[Eonjay]

I think it goes back to the whole independent thing. They basically stipulated as part of their acquisition that they could still operate independently. It's why they will continue to make Xbox games.

[kayoss]

Sony owns Bungie, however, when Sony bought bungie. The agreement was that Bungie will operates as its own entity. This means that the majority of the decisions making will come from Bungie themselves. This is the main reason why Bungie games will remain multiplatform.

[--Onilink--]

Yes that was part of the deal, but it would also be a bit disingenuous to think it means full independence and no decisions have to go through Sony.

I would find it hard to believe that if one of their “divisions” will do something as big as laying off 10% of their staff, that its not something that has to be brought up with Sony.

The point of the article is I guess more about saying the layoffs weren’t ordered by Sony, not that Sony is completely out of the loop on it

[maniacmayhem]

Doubt it, Sony clarified they were going to keep the employees working. They probably saw the numbers from Destiny 2 and dropped some hints that cuts had to be made on your end.

This and supposedly Insomniac is rumored to be making some layoffs also

Very bad time in the tech industry.

[DivineHand125]

If anything I think insomniac should be growing since they are over there carrying playstation through this generation.

[Rude-ro]

Sony gave ANOTHER 1.2 billion purely for employee retention for bungie.

Regardless, bungie has a horrible management team and big aspirations.

They tried to be an activision with only one active game… and they used said player base as an atm.

Sony could drop hints… but does it matter?
What is the threat? Dissolving the studio?
They could, but it would only be on bungie, their management and inability to properly run a company.

[kayoss]

Bungie spending money left and right. They just spend billions on a new facility. So youre right, management and decision making at Bungie needs to be looked at.

[Lionsguard]

I'll never understand this purchase, what a waste of money.

[Shane Kim]

Sony want Gaas money, that's why.

[ZwVw]

You can thank Jim Ryan for that. He was so flustered by the MS/Acti-Blizz acquisition announcement, that he hastily responded by purchasing an highly overpriced, over-the-hill Bungie. When he could have purchased Crystal Dynamics (along with the Tomb Raider IP) from SquareEnix for a fraction of the price.

[BehindTheRows]

That's ...... not how it works at all.

[boing1]

Only few developers are capable of delivering 'the next big thing' imo. I would say Bungie is (or was?) one of them. Whatever the purchase was for back then, it probably wasn't just because of Destiny. Must have been something new, or some amazing tech.

[Kayser81]

insomniac is laying off their employees also .

[ModsDoBetter]

There was a rumour about layoffs at insomniac too.

Not sure what's happening in the industry right now but reports came out that D2 has been underperforming resulting in these layoffs.

https://www.google.com/amp/...

[ModsDoBetter]

Why the disagrees about facts?
There's layoffs at insomniac and bungie?

[MrNinosan]

This should be obvious by anyone who followed the buyout of Bungie 1,5 year ago.
Sony and Bungie stated right away that Bungie will still be "independent" and release their games etc wherever they want.

This is a quick google search away, found on Forbes:
"The Bungie/Sony deal seems to have resulted in the best terms of all. Not only is Destiny staying multiplatform and not becoming a Sony exclusive, but Bungie has said it will remain independently operated and be able to release its future new games and IPs multiplatform as well."

[Petebloodyonion]

"new information shared by an undisclosed internal source via Forbes' Paul Tassi"
I guess it's a credible source...

[mastershredder]

It's still trickle-down clippings and Bungie gets to choose who they shed due to their budget constraints (the hand that feeds is just as responsible as the clipper). As if Bungie has done anything to warrant a big cash injection from their new master. When you play one-trick pony games, you get one-trick pony prizes. There is nothing outrageous about this. Business as Usual / Normal. Moving on.