Bungie developers have been “begging” leadership to make necessary changes to win players back

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Bungie developers have been “begging” leadership to make necessary changes to win players back.

Speaking to multiple current and recently laid off employees, IGN has confirmed reports that Bungie took responsibility for the layoffs, rather than laying them at the feet of parent company Sony. Parsons told employees that the layoffs were largely due to underperformance of Destiny 2 over the last year, as well as lower-than-expected preorders for upcoming expansion The Final Shape.

IGN can now independently confirm reports that The Final Shape has been delayed to June 2024, and Marathon has been internally delayed to 2025 after having been in development since 2019.

Employees were also told that Destiny 2 player sentiment was at an all-time low. Sources tell IGN that this issue had been flagged to leadership repeatedly for months prior to the layoffs, with employees begging for necessary changes to win players back.

One former Bungie employee recalled that they were repeatedly assured following the 2022 Sony acquisition of Bungie that there would be no layoffs, and cited an item from a Sony quarterly report that claimed $1.2 billion of the $4 billion acquisition was going explicitly toward staff retention.. 

Multiple employees confirmed that money was distributed to employees who were fully vested, with money split into multiple payments over time and varying based on discipline and seniority.

Other employees also told IGN they felt especially frustrated with the layoffs given that the company had completed work on a brand new headquarters, more than double the size of its previous office and likely a pricey upgrade in Bellevue, Washington. [Note: The archived Bungie blog article was available this morning when we first drafted this piece, but as of 3:00pm PT today appeared to have been taken down. Update 3:43pm: It’s back online.]

Parsons was criticized in some quarters for calling the layoffs a “sad day at Bungie” in a tweet which similarly angered several employees we spoke to. Do you love the challenge of designing great gameplay? Are you excited to do the hard work of creating understanding across a large team to what you are trying to achieve, and take them along for the journey through development? Do you obsess over core game feel like camera FOV/shake changes, controller rumble values, and other behind the scenes tuning knobs? Are you a game designer looking to work on AAA games with talented and passionate people in a team environment? If so, we have the job for you! Bungie is looking for a passionate and creative Weapons Feature Lead for Destiny 2!

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