Bungie's layoffs came directly from Bungie, not Sony. Updated Bloomberg article.

[ethomaz]

Looks like normal yearly layoff for company health.
It is like less than 10%.

Company I work averages at 7% per year.

Of course these are layoffs... it doesn't count the new contracts... like the company I work contracted more than these 7% layoff so the number of employees increased.

 

[John Elden Ring]

Sony’s Bungie Game Unit Cut 8% of Staff After ‘Destiny’ Play Wilted

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2.

www.bloomberg.com

According to a new Bloomberg Report, Bungie sales last year were very low:

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2.

Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting.

Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall.

The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product.

 

[Zzero]

Sony better double down and go back to focusing on those money making campaigns, not having split resources. I wonder what would have been the scenario of Bungie focused on making Destiny 3 instead of this gaas model.

Destiny was always GaaS, I much prefer this to an Overwatch 2 style same shit but pay us 60 dollars model. And wasn't that a big part of their falling out with Activision?

Edit: As to D2 underperforming, they had a bad expansion and it was a very competitive year so people played other stuff. Its on them to have a resurgence or shuffle on to WoW-like zombification.

 

[Vertigo]

It could last forever and it could be doing way way better than it is...

The key would be to streamline monetization, which is currently out of control.

I think they need to focus on expansions and include the dungeons and everything in the expansion, maybe just increase the base price to 60 instead of 50...and leave it at that.

Have seasons be free for better engagement and just update the eververse seasonally.

Seasons are over. 23 is the last one and then it moves to episodic. This could have changed as of like yesterday again tho.

Their MT store has always been a failure. There’s very little reason to engage with it. For what? Ghosts and sparrow skins? Their reoccuring revenue streams are the expansions and content drops.

They’ve stated disappointment in mt performance. I can see them making a good chunk of the game f2p again to prop player engagement . They should…. I could also see this latest in-game economy revamp feature more material purchases be shortcutted for those paying dollars.

The cuts being because destiny brought in less money is unsurprising. Player engagement is low compared to its usual. Even while better than most competitors it’s a pretty big drop.

Good year content wise but it feels like filler whereas lightfall was made as filler to begin with too. I’ve played the least ever myself. Mostly because most of the rng hooks are gone due to crafting arguably ruining endgame chase in ways.

Good to hear Final Shape delay is to work on bettering the game than just the cuts to workforce being the only cause.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Looks like normal yearly layoff for company health.
It is like less than 10%.

Company I work averages at 7% per year.

Of course these are layoffs... it doesn't count the new contracts... like the company I work contracted more than these 7% layoff so the number of employees increased.

But this is one different because there is a link with Sony, Halo and Microsoft. Basically they are using this to console wars. They worked on Halo and Sony is firing them

8% is also less than I thought since the story was so big.

Legend Michael Salvatore...

I didn't know the guy but that's nice of him.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Destiny was always GaaS, I much prefer this to an Overwatch 2 style same shit but pay us 60 dollars model. And wasn't that a big part of their falling out with Activision?

GaaS or not Destiny 2 released only three years after Destiny one which is what I'm really referring too. You want to push ten year gaas plans with Destiny 2 it don't look like it's going to work out just like Halo.

 

[Eggman]

Jason Schreier can be such a little shit reporter when it comes to Playstation

He added in his article speculation from some random analyst that there is "restructuring" going on at Sony because of the layoffs at Naughty Dog and Media Molecule.

Both of those layoffs had nothing to do with restructuring, they have because of the multiplayer game struggling so they laid of 20 contractors and Media Molecule laying off support staff for Dreams as the service is ending and they go full on their next prefect.

But of course he had to quote some random analyst

Not to mention him constantly needing to title his article "Sony's Bungie" constantly

 

[Bryank75]

Seasons are over. 23 is the last one and then it moves to episodic. This could have changed as of like yesterday again tho.

Their MT store has always been a failure. There’s very little reason to engage with it. For what? Ghosts and sparrow skins? Their reoccuring revenue streams are the expansions and content drops.

They’ve stated disappointment in mt performance. I can see them making a good chunk of the game f2p again to prop player engagement . They should…. I could also see this latest in-game economy revamp feature more material purchases be shortcutted for those paying dollars.

The cuts being because destiny brought in less money is unsurprising. Player engagement is low compared to its usual. Even while better than most competitors it’s a pretty big drop.

Good year content wise but it feels like filler whereas lightfall was made as filler to begin with too. I’ve played the least ever myself. Mostly because most of the rng hooks are gone due to crafting arguably ruining endgame chase in ways.

Good to hear Final Shape delay is to work on bettering the game than just the cuts to workforce being the only cause.

As someone who dropped off several times, I find the grind to level up for raids and high end content very annoying and it takes weeks for me usually and sometimes I never reach the levels for the high end content.... so I just lose interest.

Maybe that makes me a bad D2 player but I just dont have time like that anymore. I can't grind for hours and hours to access content that is similar to what I grinded to access in the previous expansion.

I'm sure they've thought about that and there are probably people who love the grind and maybe outnumber people like me... so it's hard to know how the numbers play out.

 

[Vertigo]

As someone who dropped off several times, I find the grind to level up for raids and high end content very annoying and it takes weeks for me usually and sometimes I never reach the levels for the high end content.... so I just lose interest.

Maybe that makes me a bad D2 player but I just dont have time like that anymore. I can't grind for hours and hours to access content that is similar to what I grinded to access in the previous expansion.

I'm sure they've thought about that and there are probably people who love the grind and maybe outnumber people like me... so it's hard to know how the numbers play out.

They kinda removed that power grind as well. It doesn’t exist for me in any form and hasn’t since lightfall. They’re concerned about fully doin it so the artificial numbers go up isn’t gone but they communicate moving towards it.

New seasonal activities in rotation for instance are pretty good compared to any previous kind of similar drop too. No reason to do it tho. Fucking none. I already got my crafted weapon patterns. Before you played the activity for an actual drop chance. Now it’s just there and waiting to be rolled into a f2p strike playlist. And that’s the paid stuff. Best stuff and content this season are actually free and the only thing really worth checking out. Why buy the season? For the narrative? Meh…

A lot of the hooks and addict design have been moved away from and there are consequences. Now I just log in because I actually just enjoy playing PvP or feel like playing a raid. While that is a bit more ideal player design wise and valuing my game time etc… we kinda have conflicting game designs here ya know? It’s also hurt their revenue streams. So revert back to full rng?

This entire year feels like rebuilding the game for final shape’s launch and that 4 month delay is gonna need an emergency move to make a good chunk of old expansions free like with the original f2p launch (now not much for free players) .

 

[Eggman]

Jason Schreier can be such a little shit reporter when it comes to Playstation

He added in his article speculation from some random analyst that there is "restructuring" going on at Sony because of the layoffs at Naughty Dog and Media Molecule.

Both of those layoffs had nothing to do with restructuring, they have because of the multiplayer game struggling so they laid of 20 contractors and Media Molecule laying off support staff for Dreams as the service is ending and they go full on their next prefect.

But of course he had to quote some random analyst

Not to mention him constantly needing to title his article "Sony's Bungie" constantly

I sometimes forget that both Schreier and Takashi work for the same publication. Taking a page from his book throwing in a random speculation quote from a random analyst

 

[Gamernyc78]

I sometimes forget that bit Schreier and Takashi work for the same publication. Taking a page from his book throwing in a random speculation quote from a random analyst

And sensationalizing for clicks.

 

[Vertigo]

Pete Parsons Tells Employees Bungie Kept the ‘Right People’ to Work on Destiny 2 - IGN

In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

www.ign.com

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Epic games fired over 800 people, the era thread is 12 pages.

The Bungie thread is already at almost 30 pages and it's going fast. Probably 50 pages by tomorrow. The power of Sony

 

[Loy310]

100 people?
wow, 2 days of outrage for 100 workers who can get jobs anywhere with their experience and work history.
I think Bungie disguised getting rid of expensive long time employees here.
Sucks but when a company product dont check all the budget boxes heads are gonna roll in this capitalist economy.

 

[Gamernyc78]

100 people?
wow, 2 days of outrage for 100 workers who can get jobs anywhere with their experience and work history.
I think Bungie disguised getting rid of expensive long time employees here.
Sucks but when a company product dont check all the budget boxes heads are gonna roll in this capitalist economy.

Either that or we are stuck playing pachinko games or having to go to gaming cafes/arcades

 

[Cool hand luke]

Sony mandated the cuts (either in costs or headcount) but Bungie decided how to implement them. He was nice enough to clarify/correct himself.

More fanfiction from you. Bloomberg attributes this being part of a Sony money-saving initiative to no one (poor journalism) and then quotes an analyst who speculates it's restructuring.

 

[Bryank75]

Epic games fired over 800 people, the era thread is 12 pages.

The Bungie thread is already at almost 30 pages and it's going fast. Probably 50 pages by tomorrow. The power of Sony

They always have the pitchforks ready for Sony.

I don't like seeing people lose their jobs but comparatively it's not so bad... there have been countless companies with more layoffs in gaming this year.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Epic games fired over 800 people, the era thread is 12 pages.

The Bungie thread is already at almost 30 pages and it's going fast. Probably 50 pages by tomorrow. The power of Sony

It does feel like the outrage is being amped on this one for some odd reason. There have been huge studio layoffs every week for tthe past year and none of them generated this amount of attention.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

It does feel like the outraged is being amped on this one for some odd reason. There have been huge studio layoffs every week for tthe past year and none of them generated this amount of attention.

Yep. Destin, Paul, Jason, Bloomberg, IGN, everybody is making a big focus on it. The comments are absolutely savage with people cancelling and boycotting The Last Shape.

I don't remember this much outrage since the Activision scandal. For 100 employees

I'm more worried about the 45% drop in revenue. Sony will be stuck paying to keep the lights on at Bungie. Their own money won't suffice.

 

[Vertigo]

Missing projections target by 45% is a bit different than a 45% drop in revenue.

Meaning they expected more from Lightfall with possibly the previous year’s growth for comparison. Player numbers are down year from last year similar point in season by a sizable amount.

Filler expansions and seasons have consequences. Witch Queen did wonders for player sentiments and that entire year. As a player it’s a tangible feeling where as this year feels like “work in progress… wait till final shape.”

With the 8 percent cut Bungie has still grown 200 employees since the Sony deal.

This is up there with previous Bungie drama. Most likely surpasses them. Salvatori is just as huge of a loss creatively as when Marty left. And they lost two composers with these cuts. I love the music in these games. This is huge. Legendary shoes to fill.

The irony is this posturing and pandering Bungie does when Parsons has shown to consistently do asshole spreadsheet moves and should be expected to.