The mass layoffs at Bungie, the studio behind Destiny and Halo, are currently occupying the gaming industry. In a major report, renowned journalist Jason Schreier reveals that Bungie may have taken on too much.
What kind of report is this? On the evening of August 2, our time, well-known gaming journalist Jason Schreier published an insider report on Bloomberg regarding the current mass layoffs at Bungie. He spoke with 10 current and former employees of the Destiny developer.
Schreier paints a picture of a studio that has grown too quickly, stretched itself too thin, and reports on the Destiny 3 that never was.
Bungie probably thought they could achieve anything
What was all this about “Bungie Magic”? The “Bungie Magic” is said to have been a mantra of CEO Pete Parsons, whom many employees now accuse of not taking enough responsibility for his misjudgments. Overall, he was described as being “overly optimistic” in his communication with staff.
Apparently, after the acquisition by Sony in 2022, Bungie thought that everything was possible: They hired hundreds of new employees and spread them across a multitude of projects, instead of focusing on Destiny 2, which Schreier referred to as the “chief money maker” or main source of income.
Among the projects were supposed mobile versions of Destiny, remakes of old games, and entirely new franchises.
Schreier compares this miscalculation, the belief that they could achieve anything, to the failure of the BioWare MMO Anthem and the once-popular studio Arkane, which was closed in May 2024.
2023 was apparently a terrible year for Bungie
What went wrong? Bungie’s major problems began to emerge in 2023. The large Lightfall expansion of Destiny 2 did lead to player records, but it left the community disappointed.
The planned extraction shooter Marathon did not come together properly, and the major story finale The Final Shape also required more time than anticipated. By the end of 2023, the dire situation was reportedly discussed in a meeting. Parsons informed the staff that the company had missed its revenue targets by 45% and was losing money.
Bungie subsequently postponed The Final Shape and Marathon, both of which received new leadership. Around 100 employees were laid off.
According to the report, employees hoped that more time for The Final Shape would lead to a better product, but even the positive reviews could not prevent the layoffs that had long been in progress by this time.
In a blog post where Parsons announced the layoffs on July 31, the CEO admitted they had become too large. Instead of “Bungie Magic,” it was said: “We were overly ambitious.”
The expansion The Final Shape was a beacon of hope for the employees:
Destiny 3 was not canceled – it never existed
What kind of game was this? As Schreier clarifies, a sequel to Destiny 2 was reportedly never in development. Instead, a title called Payback was being worked on, which was to take place in the Destiny universe but would deviate far from the proven formula. Thus, it was more of a spin-off than a sequel.
Payback was said to have adopted elements from Warframe and Genshin Impact. Instead of exploring the world in first person, players were supposed to explore it in third person and cooperate to defeat monsters and solve puzzles. It has now been revealed that the project has been canceled, personnel have been fired, or reassigned to Marathon, which is set to be released in 2025.
What’s next? Destiny 2 is likely to take a different direction with new director Tyson Green, which some of the interviewed employees may view positively. While the “Money Maker” is still supposed to receive updates, it seems that instead of major paid expansions, they want to attract both existing and new players with smaller content drops.
These plans will now have to be implemented by the remaining Bungie staff with fewer people and tighter schedules. And that in a studio that probably has little in common with the one from three years ago: Fans are glad that not so many Destiny developers were fired, but the reality looks different
