The news is out: Bungie is not doing well. Many positions have been cut and projects shelved, but what does it look like on the Destiny front? Pete Parsons, the CEO of the studio, claims to have retained 850 developers and in this security, the fans of the loot shooter find comfort, but the truth is different.
What have I missed? This time, nothing in Destiny, but a lot at Bungie. The studio is facing major restructuring. 450 employees have been let go – either fired or reassigned to other teams. Many Bungie projects have been cut, and the focus will now be exclusively on Marathon and Destiny 2.
According to Pete Parsons, the CEO of Bungie, however, a large part of the developers has been retained. Only a few teams were affected, but with the capacity they still have, they can manage Destiny 2 and Marathon.
Fans are trying to comfort themselves with this knowledge and hope that Destiny 2 can still continue to exist. However, when looking at the developers actually laid off by Bungie, the future of the loot shooter does not look promising.
Will there still be a future after these events?
The key figures of Destiny have been fired
What have fans discovered? While a large portion of fans on Reddit are trying to feel happy that not many Destiny developers were supposedly affected, one user summarized which employees were actually affected by the layoffs. The following are known:
Their contribution is nonsense. Just from Twitter people who work at Bungie, I have seen that more than 12 positions related to Destiny have been cut so far. This is my ongoing list:
- REPORTEDLY
- Audio (Destiny)
- Audio Programmer
- According to her, she was the only dedicated Audio Programmer at Bungie.
- Procedurally Generated Sound Designer
- According to Fallout’s stream, he is responsible for a lot of the sound effects present throughout Salvation’s Edge.
- Music Production/Design
- Lead Music Operations
- Game Audio Specialist
- Narrative (Destiny)
- Narrative Lead
- Narrative Designer
- Senior Narrative Designer 1 2
- Game Development (Destiny)
- Game Design (Destiny)
- Quality Assurance Engineer 1 2
- Balance Tester
- Associate Tester 1 2
- Raid and Dungeon Test Engineer 1 2
- Player Support Lead
- QA Analyst/Test Planner
- QA Tester
- Technical UI Designer
- Illustration and Graphic Design
- Character Artist 1 2
- Player Support Team Analyst
- Senior Activity Designer
- Engineering (Destiny)
- Marketing (Destiny)
- Social Media Team and Other (Destiny)
according to Reddit user ColonialDagger
- Unknown if Destiny/Marathon or Other
All these links lead you to the statements from the developers who were laid off. Pete Parsons was right, many leading figures have been affected, but they were also responsible for important things in the loot shooter.
Key staff for audio and the story of Destiny 2 were victims of the debacle – who were even involved in the success of The Final Shape. Also, well-known veterans like Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy of Destiny, who have been involved from the beginning, are no longer at Bungie.
One could argue that there are still 850 experts left who will work together on Destiny 2 and Marathon, but when looking at which positions have been cut, the question arises how Bungie plans to achieve this.
What does the future of Destiny 2 look like?
If we are to believe the insider information from Jeff Grubb (via youtube.de), then it does not look good. In a podcast with Jan Ochoa, they talked about the current situation at Bungie. Destiny 2 was briefly mentioned, and according to him, the team is no longer discussing expansions.
According to him, there will only be “content packs” for players to look forward to. What this means is still unclear, as is how much actual content will be included in these packs.
However, one can assume that the contents of these packs will be smaller than what players were originally used to. In the past, quality and substantial content have been what Destiny players want. If Bungie or Sony decides against this and invests more resources into Marathon, it will surely harm Destiny in the short or long term. It could even go so far that Destiny might completely die. A slow and undeserved end.
What do you believe Bungie will do next? Do you think Destiny 2 still has a chance, or has the end of The Final Shape really marked the beginning of the end?
