Bungie has introduced that it will likely be eliminating 220 roles inside its firm because it turns into the newest sport studio to announce layoffs. The cutbacks had been introduced by way of social media on July 31, with a extra detailed assertion posted on their official web site.
Within the assertion, entitled “The New Path for Bungie,” the Pete Parsons, the CEO of Bungie, defined that because of rising prices and trade shifts, the developer could be eliminating 220 jobs. The layoffs signify 17% of the studio’s workforce.
Picture Credit score: Bungie
That is additionally the second time in 12 months Bungie has confronted layoffs. In October, 2023, the corporate introduced one other spherical of layoffs, as reported by Bloomberg.
Nonetheless, maybe bucking an trade pattern, Parsons asserted that the layoffs would have an effect on “most of our government and senior chief roles.” Online game corporations have typically confronted criticism for laying of designers and gamemakers, whereas leaving c-suite positions intact.
The layoffs come as Bungie celebrates the success of its critically acclaimed Future 2 growth, The Ultimate Form. Nonetheless, the work put into that success is seemingly partly accountable for the present state of affairs:
“…Our speedy growth ran headlong right into a broad financial slowdown, a pointy downturn within the video games trade, our high quality miss with Future 2: Lightfall, and the necessity to give each The Ultimate Form and Marathon the time wanted to make sure each initiatives ship on the high quality our gamers anticipate and deserve. We had been overly bold, our monetary security margins had been subsequently exceeded, and we started working within the crimson.”
Parson’s assertion was crammed with regret, though that will probably be little consolation for these whose jobs have been misplaced. They’re additionally in stark distinction to his October 2023 feedback following layoffs, which had been extensively criticized as being tone-deaf. However this assertion ended on a hopeful be aware:
“Bungie will proceed to make nice video games. We nonetheless have over 850 staff members constructing Future and Marathon, and we are going to proceed to construct wonderful experiences that exceed our gamers’ expectations.”
“There will probably be a time to speak about our objectives and initiatives, however right this moment will not be that day. Right this moment, our focus is on supporting our folks.”
Bungie, a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Leisure, rose to prominence with its legendary Halo: Fight Advanced shooter, which noticed the corporate acquired by Microsoft. The sport has been a flagship title for the Xbox all through the years. In 2014 it launched Future, a live-service looter shooter. This was adopted by the continued title Future 2, in 2017.
Marathon, a reboot of their 1994 Apple Macintosh shooter, is slated for launch someday sooner or later.
