Destiny 2 News

Bungie attempts to pacify the Destiny 2 community following huge wave of layoffs

Bungie has released an official blog post acknowledging the substantial layoffs put upon staff who've been working on Destiny 2, as well as assuring fans that the upcoming expansion for the MMOFPS would be "an unforgettable Destiny experience". This comes as fans mourn the departure of various key figures in the game's development.

"This has been one of the most difficult weeks in our studio’s history, as we’ve parted ways with people we respect and admire," is the first line of the post, penned by 'the Destiny 2 dev team'. "We’ve spent this week supporting one another, including those who are at the studio, as well as friends and colleagues who no longer are."

According to reports from various journalists and outlets, the treatment of the roughly 100 "colleagues who no longer are" has been anything by supportive. Jason Schrier at Bloomberg reported that employees woke up on Monday October 30 to sudden meetings where they would be fired. They would receive severance and health benefits for at least three months, but other benefits ended the same day resulting in a rush to file expenses. Staff on a vesting schedule since the Sony Acquisition (basically stock options linked with time employed) lost any shares that were not vested at the time of their firing.

Following surprise layoffs earlier this week that saw a number of well-loved veteran employees put out of work, Destiny studio Bungie has released a statement acknowledging that it has "lost a lot of your trust" but says that it remains "intensely focused on exceeding your expectations" with the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape...
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СМИ: Destiny 2 стремительно теряет популярность, раскрыты масштабы увольнений в Bungie

Увольнения в Bungie, о которых стало известно 30 октября, затронули примерно 100 человек — это 8% штата компании. Соответствующие данные попали в распоряжение Bloomberg и Forbes. До недавнего времени над Destiny 2 и другими проектами трудились порядка 1,200 человек.

Destiny 2 has reportedly suffered a “sharp drop” in popularity following the launch of Lightfall

The recent layoffs at Bungie were reportedly motivated, at least in part, by poor player retention numbers for Destiny 2 in the aftermath of the Lightfall expansion.

According to a report from Bloomberg, two weeks prior to the layoffs, Bungie management issued warnings to staff that the company wasn’t on track to meet its revenue projections for the year. CEO Pete Parsons reportedly cited a “sharp drop” in the popularity of Destiny 2 since the release of February's Lightfall expansion as one of the major reasons behind Bungie missing its financial targets.

While Bloomberg suggests that the game’s upcoming expansion, The Final Shape, has been getting some positive feedback, IGN reports Parsons told employees that preorder numbers for the DLC had been below expectations.

There have been an awful lot of layoffs across the game industry in 2023, but against that bleak backdrop this week's cuts at Bungie came as a shock. Fans are mourning the loss of a number of long-term employees, particularly composers Michael Salvatori, who wrote countless memorable tracks for both Destiny games as well as earlier Bungie projects going all the way back to Myth: The Fallen Lords, and Michael Sechrist, the composer of Deep Stone Lullaby, which we called "the most gorgeous piece of game music that you've never heard."..
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