It hasn’t been a good two weeks for Bungie. In delayed July, the Destiny 2 studio 220 employees were laid offwhich was about 17% of the total workforce; a report came out shortly after that alleging that Bungie CEO Pete Parsons had spent more than $2.4 million for vintage cars in the last two years; and shortly thereafter This it came to lightweight that hopes of avoiding layoffs really nailing The Final Shape expansion were completely out of place because cuts are reportedly planned regardless of the outcome of the expansion.
Bungie is under pressure from Sony put its house in order, but it seems increasingly incapable of doing so. Parsons admitted when the latest round of layoffs came that the studio was overloaded with various “incubator projects” and was losing money as a result, but it’s unclear how it plans to get out of this spiral. The Final Shape is set to be the final expansion for Destiny 2, but the almost inevitable Destiny 3 is still a ways off, and Marathon, the studio’s likely next gigantic thing, is struggling: the game recently went through a change of leadershipand Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said in a recent article Friends for a second podcast where he was told the current state of development was “not great.”
“There’s a reason it was planned for this year and it’s been pushed back a whole year,” Schreier said. “People I’ve talked to are a little pessimistic about whether it’s going to happen on the current planned date, but we’ll see. I don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen — I’m not sure if it’s going to happen in 2025. I mean, the sentiment I’ve heard is not very good. At least it was a few months ago.”
Bungie’s future has never looked as uncertain as it does now, and the Destiny community is understandably upset about the whole thing. It’s not like Sony is going to pull the plug on Destiny 2 — you don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs you paid $3.6 billion just a few years ago — but the future of the show and the studio that makes it is now a gigantic question mark.
In a recent post on the subject RedditThe Destiny 2 team has acknowledged these concerns and promised to address them in the near future.
“We know that recent changes at Bungie have created uncertainty around the future of Destiny,” the team wrote. “Rest assured that we remain committed to Destiny, supporting our community through transparency, and providing regular updates on the game.
“We’ll be talking to all of you soon about the future of Destiny and our plans for our next multi-year journey. As soon as we have a date, we’ll let you know.”
The news did not exactly send a wave of confidence. This is not the first time Bungie has reached out to players with a “trust us” and a promise to do better after things have gone wrong in one way or another, and after multiple rounds of layoffs at what should by all accounts be a successful, profitable studio, the company’s leadership—particularly Bungie CEO Parsons—is facing an open rebellion among players.
“The only reason we’re even here is because management has once again screwed up and mismanaged things to the point that many talented developers who were doing really great at TFS had to be let go” – Reddit user shield over sword wrote. “I would like management to take some responsibility and generally have a new management plan that can keep all the developers who make this game great. The rest will take care of itself.”
The Latest This Week in Destiny The update, which resumed this week after a hiatus last week to accommodate layoffs, says that Bungie remains “committed to supporting our community through transparency and providing regular updates about the game” — a near-verbatim repeat of what was said in the Reddit post — and that “all of our previously communicated content plans for the game remain unchanged.”
“The recent changes at Bungie are going to be a challenge for us to navigate, so please excuse the dust over the next few weeks. We may hit a few bumps here and there, but our teams are committed to keeping you informed and listening to what you have to say.”
But I think the bigger concern for Destiny fans right now is what Bungie has to say.
