220 Bungie developers lost their jobs in July, and the dire industry climate of similar layoffs is set to continue into 2024. As is often the case, those affected by the cuts have taken to social media to reveal the human cost of the cuts, which Bungie describes as being due to “persistent economic conditions.”
A particularly shocking example comes from Kelly Jinformer producer at Bungie who was laid off just before she was due to receive maternity benefits: “It’s just really bad timing because my maternity leave was supposed to start next Monday and I got laid off today.” Jin adds that her baby is due “literally any day now.”
“NGL, after I found out this morning, I haven’t stopped crying. Partly because of the pregnancy hormones, but partly because this is the first time I’ve been laid off. And it’s not even my fault,” Lin says, saying she contacted Bungie’s HR department to see if she would still be eligible for maternity benefits, but later reveals that “her maternity benefits are gone because the baby isn’t born yet.”
What about the possibility that the CEO Pete Parsons spent at least $2,414,550 on classic cars in the last two years, prompting understandable outrage.
Yesterday’s Twitter account DestinyNostalgia I discovered a profile called bngpparsons on the bidding site bringatrailer.com. Adding winning bids between June 1, 2024 and September 23, 2022 produces the number above.
DestinyNostalgi then compared the photos from the account winning offers with what appear to be photos of Parsons showing off his collection. If that means anything, during my own research I found (among a torrent of deleted tweets) a photo of end of tweet series which opens with the inscription “E30 m3”, which directly corresponds to the photo 1990 BMW M3, 38k miles Account purchased for $180,000 on October 6, 2022. Tweet posted on October 30, 2022.
I’ve included screenshots of both the tweets and the Bring A Trailer announcement here, because I’m sure Parsons simply missed them in the wave of social media deletions.
In my opinion, that’s pretty devastating – although what’s devastating is up for debate. In terms of the money Bungie makes, $2.4 million over 2 years is peanuts. If Parsons hadn’t bought those cars, it wouldn’t have saved the company from its current problems.
Of course it was Parson’s money to spend. But boy, isn’t it strange that he has so much of it? A lot while his former employees feel anxious about their basic living expenses? Isn’t it strange that Bungie hasn’t announced any voluntary cuts to his salary, even if it was a token gesture? Liana Ruppert, a former community manager, posted a lengthy tweet expressing similar frustration during her experience at the company, stating:
“I remember the Friday before the first layoffs, me and another CM were in the lobby and literally talking about how I didn’t have enough money for groceries… Pete came up to us and bragged about some new, EXPENSIVE cars he bought and that we should come over and see them.”
Seeing so many employees out of work after the critical success of Destiny 2’s latest expansion, The Final Shape reminds me of the list of “things that will no longer make you safe in this industry” that indie developer Maisie Ó Dorchaidhe wrote during the closure of Tango Gameworks. Making something good, I repeat, is no guarantee of safety. The sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of developers, it seems, whether they do a good job or not. At least some people can afford cars.
