Destiny 2 has witnessed a lot of ups and downs and has also lost quite a few talents this year. Earlier, there were reports of Bungie restructuring. As part of the restructuring, the company has been laying off a good amount of its workforce, including some significant contributors to the company.
Earlier, the company had suffered the loss of actor Lance Reddick, who played Commander Zavala in the game. Reddick passed away in March this year. Post that the company has let go, several other people who had big contributions to Destiny 2’s development have bid adieu to the company.
Recent developments suggest Bungie’s very own composer, Michael Salvatori might be the newest member to exit the company. Fans were disappointed when rumors started circulating that Bungie had decided to lay off several developers belonging to the senior staff. Amidst all the rumors, fans noticed Michael Salvatori’s website had changed, and fans were left stunned.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Bungie Pete Parsons announced the company’s layoff decision on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio. What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future.
— pete parsons (@pparsons) October 30, 2023
Naturally, the post received a lot of backlash from the community, with fans reminding Parsons that his kind words would unfortunately not pay the bills of the laid-off employees. Similarly, several fans mocked Bungie for going against its own words.
In February this year, Bungie was acquired by Sony, and at that time, the employees were assured by their leaders that there would be “absolutely no layoffs” and nothing “major” in terms of restructuring once the Sony deal closed.
Michael Salvatori career
After finishing college, Michael Salvatori took a bank loan to build a basement studio at his home in Wheaton. There, he recorded his first solo album, Waiting for Autumn, in 1982 at the age of 28. In college, he wrote for his band, where he met his now business partner Martin O’Donnell. The two together have been composing Bingie’s soundtrack for years now.
Michael Salvatori started his journey with Bungie in 1997 with their tactic game Myth: The Fallen Lords. Since then, he has composed pretty much every game the developer has worked on, including the highly acclaimed Destiny series.
Interestingly, he even had a website that listed all his works, but recently it was edited. All the mentions were removed, and only the words “Gone Fishing” are seen written.
Several fans noticed this and shared the same on social media.
if this aint enough idk what is pic.twitter.com/cXwlIJmAHp
— miss (@mislead) October 30, 2023
Fans were upset with the company’s decision, as many of them believed this was the end of Bungie. Others expressed their concerns about Destiny or any of Bungie’s games not having such amazing scores in the future. As a result of the layoffs, several Bungie titles have also been delayed.
A few days ago, the developer received a lot of criticism for an inclusivity post they made to announce an initiative to honor the Hispanic people and commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month. Seems like things have been only going down south for the devs.