The year 2022 was marked by huge game acquisitions, with Bungie, the creator of Destiny, entering the PlayStation family. This deal was more about Bungie’s seasoned live-service experience clearing the door for Sony to enter the industry than it was about console wars or exclusivity.
Bungie has had quite a turbulent journey since this acquisition. Ligthfall was met with mixed reviews, and the lack of live-service assistance on Naughty Dog’s multiplayer game has resulted in the project being on the ice.
working in games when you have high anxiety during a mass layoff trend (across the whole industry) is panicking at every new meeting invite like “is this the one where I lose everything” and that’s super fun 🫡
— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) October 30, 2023
The layoffs at Bungie were revealed by industry reporter Jason Schreier. He went on to state that an “undisclosed number” of employees had been laid off. This was prompted by an email from CEO Pete Parsons, who claimed to have something to discuss in a team meeting.
Members of the studio’s creative, social, communications and player support departments are reportedly among those laid off.
Destiny 2 The Final Shape delayed to June 2024
In the midst of the layoffs, Bungie has apparently postponed two of their highly anticipated projects. The Destiny 2 DLC, The Final Shape, as well as the studio’s next game, Marathon, have apparently been delayed.
According to Bloomberg, Bungie has moved Destiny 2: The Final Shape from February 27, 2024, to June 2024. While not necessarily the end of Destiny 2, the expansion will act as a resolution, tying up loose ends in the main tale. Furthermore, the company has pushed the release date of its extraction shooter game, Marathon to 2025.
NEW: Bungie laid off an undisclosed number of staff today, part of ongoing job cuts across PlayStation. The company recently delayed the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape to June 2024 and the new game Marathon to 2025, sources tell Bloomberg https://t.co/UiLwy28VyG pic.twitter.com/aN2BgOROj8
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 30, 2023
Destiny 2 has had a rough year, with the botched expansion launch and the underwhelming seasonal tales that followed. Furthermore, Bungie recently lost a number of managers from the art and support teams, with a few of them being unknown. Therefore this might be the reason for the speculations of titles being delayed.
Bungie has yet to issue a statement on any of these delayed titles rumors. Since the Bungie-Sony takeover in 2022, there has been a steady trend of layoffs in PlayStation studios. Most of these has been due to delays.
Since its inception nearly 10 years ago, Destiny and Bungie have had a lengthy journey and an enormous impact on their player base.