Bungie lays off 17% of its workforce, cites economic concerns and Lightfall "quality miss"

Bungie, the studio behind the Destiny series and older Halo titles, has announced lay-offs of 17% of its workforce.

In a blog post, CEO Pete Parsons confirmed that 220 roles have been 'eliminated', affecting every level of the company.

The layoffs come in the wake of "economic concerns" and the shortcomings of Destiny 2: Lightfall in 2023, despite this year's Final Shape being received much more positively.

Bungie eliminates 220 jobs, refocuses on Destiny 2 and Marathon

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Despite having Marathon in development, and enjoying some success with the latest expansion of Destiny in The Final Shape, Parsons has cited that "Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure."

All departing employees are promised a "generous exit package."

The layoffs come in the wake of Bungie "deepening its integration" with Sony, as they are "working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters." Sony acquired Bungie in January 2022 but it looks apparent that Sony Interactive Entertainment will be getting hands-on with more Destiny and Marathon projects - and another game.

The blog post revealed that Bungie and SIE are working together to create a new action sci-fi game, although little more was added outside of looking to "spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development."

Parsons did claim that Bungie was "overambitious" in its juggling act between multiple planned Destiny expansions and Marathon, leading to a "quality miss" in Lightfall, and the trajectory had changed significantly before The Final Shape was delayed before releasing last month.

"This will be a challenging time at Bungie, and we’ll need to help our team navigate these changes in the weeks and months ahead," Parsons added. 

Other studios under Sony's wing have also faced layoffs in the last year, with Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Guerrilla Games being amongst the affected when Sony released 900 staff in February.