Game developer Bungie made astonishing headlines on Monday Oct. 30, 2023, after announcing the company’s layoff of at least 100 staffers from a variety of departments. The layoffs impact around 8% of Bungie’s workforce, specifically targeting employees who have made a significant mark towards the studio’s operation. The reported cuts have mostly come out from publishing, but some of the layoffs have affected the engineering department as well. It’s an unprecedented announcement by Bungie, as just last year, Sony paid $1.2 billion for staff retention during their total $3.7 billion purchase of Bungie.
Despite Sony’s aforementioned retention bill, the layoffs are happening in part of ongoing cuts within Sony’s Playstation division. In a statement on X, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons explains that the layoffs come weeks after a meeting in which executives expressed concern for Bungie’s revenue, which were 45% lower than previously projected. Parsons blames this drop in player retention, and thus the studio’s cuts, on the shortcomings of their most recent expansion for Destiny 2, called Lightfall.
Amid their layoffs, Bungie is also delaying their two incoming titles: Marathon and The Final Shape. Marathon is set to release sometime in 2025, while The Final Shape will now launch in June of 2024. Final shape seems to be Bungie’s next great hope for salvation, as the new expansion pack is meant to conclude several of the series’ significant storylines.
While Bungie’s fanbase and employees scramble to see who else has been hit by the employer cuts, many could not foresee the possibility of Michael Salvatori—Bungie’s prized composer for their Destiny series and Halo franchise—being laid off. News of his layoff was first brought about by Carson Reed, who cited internal sources, but speculation only increased as Salvatori’s website bio was stripped of any mention of his work with Bungie, now instead only stating the following: “Gone Fishin’ :)”.
It was initially assumed that Michael Salvatori’s layoff could have actually been a planned retirement offer. Except the timing of events, occurring on the same day as the other layoffs, inferred otherwise. Salvatori’s departure even includes another fellow member of the music team, Michael Sechtrist (who in turn also changed their bio to match Salvatori), which confirmed that this was all part of a much greater, calculated plan.
Bungie isn’t the only studio to have proceeded with a major employment cut—it’s only another recent layer on a messy cake for several game developers this year. Naughty Dog, developer of the popular survival horror franchise, The Last of Us, reportedly cut off contractor jobs in early October, while Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red laid off around 100 workers in July. Epic Games took on an even larger cut in their workforce compared to Bungie back in September—eliminating 830 jobs, roughly 16% of their employment. There’s still uncertainty as to how the losses will affect Bungie’s already sour reputation, yet a glimmer of hope remains for a promising launch of The Final Shape.
