[STEAM] Bungie confirms devastating layoffs in Destiny 2, Marathon teams as Sony casts dark shadow

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Bungie is laying off staff members after ceasing development in Destiny 2 earlier this month, the studio confirmed today. The measure seems to have come from Sony and will also affect some Marathon developers and support studios.

“We have made the decision to reduce Bungie’s workforce,” Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hermen Hulst

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, indicating the company’s initiative in the matter. The layoffs will affect “a significant number of employees,” according to him—including “most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members,” as well as Sony teams that support Bungie.

Bungie’s announcement had a similar tone. “As the leaders of Bungie, past and present, we recognize Destiny 2 fell short of expectations these past several years,”

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. The developer “could not continue operating at [its] previous size” following the end of development in D2, with some future projects “still in early incubation.”

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Image via Bungie Credible reports of impending layoffs circulated as soon as

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was announced. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier

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so early, which made it hard to accommodate its workforce. The target was reportedly anywhere between 40 and 55 percent of the studio,

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, but the exact number of affected developers is still unclear.

Though another wave of layoffs may have been expected, it was certainly devastating. Monument of Triumph was

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. It reached a higher at-launch player count than The Edge of Fate—the ill-fated expansion that ushered in widely rebuked changes to the game. It’s undeniable that the studio still had talented developers under its wing, yet was incapable of making it out of a largely self-inflicted quagmire.

Both Sony and Bungie’s statements point out that the developer’s future, for now, is Marathon and incubation projects. This is a dangerous position to be in, considering the extraction shooter’s player retention appears tenuous at best, and anything still in the oven is bound to take a long time to bear fruit—as Marathon‘s tumultuous development showed.

Destiny 2 will get its final bug fix pass next week,

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. After that, its future is uncertain. Some glitches may not be fixed in time, by the team’s own admission, which might lead to items being outright disabled. The main example is the Divinity bug in Pantheon’s Insurrection Prime, which allows guardians to bypass the boss’ Immune shield. This could mean Divinity will be fully disabled in that activity.

If that wasn’t enough of a gut punch, community manager Dylan “dmg04” Gafner’s words to a fan might just crank the heartbreak to 11.

“You all have done more for this game and our studio than could ever be imagined, and no words can accurately depict how lucky we are to have shared these worlds with you,”

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. “Don’t blame yourselves or think you could have / should have done more. This is just the way it goes sometimes. No matter the future, we will always have these memories. Thank you. For everything.”

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