Sony and Bungie have decided that the best way to follow up the genuinely massive, server crashing success of Destiny 2’s final update is to gut the studio that made it. Today brought the announcement that Bungie is laying off somewhere between forty and fifty percent of its total staff, a number that lands squarely on most of the Destiny 2 team, reaches into Marathon, and even touches a handful of people over at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
If you have been keeping track of Bungie’s last several years, this is the part where you sigh, shake your head, and feel absolutely nothing resembling surprise.
Adding to the chaos is the apparent departure of Studio Head Justin Truman, the man who took over after then Bungie CEO Pete Parsons Carsons dipped out with a massive bag of cash, while Truman became something of a meme in his own right after delivering the now infamous “be careful of over delivery” speech; the sort of phrase that has aged about as gracefully as a carton of milk left on a windowsill of an abandoned home in Chernobyl.
Truman is reportedly stepping down, though whether that is a voluntary exit or a polite corporate shove out the door depends entirely on who you ask and how cynical you are feeling today.
Furthermore, CEO Hermen Hulst sent out a memo to staff attempting to explain the reasoning, and reading it feels like watching someone try to defuse a bomb using only corporate vocabulary. He describes the decision as painful and the result of extensive discussion, careful consideration, and a long look at the studio’s direction, priorities, and role within the broader portfolio. He points to Destiny’s final live service update as the natural turning point for this new chapter, praises the franchise’s decade long legacy, and insists Marathon remains an important priority as the team builds on its early seasons.
Hulst closes by promising transition support, thanking the affected employees for their work, and asking everyone left standing to take care of each other. It is the kind of letter that says a great deal of words while ultimately saying one very simple thing: a huge chunk of incredibly talented people are losing their jobs right as the franchise they poured themselves into finally got the send off it deserved, and that timing might be the single most infuriating part of all of it.
