Bungie fired about 100 employees, new Destiny 2 expansion postponed to summer

Bungie laid off about 100 employees after Destiny 2’s popularity fell. This is about 8% of the studio’s total staff of about 1,200 people, writes Bloomberg.

Anonymous sources shared with Bloomberg that on the eve of the layoffs, a meeting was held at which it was said that the studio’s revenues for the year were 45% lower than expected.

CEO Pete Parsons noted that Destiny 2 saw a drop in player retention on a weekly basis after the release of the latest Lightfall expansion pack.

It is also reported that the release of the next major expansion, The Final Shape, has been postponed from February to June 2024. The reason is poor internal feedback on the project.

The laid-off employees will receive three months of severance pay and three months of COBRA health insurance paid for by Bungie. All other benefits ended with the layoffs.

The layoffs at Bungie are part of PlayStation’s cost-saving policy. As part of this, the company has previously made redundancies at Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, and the San Mateo office. In addition, analyst Doug Kreutz from TD Cowen said that PlayStation is currently restructuring.