Highlights
- Bungie, a Sony subsidiary, has reportedly laid off employees, making it the fourth studio under Sony to experience workforce cutbacks in October.
- Layoffs and studio closures have become more frequent across the gaming industry, with companies attributing recent layoffs to a worsening global economy.
- Bungie's recent layoffs have not been officially confirmed, but it is believed to be connected to delays in its upcoming games, as it continues to hire for other positions.
Bungie has been hit layoffs, several recently terminated staffers have revealed. The Bellevue, Washington-based company hence became the fourth Sony subsidiary that pulled the trigger on workforce cutbacks since the turn of October, a trend that started when Naughty Dog reportedly downsized its quality assurance staff several weeks ago.
Layoffs have long been a common occurrence across gaming, as the cyclical nature of game development often results in redundancies. 2023 still saw an apparent uptick in such cutbacks, as well as the occasional studio closure and project cancelation. Some companies like Swedish gaming giant Embracer Group attributed these recent layoffs to a worsening global economy. Others, like Sony, pushed through redundancies while trying to minimize fanfare, thus offering little in the way of public explanation for their downsizing efforts.
Team17 Hit With Layoffs
Indie publisher Team17 is hit with layoffs, being the latest company to fire several employees in 2023, a year in which this happened frequently.
The latest Sony subsidiary to be hit with layoffs is Bungie, Kotaku reports, citing social media posts from several newly terminated staffers. The full extent of the cutbacks is unclear, as the Sony-owned studio has yet to officially confirm the redundancies. Bungie employed approximately 1,600 staffers before this late October round of layoffs, according to publicly available LinkedIn data. The cutbacks were independently confirmed by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who obtained a copy of an internal memo from Bungie CEO Pete Parsons promising to discuss this turn of events at an October 30 company meeting.
This development further underlines how October has been a troubling month for Sony subsidiaries, not least because of the multiple downsizings that went into effect since the turn of the month. Apart from the aforementioned Naughty Dog cutbacks, PlayStation studios Visual Arts and Media Molecule have both been hit with layoffs in recent days. Media Molecule eliminated around 20 positions, reducing its headcount to 115, while the extent of the recent redundancies at Visual Arts remains unclear.
Sony Studios Hit With Layoffs in October 2023
- Naughty Dog
- Visual Arts
- Media Molecule
- Bungie
The cuts at the Destiny series developer arrive just two months shy of the two-year anniversary of Sony's Bungie acquisition. And while the redundancies were presumably decided by Sony, that's not to say Bungie would have avoided layoffs had it stayed independent. After all, multiple successful indie developers such as CD Projekt Red and Team17 also announced workforce cutbacks in recent months, same as larger groups like THQ Nordic, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts.
Bungie is currently working on a reboot of its sci-fi FPS series Marathon, as well as a team-based action game that's still awaiting an official announcement. There is currently no indication that either project will be affected by these recent layoffs, especially since the company is currently also looking to fill nearly two dozen open positions in its art, engineering, game design, and narrative departments, among others, according to its official careers page.
Destiny 2
Bungie's Destiny 2 is an online FPS that blends single-player and multiplayer content. Constantly evolving, the shooter has established a strong following since its 2017 debut.