220 employees were laid off yesterday, comprising 17% of the company's staff.
Layoffs have been nothing new for the video game industry in 2024, and even the months preceding it. From EA to Activision to SEGA, there has been a relentless torrent of ill fortune hitting workers for a while now. PlayStation has not been without its own troubles during this span, In March, the company laid off 900 workers, or approximately 8% of its staff. While that was terrible enough, the hits are continuing to come for the company via Bungie, the developer that Sony acquired in 2022 for $3.6 billion.
Yesterday, Bungie laid off 220 workers, or nearly 17% of its staff. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said the following on the company's website:
This morning, I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio. Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon.
While that is tragic to hear, things became a bit more complicated following the release of this statement. In reply to Parsons' letter, many former Bungie employees took to social media to voice their displeasure with the CEO's leadership. Here are a couple of examples that were posted on X:
First, former Community Manager Sam Bartley:
And here, Griffin Bennett, former Bungie Social Media Manager:
Parsons is alleged to have spent upwards of $3 million dollars on 16 classic cars since Bungie was acquired by Sony. While that's obviously not a crime, it is a sign of what some perceive to be the reckless spending lavished on leadership while lower level employees are left to languish. Parsons has since taken his X account private. Meanwhile, Sony is alleged to have placed Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Herman Hulst in charge of Bungie. Whether or not this move will be permanent is unclear, but if true, seems to be a response to the growing turmoil at the developer.
As is too often the case within the video game industry, low-level workers are subject to the whims of the accounting offices of these development studios. If a project does well, corporate bean counters determine that costs need to be cut, and if a project fails, well, those same accountants determine the same thing, all in an endless effort to appease shareholders. And while companies have fiduciary responsibilities to uphold, it doesn't change the fact that worker bee devs find themselves at the short end of the stick whenever a company needs to do some "restructuring." Countless employees aren't even W2 workers for AAA outfits, instead relegated to work-for-hire contract roles that don't even provide healthcare.
If nothing else, perhaps this upheaval at Bungie, combined with the other layoffs throughout 2024, will finally be the proverbial canary in the coal mine that the industry needs to start making serious institutional changes to how it runs things.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz + Push Square
Comments