Layoffs are no fun, especially for the people on the receiving end. 2023 has been plagued by a wave of layoffs in the tech and gaming industries, but one particular company has stood out recently due to some disturbing news from behind the scenes: Bungie, Inc.
The studio behind the popular first-person shooter Destiny and the original Halo games made the front pages last month after axing roughly 8% of its workforce. To make matters worse, talks about a potential complete takeover by Sony have made the mood within the corridors of Bungie as uplifting as a funeral.
For those who might not be aware, Sony Interactive Entertainment completed the acquisition of Bungie in July last year. However, the American developer still operates as an independent studio, with the freedom to release games for any platform.
With a mix of Sony and Bungie executives making up the board of the company, a new report suggests that this “happy family” facade is living on borrowed time – adhering to a troubling trend of major corporate takeovers in the industry these past few years.
According to a detailed piece by IGN, Sony is on the verge of a full takeover, which is dependent on Bungie hitting (or missing) certain undisclosed financial targets. In simpler terms, Bungie is under threat, and Sony is the one holding the gun (which happens to be already cocked given how unlikely it is that Bungie will meet the set targets).
Bungie, however, are not the good guys or the scrappy underdogs in this story. Like villains from an Adam McKay movie, Bungie bigwigs decided to save their own skins and let go of several employees in a bid to cut costs. In fact, some of the folks who were booted out were the heart and soul of the studio, including key figures in employee support and inclusion efforts.
Remember the recent pivotal ruling that saw Bungie win a lawsuit against a Destiny 2 player who was charged with harassing one of its developers? Well, the general counsel behind this historic win, Don McGowan, was also shown the door.
If you think this is the worst of it, you have no idea – Bungie is reportedly cutting corners everywhere. With hiring freezes, slashed travel budgets, revoked holiday bonuses, and a halt to all annual raises, it’s a shock that Bungie still has any employees left working for it.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what such decisions will do for morale, as the remaining employees will almost certainly be walking on eggshells, wondering who’s next on the chopping block. When someone describes the mood among an organization’s ranks as “soul-crushing,” as a leader, you should be very worried.
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with what Charlie Chaplin would describe as “unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts,” what you get is the complete opposite. Bungie management has simply shrugged off the dampened spirits of its employees with a cold shoulder and a reminder that more layoffs could be on the cards.
The real punch to the gut is that this round of layoffs is Bungie’s way of making a move towards outsourcing. The QA team that once took pride in its in-house status is now bracing itself for a future where it might simply be just another item on the outsourcing menu. Bungie leadership has already proved how little it thinks of QA after referring to them as “non-developers.”
Want to know the cherry on top of this crap cake? When corporate was asked if the company’s leadership was also taking pay cuts, their reply was along the lines of Black Panther’s statement to Bruce Banner: “We don’t do that here.”
So, how can such a greedy, power-hungry organization expect to win the trust of its own workforce? If The Final Shape turns out to be a fantastic conclusion to the epic Destiny saga, any credit it receives should be directed to the brilliant developers who are too good for Bungie.
