Bungie layoffs appear to target community and social teams

Bungie has laid off several members of its staff and reportedly delayed Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion.

Another week brings yet another round of layoffs in the video game industry. Bungie, the studio behind Destiny 2 and an upcoming revival of Marathon, has laid off an uncertain number of employees. There has been no official statement from Bungie or parent company Sony, but it appears that the layoffs are targeting the studio’s community and social teams.

The news of layoffs at Bungie came from ex-employees themselves, as they began to announce them on social media. “A surreal thing to write as I sit here pondering what went wrong,” wrote former Social Media Lead Griffin Bennett. “I’m still processing it all and while my first instinct is anger I know I’d regret what I’d say.” His frustration and confusion echoes a sentiment shared by other ex-employees at the studio.

Source: Bungie

Industry insider Jason Schreier shared some additional insight in a report for Bloomberg. He states that in addition to the layoffs, Destiny has informed employees that both The Final Shape (Destiny 2’s next major expansion) and the Marathon revival have been delayed. The Final Shape was originally slated for a February 2024 release, while Marathon had not yet been given a date.

This continues the brutal streak of video game and tech layoffs in 2023, including at companies like Epic Games and Sega. It’s also just the latest layoffs at PlayStation Studios this year. Earlier this month, it was announced that the Visual Arts department had suffered layoffs. Shacknews sends its best wishes to those impacted by the layoffs at Bungie.

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom’s desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_