Bungie lays off staff and delays Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Marathon

In what’s already been a crazy 2023, it appears another big studio has undergone layoffs. An email sent to Bungie employees from Bungie CEO Pete Parsons indicated staff would be “hearing some news today” and that a team meeting scheduled for later would “discuss today’s events”. Jason Schreier at Bloomberg saw and reported the circulating email.

As of now the exact number of employees affected by the layoffs is unknown, but Twitter is already full of Bungie employees sharing the news that they have been laid off.

“I’ve been laid off from Bungie. A surreal thing to write as I sit here pondering what went wrong. I’m still processing it all and while my first instinct is anger I know I’d regret what I’d say. Thank you to everyone at Bungie who helped make my last 5+ years the best ever.”

– Griffin Bennett, Social Media Lead at Bungie

According to Bloomberg, employees also indicated delays across the board at Bungie. Upcoming Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape has been pushed from February 2024 to June 2024. Also, Bungie’s next game, a sci-fi extraction shooter titled Marathon has been delayed to 2025.

Bungie joins a huge list of studios that have cut employees this year, which has led to one of the more tumultuous waves of layoffs the industry has seen in a while. The growing list includes Epic Games, Striking Distance Studios, CD Projekt Red, multiple studios owned by Embracer Group including Beamdog and Crystal Dynamics, Ubisoft, BioWare, Relic, Riot, Firaxis, Microsoft, Twitch, Naughty Dog, and Team17. This year has also seen the shutdown of several studios including Dang!, PixelOpus, Vanpool, and Volition Games.