Bungie, the Destiny 2 studio, has a ghost haunting it. Not a spooky ghoul yellowing “boo” at passersbys, but the spectre of mismanagement. It has repeatedly risen over the years to set the company on its current course, and the studio has acknowledged it. However, after the recent layoffs, more voices are coming to the forefront to paint a better picture of Bungie’s decision quality behind the scenes.
The past week has been a somber one for Bungie, as the Destiny studio announced layoffs and a deeper Sony integration. Following the news, rumors and leaks began to circulate alleging that Destiny 2 content would scale back, which has worried the community at large. While these details may appear drastic following The Final Shape’s well-received release, insider reports assert the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
In Bungie’s own words
Bungie flat-out noted in the restructure announcement that mismanagement had led it to its current state, saying, “To realize that ambition, we set up several incubation projects, each seeded with senior development leaders from our existing teams. We eventually realized that this model stretched our talent too thin, too quickly. It also forced our studio support structures to scale to a larger level than we could realistically support, given our two primary products in development – Destiny and Marathon.”
The quote is interesting, considering Luke Smith (who recently left Bungie) had previously said during the Beyond Light expansion reveal that the reason Bungie didn’t want to make a Destiny 3 was because the development would pull too many resources off of Destiny 2, leading to the game to “go dark.” Of course, the studio did bring on more staff in the lead-up to and after Sony purchased the studio for $3.6 billion, but it seems Bungie might have been a bit overzealous in its hiring, as it notes further in the restructure post.
Adding a bit more context for current affairs, the studio asserted, “Additionally, in 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, our quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the need to give both The Final Shape and Marathon the time needed to ensure both projects deliver at the quality our players expect and deserve. We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red.”
History, insiders, and former employees add context
While Bungie acknowledged the studio’s mismanagement, it did not discuss the delicate details. However, considering the organization’s moves over the past few years and what has been revealed by those with insider knowledge, it’s easy to see how Bungie ended up where it is today.
The first red flag comes around a year and a half after Luke Smith’s comment about not pursuing Destiny 3 when Bungie started hiring to expand Destiny to other media formats. While we never saw anything from this, Forbes’ Paul Tassi notes that Bungie put some work into a Destiny animated show for Netflix that was ultimately scrapped. After Sony came into the picture, Bungie announced that it wanted to become a “global multi-media entertainment company” with aims to bring its IPs to “multiple platforms and entertainment mediums.” Still, the projects seemingly bore no fruit. That said, the studio was paying salaries to those hired to help consult or produce these experiments with TV and film.
The Sony acquisition statement also advertised a hiring call to action, noting that it wanted to expand staff for “Destiny 2 and for all new worlds beyond.” Simultaneously, The Washington Post reported on a now-deleted post where Bungie promised employees the Sony acquisition wouldn’t lead to layoffs. However, we now have a bit more clarity into this period at the company with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier’s coverage of the Bungie layoffs. Schreier notes, “Flush with cash, Bungie hired hundreds of new staff members and pursued myriad incubation projects, including mobile versions of Destiny, remakes of old games and new franchises.”
Game File’s Stephen Totilo reported on the Bungie layoffs while pointing out another critical piece of the puzzle: that some believe Bungie overvalued itself to Sony. “I think Sony overpaid for Bungie,” said one of Totilo’s anonymous insider sources. I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver.” Unfortunately, the bad times would start in October 2023, when the first layoffs at Bungie occurred, leading to a reported “soul-crushing” environment.
Too many spinning plates
Bungie would officially unveil Marathon in May of 2023, but all indications were that the studio had been working on it secretly for some time before its public announcement. The team was made up of Destiny alums and, specifically, Marathon‘s Executive Producer Scott Taylor said, “I mean it’s been under wraps for so long, but as a team, we’ve been completely immersed in developing this world behind closed doors at Bungie. Even though there’s still a long way to go before release, it’s fantastic to be able to open up (even just a little) and share what we’ve all been working on.”
However, that’s not the only project Bungie had under wraps. A few months after Marathon‘s announcement, the studio took to social media to advertise that it was hiring for what’s become known as “Project Gummy Bears,” which Bungie describes as, “One of our favorite incubation projects is a team-based action game inspired by several genres in a brand-new, science-fantasy universe. It draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games, wrapped up in a lighthearted, comedic world.”
There’s also the case of Payback, a title set in the Destiny universe initially believed by fans to be Destiny 3. As it turns out, Schreier notes that Payback was not Destiny 3; instead, it was a spin-off that took cues from games like Genshin Impact or Warframe to create a character-based third-person action experience. The project was ultimately canceled a few months before this recent round of layoffs and restructuring, but nonetheless, it had been in development alongside everything else Bungie was trying to get off the ground.
While it’s not uncommon for studios to branch out as time goes on, Bungie is kind of a special case. Bungie only has one title on the market, Destiny 2, and it’s the company’s sole money maker. As a free-to-play game, Destiny 2 makes its money from micro-transactions and its live-service content, and, as the studio has noted in the past, pulling too many resources from Destiny 2 would hurt the game. It feels like we’re already seeing this play out before our eyes, as The Final Shape‘s shift from four seasons to three Episodes has initially been met with criticism over time gating and a lack of meaningful stuff to do.
It’s baffling to see all these projects in development, most of which seem like industry trend-chasers, with none being the one thing that would appease the customers already at Bungie’s door — a future for Destiny. While the verdict is still out over whether players want a Destiny 3, it does seem odd that Bungie, a company renowned for its PvE FPS gameplay, was putting resources into developing an extraction shooter, a third-person action game, and a MOBA hybrid before ensuring its golden goose was still laying eggs.
With Bungie’s now-reduced size and “Project Gummy Bears” seemingly spinning out to a new studio wholly under Sony, the remaining staff are set to focus on Destiny 2 and Marathon. Even with the team’s optimism around the new project, and even if it breaks through to become a success, previous decisions and mismanagement might have created a unwinnable situation for Marathon and Destiny‘s future.
Published: Aug 8, 2024 01:24 pm