Bungie Just Started a Massive Layoff with their Community Manager:

[@vengz1313]

yeah, losing the entire community manager team and a large portion, if not all, player support is insanity. seeing Liana, Griffin, and Sam for CMs getting cut sucks. this whole situation sucks to see happen.

[@sweatytryhard9891]

There are layoffs going on in the job market in general. Each year workers are getting more and more upset because of the unfair work/pay scale. Not to mention the fact that we dedicate majority of our week to the job. A lot of us miss life. I won't be surprised if everyone goes on strike and protests against unfair work environments.

[@infernas]

They even laid off Michael Salvatori, who made the game's music (among others). Say what you will about the game, but the music is top notch. If they laid off their main music man - whose work carried us through no matter how bad the game got - then things are really dire over there. Like wtf is going on??

[@kano4282]

His music is brilliant.

[@JayDamaso78]

They'll just use AI to restructure the music he's already created probably smh

[@infernas]

@@JayDamaso78 you know, as much as I'd hate that happening, it's not too farfetched unfortunately.

[@FcoEnriquePerez]

And again "where's the Sony money?" and "Where's all the DLC/Eververse money going?" we keep asking and don't see anywhere... We know Bungie has been making BANK this past years, and the money definitely isn't showing on D2, and then they can't keep their employees? No way Marathon is eating all that money, this one is sus af, Directors looking to save even more money?.. Sony definitely has something to do with this.

[@horrorfan117]

Sony needs to learn that short market down turns are natural. That's not when you cut the floor out from one of your money makers

Layoffs don’t mean they aren’t making money. In the case of Bungie my guess is that: they hired many people when they were projecting a lot of growth; they were confident on the future and wanted to get there fast. Now, they are probably lowering their projections because of a looming financial crisis; they also don’t want to take on loans because interest rates are high; so they prefer to lay off some people, keep their costs within what their current revenue supports, and delay their next releases. They are being conservative instead of bold. And again, it’s likely the main reason for that is the global economic projections, not the performance of Destiny 2.

[@thatonepenguinperson618]

It's so strange though, if you're going to lay off your workers... Why lay off the people who have strong connections to the community or have worked for at your company for 10-20 years? That's some of your best, most loyal workers you're firing.

[@Honed-]

75% inflation, cant beat it. ((pretty soon will be 80% lol))

[@thatonepenguinperson618]

@@FixiHartmann-uj4bt I can get that if Liana's position wasn't so connected to the public image of Bungie's communications, and like firing the LEAD composer who made all your music? I guess the game doesn't need new music anymore but a lack of music will instantly equate to a lack of quality... In which players will be quick to assume the worst and forgo spending on the product further than necessary.

[@PatrickF.Fitzsimmons]

its a Sony thing, Sony are in a a lot of trouble. not played Destiny since ligthtfall launched either, still feel robbed, I'm sure many more do to.

[@Boomer72O]

​@thatonepenguinperson618 because they were horrible at their job. I watch multiple channels for Destiny, and I've never heard of these people. How are you a community manager, but your community has no idea who you are.

[@kerch6071]

literally just saw this. It's insane you would think 3.6 billion would be enough to satiate the investors

[@Set451]

A company being bought doesn't mean that the prior investors control the company, the opposite. This wasn't just an angel donation directly into their pockets. The current employees have to convince the new owners that they aren't surplus to requirement.

[@computron5824]

It's never enough. They love acquisitions but always see people as expendable, and laying people off generally increases the stock price.

[@brandon-et5vl]

maybe they should make a better game with the 3600 million invested into their company lol. that is an exorbitant amount of money and they shit the bed with the last dlc and fired the music director. do u have any hope for a company that almost killed the game like 5 times since release? d2 almost died on release. its been on life support since release but adding it to gamepass and ps plus got the game its legs back for awhile. now its removed from gamepass and they got bought out by sony just to release worse content. they chase money and not lasting gameplay or lasting memories in the game, fuck the company its deserved, and if these people are good hard workers then they should find a nice new job and be taken care of by a good company, everyone wins. they get a new job where they arent awaiting a layoff bc the game sucks, the company has to deal with the consequences of their actions when it comes to updating the game and story and content, and we get to play a different game for the first time in 10 years lmfao. i just wish the game actually went under entirely

[@NebulaVXII]

Michael Salvatori getting fired screams that whoever is pushing the layoffs is inept and money hungry. Absolutely absurd.

[@josholson4175]

They were bought and Sony likely went in and found lots of redundancy in the staff or people with huge salaries but little actual working time.

[@i-manic1292]

As someone that lives in Washington it’s very expensive. As an electrician with the laws in this state being so strict skilled labor is also very expensive. Doing the remodel on that building could cost upto160$ an hour just for a single 01 electrician.

[@Greengoblin-qk6kq]

PlayStation did not just lay off employees at bungie they also released 45 people like naughty dog as well it's obvious that PlayStation are struggling but I was surprised that there was laying off at bungie

[@ThomasTheTankEngine22]

Lightfall must've flopped in terms of pre-orders. My heart goes out to those affected. It's still "fuck Bungie" all day. Every day

[@mdemarteau7693]

Sorry to say but people sometimes get laid off, it is never a guarantee that you work with a company forever. Plus being laid off and potentially losing your house seems weird to me. Than you clearly have planned things wrongly.

[@TacoBruiser1]

Sad part is, different industries have massive layoffs on the regular. Sucks for the developers, but it happens all over. Auto industry, steel industry just to name a few and their lives are just as important if not more important.

[@theredsalmon612]

They are more important. These woke liberals at bungie work on the equivalent of digital cigarettes. Destiny 2 is poison to anyone who plays.

[@lazeatscrayons2426]

@@theredsalmon612bit of an intense comparison

[@JayDamaso78]

​@theredsalmon612 you are so right

[@SergeyWaytov]

Dammit, been always looking forward to Hippy-Jokes whenever there's "Hippy" in TWAB as writer name, she's been such a nice and positive CM

[@literallyjustaglassofmilk3609]

None of her jokes are funny

[@absolutionveil8632]

Sony is notoriously scummy with this kind of stuff. Bungie is the most recent case of this, but certainly not the first. Sony has been mandating layoffs across their developers for the last few months and I have a theory that its due to the fight between them and Microsoft.

[@testme242]

I don't think you fully understand the Sony acquisition of Bungie. When they made the deal with Sony, Bungie maintained 100% independence and ability to self-publish so they would not be bullied by Sony making top level decisions. This means the layoffs is all on Bungie's management or the mismanagement. DMG alluded to this on his Twitter posts today. Trust me I'm no fan of Sony but Bungie has some major issues it seems...genuinely concerned about the future of Destiny for sure

[@postmortem1547]

Bungie sadly has been out of touch for awhile,It wouldn't even surprise me now if they don't even know how to end Destiny's story and we'll end up with a Mass Effect ending where we get to chose 3 primary colors.

[@go2nrg]

You said Bungie isn’t struggling, but we honestly don’t know the financials. But I do know the sentiment is down and Lightfall did not energize the base as much as Witch Queen did. Plus the monetization with the poor content turned off a lot of people. Wouldn’t surprise me if things are down financially compared to last year.

[@namsu3]

This is a wider problem with Sony and game studios as a whole. I’m not justifying it, but the underlying reason this is occurring affects way more than just Bungie

[@duo1666]

Even if its down financially compared to last year.... its not down so much that they need to layoff people. This is just corporate greed, likely from sony. The idea that you always need to be growing, doing more, pulling in more money is why capitalism is the dumbest fucking thing to have ever existed in human history.

[@DragonKnight90001]

After a month or 2 didn’t Sony do a price cut of lightfall of how bad it was?

[@go2nrg]

@@DragonKnight90001 that’s an assumption on the reason for the price cut.

[@DragonKnight90001]

@@go2nrg ok i see thanks.

[@JayDamaso78]

No company can avoid the consequences of their terrible culture. All work from home, terrible execution and performance in recent years, focus on social garbage over gameplay experience, minimum viable product...bound to finally happen.

[@Mangacide]

I hate the way the articles try to frame things as "hit with"or "struck by" layoffs. It's not a tornado. It's not a force of nature. Sony CHOSE to layoff employees. God I hope game devs start to unionize because this shit needs to stop.

[@JusAFarmer]

Where the lawsuit money go though? 😂

[@MisterHeadphones73]

Hippy was my favorite new community manager. Sucks to see her go 😭😭

[@gustavofring1515]

she blocked me so could care less

[@Kruga119]

Wasn’t part of the deal with PlayStation that they retained their “autonomy” or did Sony just pull an uno reverse and be like nah we call the shots

[@45Thawk]

Breaking, final shape delayed till june and marathon to 2025

[@TsukiKhodar]

I have no idea how Sony/Playstation works internally, or what their policies are, so please forgive my ignorance on this: My brain says that since Bungie has been acquired by Playstation, Playstation has now had time to do staff evaluations and may be rooting out those that do not meet their standards as a company, and those that do not perform well. It absolutely sucks that people are loosing their livelihoods for sure. But as a company that now owns Bungie, they technically have the right to force layoffs of people that do jot perform, in the interest of putting better equipped people in their place that will make them more money. Once again, I know nothing of what they think or how they work as a company, but as a boss I could see this perspective, improvements can always be made, and there are sure to be underperformers in a massively successful company such as Bungie

[@sabermajora408]

Gaming isnt bad. Spider-Man 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Lies of P, Cyberpunk 2077 dlc Alen Wake 2...... Just multiplayer games are doing poorly

[@itsjustdroid]

Bungie Studios = Bad Management 101

[@go2nrg]

Also it’s important to note acquisitions are usually stock trades and assumptions; rarely a full out buyout. I doubt Bungie got $4 Billion dollars.

[@fracturedsolace145]

This year in gaming has been one of the great years in gaming.

[@Honed-]

lots of good games have came out this year... (not starfield)

[@auruka]

Wait so, the community complained about armor crucible then bungie made an excuse for lacking employees to do that Then they promised us to make maps bundle or package Now they want to start layoff employees? Will they deliver their promises they made? Edit: my bad, this is focused on community managers not the studio’s developers generally

[@jacksond6110]

You probably haven’t studied economics or understand it much. But Sony is going to come out soon with their 3rd quarter earnings and tell their shareholders they had a massive miss. (This will probably be an outcome for this quarter too). So as a reaction to make sure their stock price does not plummet (bc shareholders are pissed). Sony is going to artificially inflate their profit margins by laying off employees, shifting projects to different quarters, and limit hiring. On rare occasions they will fire board members if this does not correct their margin errors. Hope this helps :) Stuff like this applies not only to Sony but every major corp. We are headed into a economic recession for the next year and it is going to impact tech mainly. That sector of the market has been over inflated since the early 2000s.

[@DragonKnight90001]

2 words for you. Sod’s Law.

[@RedShadowOfSaturn]

"Every time Destiny releases an expansion...I buy it...and I quit!" Huh...almost like we're seeing part of the problem! If only people who quit...ACTUALLY QUIT...and maybe stopped purchasing their content when they have the worst business practices in the industry, and continue to get worse...while ALSO not innovating worth a damn...maybe they would've gotten the hint a long time ago. Just saying.

[@desertpwnage]

and now the final shape and marathon are delayed, not looking good for bungie

[@anthonybyrne5641]

And the devs left for marathon right after forsaken, they came back to recreate trials and then left again, kinda obvious to see

[@m3m3god]

IT WAS HIPPY?!?!

[@OuroborosGhoul]

They didn’t get the money their management got the money or should I say Sony let them borrow the money

[@analytixna6610]

Gamers rise up? we should probably be doing more as a playerbase to support the devs and workers at these companies

[@RJ_Uploads]

So if I lose my job, will these same people support me and my family, more than likely not... It happens all the time, heck i have been in that situation before, it's not a good feeling at all but I had to get back on the grind, I didn't have an outlet to tell or go fundme when I lost my job because they out of nowhere shut down, but I hope they get stronger when they come out of this and learn new and better ways to not put all your eggs in one basket.

[@cirrus404]

what an awful take

[@analytixna6610]

@@RJ_Uploads worker solidarity helps everyone my guy, unionize

[@RJ_Uploads]

@@analytixna6610 understandable, but I know all too well on how that feels and knowing that I didn't have a plan afterwards made it worse, especially having a wife and kids and no outlet to talk to afterwards about it, and trying to figure out how to go home and tell my spouse that I just got laid off from a job that I had been with for a decade because they are downsizing... But that was 12 yrs ago I have since did what I had to do and came back stronger doing it my way, and learn not to depend on companies or even unions, because I have also seen the bad side of unions if not done the right way as well.

[@ApostleOfZeus199]

Excuse you?

[@cleo1488]

Sony is laying off a lot of people. Sadly

[@jasoncooke3557]

Well at least bungie has eververse

[@anthonybyrne5641]

The games industry needs to unionise immediately, these fat cats are just sucking the money out, like Scrooge McDuck, Pete’s probably swimming right now

[@wagonweel4200]

A lot of us just don't care anymore as tbey have gone down a path of disrespecting their base. The game changed when they brought in the whole sunsetting, then vaulting, bringing back the SAME WEAPONS they vaulted, then focussing on new free to play players over the core. Keep taking things away players worked hard to get/achieve etc then there is no point in wasting time playing it. Final straw was the shards just being straight up removed slap in the face for me.

[@prstechnic1774]

omg its mtashed

[@gregbanter3022]

Bungie’s been greedy that’s what you get when you become greedy

[@Boomer72O]

I mean let's be honest. Community Managers sucjed at their job. I've never heard of any of these people but they were in charge of communicating with the Community.... it's just a job where they answer tweets and reddit issues. Its like me Hiring someone to answer the reviews for my business. Poitnless

[@Chris-iq5pr]

PlayStation making its moves ♟️

[@someguyusa]

Bungie strikes me as the type of company that will insist on being a family, but will also fire you if they discover your political opinions do not align with theirs even if you don't discuss it at work.

[@xnbk-yotiex5247]

I can’t help but laugh.. so sorry. But the writing has been on the wall for a while and if you didnt see it since lightfall… well here is your sign 😂

[@GenMVeers]

3:19 👀

[@Deeper489]

That’s velocity at work

[@Th0mp50n]

So people cant get fired now because it hurts their feelings?

[@devontasmin9193]

Not to sound rude but ngl your kind of missing the point and the bigger picture

[@Boomer72O]

This video shows why Mtash should stop makimg conetent. Not a source, legit information or any proof of what hes spewing.

[@StayPuft80]

Skill issue. You dont do anything for youre employer so you go. Its life. Move on.

[@Proxylamborg]

😢

[@senpaivision2085]

Greed and karma comes around like a holahoop ... Bungie the moment they sign on PlayStation worse decision they made

[@Opt4grunt]

Unless the layoffs are to the story writers, I'm sad 😔

[@Timeforspas12]

I mean, I didn't even knew she was the cm to begin with. That proves she wasn't good at her job being community manager anyway.

[@sadmiqoxiv]

What was the purpose of a community manager to begin with? They dont manage shit or interract with the comminity in any meaningful way. You dont see them on the forums talking to players. You see their names once a week in a twab. They arent needed, just replace them with actual devs.

[@ParagonGoetia]

And here is hard proof that console sales really dont matter as much in the present, this is happening in all of PS vecause in Digital sales and overall games dales, they havent had good enough returns.

[@GrandmaDestiny]

You young folks do not understand economics. Worldwide inflation and competition means lots of layoffs. Yes, I'm upset as Alpha player and only game I play means my joy in this game is at risk. Did not help getting DDOS'd.

[@Zrow149]

Destiny 2 The FInal Delay (We promise) lol

[@Honed-]

probably fired her for more diversity... or, maybe, just maybe, the guys at the top gave themselves a 2 mil $ raise... dunno. d2 has gotten greedy, there about the money , not about the game anymore, they went cooperate.

[@squadass99]

Nah this has affected people across the studio, not just the community team. It's hit marathon devs too, it sounds like it was a call from sony who's been downsizing studios across the board (last week was media molecule turn). It's just shit situation and I wish it wouldn't have happened.

[@Set451]

Corperate for-profit gaming companies being corporate? Shocked Pikachu face

[@Honed-]

well if they just fired people not cause of there skin tone, great ((not great that they where fired tho)) , cause otherwise that would be discrimination, not that any bungie devs working there would complain about it, as thats what there politics lean twords, and its the sort of stuff they want... point is,,, all I've seen on twitter is well, white people that where fired, I cant see one other race fired, I just find that a bit weird...? I wanted to be proven wrong about this,, but I got banned from the reddit form for asking to see all who had been banned cause it looks like it was just a bunch of white people, and nobody could provide anything else, and I wanna be wrong. that it was just everyone and not just a group of people for, well,,, diversity sake. that in bungies mind it was okay to fire the people working there cause they weren't diverse enough, but that's all I can say as I don't know all who has been fired, again I wanna be wrong, and i want to know.@@squadass99

[@Honed-]

they used to care about there games, now its just...... not.@@Set451

[@905JimRaynor]

Massive layoffs? How many people got laid off? How many people work at Bungie? It looks like LESS THAN 1% got laid off. So please, ease up on this "massive layoffs" stuff.

[@chrisbearz2976]

Yes! No more liana ruppert!!

[@baritone4538]

lol wow mid video is pretty funny