Datto Reacts: Bungie Hit By Layoffs, The Final Shape Delayed to June 2024

[@ajbolt7]

The fact that Michael Salvatori is gone is absolutely heartbreaking. There's no replacing him.

[@ajbolt7]

And now Sechrist is gone too, it’s absolutely doomed.

[@vinhvu155]

Thats it. No Final shape. The music might be done. But Only they know

[@rebeccap4771]

I'm gutted 😢

[@archangelgabriel8493]

To gut the composer that's been with the game since it's beginning is honestly one of the vilest moves I've seen in the gaming industry. Everytime we hear a sound that isn't a gun firing, a ability going off,or dialogue...it's mostly his work.

[@treaclecat]

Agree he did some of the best music, very sad loss to the game

[@zo_leo8401]

I thought the entire point of Bungie splitting up with Activision was so they could do their own thing and control their future. I was surprised when they sold to Sony only a few years later. However I’m not surprised there are massive layoffs.

[@II-IkelosFusionHD-II]

Bungie should have never split from Activision. That was one of the biggest mistakes they made as a whole, the game is in a very bad state as it is already. This news is really bad and we don’t even know what the potential outcome could be from this news now.

[@scrubclub7138]

I honestly think it was better with Activision. We got full dlcs in Destiny 1 with allot of content, now in d2 its split up into a seasonal content, which I dont mind either. But now they are using that excuse to release microtransactions and not focus on the well being of the servers on Destiny 2. Content on d2 is fine and they should be making plenty of money from the amounts of dlcs they have, so idk why they decided to lay off random people like this. Sure being with a big distributor like Activision only accepting a few amount of games you make to release them might suck, but at least Bungie wouldn't be in this state with Final Shape and Marathon coming out. Activision was there to help them have enough finance support to have stuff like this not happen.

[@fertyui3101]

Sony is incharge, and the game would be much worse under activision. Micro transactions would be so much worse currently if activision execs were in charge lmao. Remember destiny 2 released under activision and that launch was the worst point in the entire service life of the game.@@scrubclub7138

[@Alcatraz760]

They were never owned by Activision, only had a publishing deal for Destiny. This is why at best, Activision couldn't gut Bungie if they didn't sell well, whereas under full ownership of Sony they had to listen to everything they wanted. They should've stayed independent.

[@yourvenparianen5390]

It was all done for more money. People still think these companies care about the consumers 😂

[@OfficeMaxxing]

I remember seeing that article saying that there wouldn’t be any layoffs when Sony acquired Bungie. Well that one didn’t age quite so well.

[@Jvggr]

it more or less ended up as, "we'll give you money so you dont need to lay them off yet" rather than "you wont be laying anyone off"

[@GOATHartt90]

It makes total sense. They got the billions from Sony and laid everyone off.

[@The_Ragequit_Cannon]

​@@user-pq8on8bx9gThere's no questioning how much Bungie was ought for. They *were* bought for billions, around 3 billion to be exact. You are right though

[@GOATHartt90]

@@user-pq8on8bx9g lol. Whoosh. My friend it was a joke.

[@MaxMiller94]

Every acquiring company says that, then it always happens. It's a way to make sure employees don't jump ship before they get the boot. But if your company is ever acquired, you should consider yourself fired and look for a new job.

[@DaDylanMachine]

It's insane how one of the best years in Game Quality is being muddied by one of the worst years for the Games Industry.

[@EmpReb]

Profits are down everywhere. We just getting a lot games that stacked up from the past covid delays into this year. Games are great but profits are down.

[@Purpletrident]

@@EmpReb Profits are very much not down. And if they are, it's by a miniscule amount. But we keep hearing about constant record breaking profits all over the place.

[@DucNguyen-ou8ij]

Until gamers actually start empathizing with devs and treating them like humans, the corporate world sees no reason to do the same. Corporations only care about money and gamers have shown they will financially support terrible working environments

[@puddes5832]

​@@DucNguyen-ou8ijwont someone think of the devs 😢😢😢😢😢

[@TheeChalk]

Yh well when it comes to companies and game developers that that care about morals, modern bungie is very close to the bottom of that list. They're no Fromsoft or Larian.

[@Fyoozhen]

They did Hippy so dirty. Had her come in and take such a huge brunt of the community backlash, and then when things seem to have been better lately, they give her the boot. My thoughts go out to her and everyone else affected. Very concerned about the future going forward

[@AstuteObservations]

if you are just now being concerned about the state of this game, a reality check might be in order

[@Steellatch]

she was gonna be gone soon enough anyway with how she was interacting with the community

[@Nullref_Arcana]

Hippy didn't deserve this. I follow her on Twitter, she already was dealing with depression and anxiety and now this happens. Corpo world is heartless.

[@theredsalmon612]

Good riddance. All of the community management for bungie has been beyond useless.

[@GeremyG]

She wasn’t a very good CM but no one should be celebrating someone else losing their career.

[@fadedace1342]

Man, I hope all these employees can find a place to go. Much love going out to them ❤. Edit: To the people below who are discrediting these layoffs because other people have it worse or that it happens all the time. 1. Stop talking of things you know nothing about, it makes you look ignorant and 2. All struggle big and small is still a struggle, and everyone deserves love and support that are going through it.

[@WHlSKYtx]

Bro acting like tons of people don't get laid off every day lmao

[@GOATHartt90]

right?! Nothing is a guarantee. No person is protected from these outcomes. Why should we feel for them today? When this shit literally happens to many folks, every day. @@WHlSKYtx

[@thehungarywaffleinc.7775]

@@WHlSKYtxno he’s not. Your just a contrarian crazy person

[@LieutenantAlaki]

​@@WHlSKYtxbro acting like that isn't a problem

[@sirentity465]

​@@WHlSKYtxthat doesn't make jt any less sad

[@Lexie_Tyler05]

Did they choose people to be laid off by blasting a wall of names with a shotgun? Losing most of the community managers is going to be terrible for this already strained community and it cant have been a logically thought out decision

[@LieutenantAlaki]

Companies always put less stock into jobs like community management and QA and stuff than they do development jobs. They think it's easier to hire replacements, or they think they can get by with less people because they can't tell how much work goes into it, that sort of thing. That said, I'm expecting this to be a Sony mandate than an internal decision. So it's likely that whoever made the decision was barely even paying attention to Bungie's actual situation.

[@reed560]

There is not much that anyone could do to unstrain the community. Might as well just let it be strained

[@corruptVz]

dude they do next to nothing. It will be ok.

[@phoenix9531]

​@@corruptVzSo you've been one and you know that for sure I take it?

[@sadmiqoxiv]

The CMs sucked ass anyway, was a complete waste of funds.

[@syksis9842]

Seeing this after the news that Michael Salvatori seemingly also got laid off. Firing the main composer behind the music, arguably one of the most iconic parts of the game, is insane. Makes me wonder how many other big names at Bungie/working on Destiny will be revealed to have been laid off.

[@mbk0mbk]

It's called shooting on your foot, bungie never disappoint

[@Mibur2021]

I’m upset about all the lay offs but this one really really hurts man. Salvatori never missed man, even when the rest of a DLC was bad or lukewarm Salvatori always brought his best to the table. I’ll never forget hearing “the last array” for the first time, the riven boss theme, or more recently “Lucent World” I’m not a doomer but I can’t help but feel that the peak of destiny OST is over.

[@ShadowDreamer100]

@@Mibur2021And he was literally half the reason Halo’s OSTs were great, too. The man was there for 20 years!

[@Robin_hsr12]

​@@mbk0mbkyall need to do research. It isn't bungies fault

[@imscaryskeleton5446]

@@Mibur2021 finally someone that knows about "the last array". Such a banger song and no one ever talks about it. This and the song that plays when Oryx appears in King's Fall are definitely some of my favorite Destiny music.

[@Goose683]

Heart goes out to all the employees but especially to Hippy, she got the raw deal when it came to writing the more controversial TWIDs and had to face some real toxicity. Edit: Wow this comment really set off the incels.

[@The_Ragequit_Cannon]

Someone at Bungie staff had to look at those TWABs and give them the ok though

[@corruptVz]

Who? the annoying one crying all over twitter? Pfft.

[@haydenw7981]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@The_Ragequit_Cannon yeah someone still had to write the fucking controversial stuff though. Doesn't matter if it was okayed or not?? Controversial information still had to be communicated. And if you go and look at who had to communicate it more often than not it was hippy, so she had to face some real Toxicity. Does it matter if the editor said that oh yeah the format of the twab is OK??

What controversial TWID?

[@davidmcdevitt7583]

​@@haydenw7981She barely did anything lmao, she was active on exactly one social media and refused to interact with most of the playerbase.

[@Catalyst375]

The layoffs are bad enough, but what's equally depressing is how many people are "celebrating" it for various "reasons". As if, in their minds, the people who were laid off "deserved it" because they just happened to work on something they hated.

[@vasilisdouklias6992]

Those people would celebrate even if a bee stung a puppy working at something they hate

[@BarderBetterFasterStronger]

It's not personal like that. Bungie pretty clearly had bloat while letting core modes languish. Bungie just got billions and is a very left leaning west coast company. Pretty good chance most of these employees got great severances.

[@tommyewen6344]

​@@BarderBetterFasterStrongereh, left leaning socially, yes, economically I wouldn't be so certain, they've been robbing us blind for years!

[@ShadowDreamer100]

@@BarderBetterFasterStrongerit seems a lot of bigger members of the dev, art, and even their composer were laid off. Michael Salvatori, who’s been making music at Bungie since Halo CE. There is certainly always bloat reduction in any layoff wave, but some of these cuts will directly impact the size of scope of future expansions and DLCs (with TFS being the first apparently, being delayed until June).

[@kabriii]

Wait they laid off Michael salvatori? My god this is the worst of times

[@ar.458]

This happens when you work for a company owned by a larger publicly-traded company. Layoffs happen so executives can show profits at the end of the fiscal year. Final Shape was pushed into the next fiscal year, to pad their next fiscal year, to appear more profitable.

[@BrotasticBatman]

Thank you! Someone gets it! Sad that it happens but it does all the time! I said the same thing about Final Shape being pushed.

[@rb2kTube]

This is basically it. Sony spent billions and they won't see a return on Bungie's next slated title until their next year. Why wouldn't they shuffle things around to pad the numbers. That is what billion dollar companies do.

[@risk8827]

The first correct response I've seen from anyone on this

[@brianmcswain8932]

Maybe push it back to April then?

[@jerryballstein]

Isn't the fiscal year from start of October to end of September? That'd put the layoffs and delay in the same fiscal year. Doesn't take away from your general point tho

[@NRMania007]

That reminds me of when my company was acquired. People saying to us 'Don't worry about it, in fact job will get easier now we have proper money coming in'. Turns out our warehouse was not profitable and so they let us all go.

[@NobleVI_343]

sorry that happened to you brother, hope you're in a better spot now

[@luckmyst3r986]

Very professionally done Datto, my heart goes out to all effected by the layoffs.

[@lugia8888]

There have been layoffs everywhere. Hopefully people remember that too.

[@scrubclub7138]

​@@lugia8888I think everyone knows that. The big point is why is bungie laying off a bunch of *random* people right before final shape release and Marathon people are working on?

[@captainbuzzkill4658]

One way or another bad karma was going to come back around and I don't think this is even the end.

[@seesidesummerhouse6112]

@@scrubclub7138Sony took one look under the hood, that’s what happened. Japanese tech firms are very pragmatic, the staff that got cut were likely not performing to an acceptable standard.

[@dukedub]

the comments sections been filled with cry babies saying “fire so and so for X thing i really didn’t like” for years. You all finally got what you’ve been asking for.

[@Burnwulf]

As someone who has been laid off in a similar manner, this hits close to home. The company I worked for chopped 1/5th of their workforce (~1000 employees). Still searching for work and is a massive pain. This isn't just in the games industry, but tech and SaaS as a whole. Indiscriminately letting people go in order to cut costs and flatten the leadership structure to allow for better communication up the chain.

[@scrubclub7138]

Oh yea I left my job at FedEx after they cut everyonee hours. They were changing so much for absolutely no reason and letting the new managers screw everything up we had already just stabilized, I had a strange feeling they were about to layoff a bunch of people too. And they wonder why a bunch of people quit in certain work areas. We need to do something about how bosses and work leaders can do to employees. I almost think it should be illegal to layoff people. My prayers to those who got fired.

[@nathanmoser8914]

Yeah, the entire Tech industry is a freaking joke right now.

[@Logicneverworks]

What a shitstorm. My heart goes out to everyone affected

[@lugia8888]

Lol you can say that again

[@StayPuft80]

Nice you only have that to worry about in life.

[@Set451]

Crazy, seems like yesterday Bungie was on a hiring spree

[@Alex-pq2fv]

Well yeah, gotta hire those newbies at lower salary so you can dump the expensive (read:experienced) devs. Big brain thinking

[@Josecitox]

@@Alex-pq2fv Well yeah, but the majority of laid off people are not even devs, aka not artist, programmers, engineers, they're all part of the replaceable and nomad part of the industry. Marketing, Social, support, etc.

[@NobleVI_343]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@Alex-pq2fvyou are an ignorant moron, they got rid of people with minor impact, such as CMs that treated their community like toddlers and called their community transphobes for hating their worst DLC release. While nonstop under the stressings of anxiety and depression, she literally made it easy for them. It's still unfortunate when someone gets a no-notice boot after already taking heaps of backlash from the community (much of it well warranted, her Barney talk was insufferable), this sort of thing is the result of higher ups at Sony wanting to be able to boast bigger profit margins by getting rid of what they see as deadweight. It's vile and scummy, but it's the reality of being boughtout. Bungie cucked themselves and are dealing with the consequences. *YET*

[@My0ldFr13nd]

​@Josecitox they fired Salvatori too. Artists took a hit as well

[@Josecitox]

@@My0ldFr13ndYeah, the biggest loss by far, i found out after posting that message.

[@zeeejay]

I hope everyone laid off can find a new solid place to land to get some stability and peace. Games industry is such a volatile mess, and despite the incredible games this year, I'll still also remember it as a year where so many people lost their jobs working on beloved projects.

[@scrubclub7138]

My prayers out to those who lost their jobs too. Everyone from where I can tell worked hard on Destiny 2 to give us stuff to enjoy. This is just a bite in the arse to remind us all were in the real world and anything can happen to anyone. I'm sure the employees will be fine. Business world sucks

[@Alex-kq2pf]

@@scrubclub7138 This probably happened because of the d2 community. They threaten and complain about the company all the time

[@scrubclub7138]

@@Alex-kq2pf oh they do indeed. I have a clan chat that people come in and complain to my clan leader about stuff that's wrong with the game, if there's one mistake or thing someone doesn't like the game is 100% bad 0/10 in their eyes. Honestly annoying at this point.

[@Raging_habib]

bro you should see the salaries of those people laid off, they will be absolutely fine

[@LeporidaeLadyHunter]

@@Alex-kq2pfIt happened because Bungie is a bloated mess of poor management who ran their money printer into the ground with greed and corporate mediocrity that in turn drove away their playerbase. They could not sustain 1100 employees on a dwindling supply of whales forever.

[@timewaster504]

Just confirmed Michael Salvatori was part of the lay offs, so yeah they really gutted the art teams.

[@rebeccap4771]

So gutted about this 😢

[@davedumm5197]

I don’t mind the idea of a super long season but damn does it suck to see people lose jobs

[@Mozini01]

im hoping for particle deconstruction again!

[@Keyshawn13]

​@@Mozini01they said years ago they aren't doing those DMG perks again 😅

[@Yumais]

This will literally kill the game for a good 4 months.

[@YouJGSousa]

Especially given how much we pay for expansions every year

[@itzseffery8020]

Yeah but the problem is that those were planned. There was some filler content ready to go. This seems so off the cuff and therefore nothing to add

[@nox1ck589]

Gotta love the money grubbing corperation forcing layoffs for no reason than to line Jim Ryan's pocket before he leaves and its sickening and shows how these corps need to be kept in check for scummy practice like layoffs for no reason and going back on their word

[@mbk0mbk]

Well large layoff mean new opportunities to join good paid companies too I guess also they get paid for sudden layoff ?(idk) But if there is no saturation of jobs then people join other corp or make there own business too

[@Smathalgoth]

This is probably happening because Sony wants to shift directions from Live Service ventures after Jim Ryan leaves.

[@itsShelleyyTV]

@@mbk0mbkno that’s not what that means, these people didn’t all just get fired because they were bad workers, companies have the ability to fire workers for no reason and can choose how many positions are available

[@BarderBetterFasterStronger]

... We played the same game right? D2 has not been doing well for a good while. All the non paid modes are ghost towns or literally cancelled. There's 12 different fucking monetization schemes while the content gets worse and all my die hard friends quit. I don't see today as a negative tbh.

[@ShadowDreamer100]

They’re shifting away from live service games in a hard way at Sony. Big execs have either been fired or left in the last few weeks that were involved in Jim’s planning of doing that shift. Bungie I believe is partly a casualty of this mixed with poorer than anticipated financial results.

[@cee_ves]

8 month season 23, can’t wait xo Hope the people affected can get back on their feet quickly

[@QTwentyTwo]

Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, and Witch Queen all got delayed. The only expansion since they split from Activision that hasn't got delayed at this point is Lightfail.

[@Shadow_of_Sundered_Star]

In their defense, Beyond Light and Witch Queen were both the result of Covid. Very much not Bungie's fault.

[@awesomeguy9513]

@@Shadow_of_Sundered_StarI mean witch queen came out pretty good for mid covid development, which I still wonder why lightfall was the way it was especially the dlc story (we did get addons in later seasons but those are season after the dlc not the dlc itself)

[@Shadow_of_Sundered_Star]

@@awesomeguy9513 My guess is the Lightfall story is they way it is because A) it wasn't supposed to exist at all. Lightfall was going to be the last expansion, until they seemingly realized that there were too many big plot threads going on to end it so soon, so the story that was going to be Lightfall became the Final Shape, and another plot had to be shoehorned in. B) they clearly wanted to try something different with having the big stuff happen in the campaign, and then slowly reveal the mystery throughout the seasons. Which tbh I respect the concept of, but they completely dropped the ball on in execution. I'd have been fine with not knowing what exactly the Veil's origin was at first if they gave literally any indication of what the stakes were if Calus and the Witness got it.

[@xRedacted_]

Damn they gave us one Eververse set as a free ritual set and it tanked the company

[@NobleVI_343]

LMAO

[@PainLink]

*TWID:* "We Fired Everyone".

[@DestindKnee]

Fence sitter. Having friends at bungie is part of the problem as they cater to streamers way TOO much

[@jimmcmeen761]

I recently was laid off at Dell and it was a complete shock. I was one of the top performers on my team but they didn’t care. My heart feels for everyone at Bungie. It’s been rough. Still looking for a job that can pay my bills

[@christophwaltz8919]

Nobody cares ur boring 9-5pm job😂😂😂

[@lugia8888]

Yup layoffs happening everywhere. We should be focusing on everyone, not just Bungie.

[@StayPuft80]

You get laid off because you don't do anything for the company. Skill issue.

[@kennethcpz]

​@@StayPuft80idiot

[@k3mikal]

@@StayPuft80 lmfao. just the fact you had to go back and edit this comment says all that there is to say about you.

[@DesignatedHealer]

I could care less for the delays, just feel bad for the employees let go and the people who now have a much bigger work load.

[@jagan9235]

Agreed, mass layoffs should be met with shame. Bungie has let its community and team down with this.

[@My0ldFr13nd]

*couldn't But yeah, I'm with you there.

[@Robin_hsr12]

​@@jagan9235Sony let us down. Sony initiated and had the last word

[@gioV_destinyasmr]

So many layoffs in the gaming industry this year, very sad

[@BeeBeeBeeLol]

I think what sucks the most was that Bungie was getting back on track and restoring at least some sentiment with the community. Sony's actions really puts a dent into what Bungie can do for themselves and us.

[@Pharexus]

it is really hard to see this as anything other than sony doing this just to add another decimal to their financial report. absolutely vile

[@Shapes_Quality_Control]

Players have little to no idea the financial burden their growing list of demands have on these developers. How many of you all scoffed at the idea that they couldn’t afford to put resources into the Crucible and Gambit?

[@cwj2733]

@@Shapes_Quality_Controlthat’s because the investors know how to make money. they could give a fuck less on how to actually make games.

[@SFGiantsFan2482]

Don't you fucking dare blame this on Sony. Bungie took that 3.6B and put half of it into Marathon and the other half went into the higher-ups pockets. Bungie has become a trash developer.

[@BoisegangGaming]

​@@cwj2733I'd say 90% of investors don't even know how to make money; they just have a whole bunch of generational wealth that they think they've earned by being born with a golden platter.

[@baransevim3969]

Employees got sunset

[@dRac_XII]

real

[@mutantraze3681]

Tbh it kinda sucks the expansions are slowly creeping back to the fall time. Its nice to get something big early in the year since most games come out between summer and late fall/early December

[@SFMikeN7]

You either die as the hero or live long enough to see yourself turn into the villain

[@downykitten6439]

It's getting reduced to a skeleton crew until the game dies. I'd give it until December 24. But thank goodness Bungie didn't "overdeliver". I just wonder how many Lambos Pete Parson bought with that 3.6 billion, cuz it sure as heck didnt go into running a better company.

[@seesidesummerhouse6112]

It’s not like the community hasn’t been vocal about the games shortcomings? Yet, we’ve continually been met with mediocrity and stale content at best, and pure silence at worst. Let’s also not forget the absolute travesty that was the ‘state of the game’… Having worked for a Japanese tech company before, I know how pragmatic and data driven they can be. Suffice to say they took one look under the hood at Bungie and didn’t like what they saw. If Bungie were as productive as they should have been, there wouldn’t have been layoffs. I hate to say it, but they were absolutely in need of an overhaul.

[@FINN-sh2iv]

I'm a Concept Artist currently in my final year of Uni, and in all honesty these events terrify me. I want to work, and have so much drive to do my best for myself and those I work for, yet hearing news like this really makes me watch my step as I move closer to graduation and start aiming to get work with no prior experience. If talent and skill of this calibre, experience as well, can be so easily cut off, I worry for those just graduating looking for any thread to hold onto looking for any sort of work security. My heart really does go out to those that have lost their jobs.

[@everythingsalright1121]

My biggest piece of advice is read the terms of your employment carefully...big companies see you as a number not a person and if they say things like unexpected/unpaid overtime or weekends mandatory theyre prolly gonna overwork you. Games industry is notorious for crunch these days

[@Gaffroninja]

Absolutely devastating news coming today. Really hope those effected can find a new home in the industry where their talents can shine! Something desperately needs to be done because this is absolutely unacceptable, laying people off with zero warning is disgraceful. I truly worry about the franchise I love going forward into the future. If this is a sign of more things to come this doesn't look or feel great to watch, and I'm sure much less to be directly involved in. Much love to the talented staff and devs who were laid off

[@orangesoda51414]

There's alot of reports saying this was Sony's doing and not Bungie's, which would track given Sony has been laying off tons of ppl lately. Though it could also be Bungie

[@MCanadiens]

Welcome to the real world. and a "warning" yeah right, most corporations do not do this and don't care

[@davidmcdevitt7583]

​@@orangesoda51414No way it was Sony's doing IMO, ESG money dried up and the COVID tech bubble is soon to pop, that's why you're seeing layoffs across the board

[@gregworkman9320]

A warning for layoffs? When does that happen? 🤔

[@BoisegangGaming]

"Laying people off with zero warning is disgraceful" Tell that to executives who don't give a crap. If there's anything we should have learned from people like Elon Musk or other giant corporation CEOs, they have no sense of shame. If this was a decision by Sony, that's even worse. Japanese work culture is, from what outside observers have stated, practically hell. Even some of the better elements of it- such as executives taking responsibility for flops and errors- pale in comparison to the sheer abuse and lack of worker protections Japanese laborers are forced to face. I doubt they see western employees any differently.

[@MrCoffeeMrRadar]

I feel bad for anyone who goes through this, I have been through this a couple times. For future reference it doesn't matter who or how big the company is if there is ever a merger or acquisition 100% there is always going to be layoffs. Right now the whole job market is really hurting, my company just announced a merger and they weren't shy they openly said there will be layoffs which started happening last week.

[@Dynasty1818]

This should not be a shock at all frankly. The gaming industry is similar to the tech industry in that operations aren't necessarily paid for by revenues so much as by rolling debt. Staff are brought on to the extent allowed by the current terms of financing, with the model that their output can generate enough revenue to service the debt and then some. With interest rates increasing, the amount of debt that can be obtained has reduced significantly. Causing companies to trim staffing (and also revenue forecasts) commensurately.

[@defectivechicken]

There goes our PVP team ;-;7 Heart goes out to all those affected..

[@shaolinswords]

I've said this for a while. NO other game just deletes entire campaigns that people paid for from existence... Red War. Gone, Curse of Osirus. Gone, Warmind. Gone, Forsaken. Gone. All of the season storylines from saving Saint 14, activating Rasputin to shoot down the Almighty, the Pyramids showing up, Xivu Arath showing up, Empress Caitl showing up, Mithrax showing up. All of this content is entirely DELETED from the game. They should have just made Destiny 3 and left Destiny 2 alone.

[@SilentMagician7]

No one should be surprised. This is 1000% normal whenever a company purchased by another. Even if they tell you that there won’t be layoffs, there will 1000% be layoffs.

[@voltus20]

People should have seen it coming when Sony gave bungie 1.2B for worker retention and said that they wouldn't lay people off... *YET* That key word there at the end is lawyer-speak for "start looking for another job, because as soon as we can get away with it legally, we're laying you off".

[@ShadowDreamer100]

Sony just shook up their plans on live service titles. Anyone associated with Jim Ryan’s vision of this just either got fired or has been let go in the last couple of weeks, and same projects (like Last of Us Factions) have been cancelled or have been told to rescope for a more traditional experience. Staff at studios other than Bungie have had layoffs as well depending on cancellations or re-scoping projects. Bungie was obviously the biggest target, since live service is all they do, and that they must not have had a good financial year from poor reception to Lightfall.

[@ColonialDagger]

There will be no season 24. The devs didn't even know about the Final Shape delay until this morning, and they take 6 months to make a season. There's no time left for them to make anything, especially if they're downsizing at the same time.

[@ishtarsdonut4489]

Scary stuff, ominous times to come

[@tomekk.1889]

Truly menacing times

[@LeporidaeLadyHunter]

This was a long time coming. D2's monetization and content delivery model has only driven away customers over time and without the ridiculous prices and a steady delivery of rehashed whale traps there was no way they could sustain 1100 employees, but even the most cynical and underhanded strategies in the games industry mean nothing if the players get so sick of it they won't come back. Every single release is reviewed poorly, nobody is happy or satisfied with D2 and the negative perception of the game and Bungie is an endless downward spiral. The place has been rotten ever since Marty was targeted almost a decade ago and I'm amazed it only took the OTHER iconic industry leading composer getting fired for people to turn on Bungie.

[@Helpie114]

Layoffs!!! (A call to all Guardians) None of these workers deserve what happened today and us as a very very very loyal player base did not deserve this shit and especially not before the pinnacle of the game we've been playing for 10+years. Whatever greats the Final Shape was supposed to be is effectively lost, less people means less content and quality. We need to Act! We need to organize a player strike to retaliate the layoffs and show Sony how we feel about this. Solidarity and collective action is the only way we have seen this work in the US recently! My thoughts: 1.) Cancel all pre orders of TFS 2.) Setup a fundraiser for all the employees who lost their jobs 3.) Equip Hake emblem and don't play for a week and boycott all ingame purchases 4.) Fan letter directed at Bungie to demand the reinstatement of employees 5.) Demand resignation of all C level executives 6.) Stop with D2 videos from all content creator only videos criticizing the executives at Bungie and Sony In the boycott week, streamers and content creators can interview the people who were effected by the layoffs just to help them get their names known and to remind us and the executives WHO they actually lost for minor profit margins! I don't have a voice but this will force Bungie to negotiate with Sony and will give evidence why they need these people If there is any way you can help amplify this message please do! We as a community have faced Tyrants, Gods, Oppressors, we can definitely do this for our fellow Guardians! Guardians rise and be counted now is the time to ACT we cannot let them hurt us and do nothing this is what we love they cannot let the Darkness win.

[@schlompus1563]

Sony doesn’t care how we feel

[@Helpie114]

@@schlompus1563 but they do care how we spend money

[@NoThanksChief]

Bungie is a privately held company. More than a billion dollars of that $3.7 billion acquisition cost was supposed to be put towards employee retention. But I guess someone needed that new house or private jet.... This news screams of poor decision making and greed at the highest levels of Bungie management.

[@MysticalCabal]

Im honestly done with bungie, followed them since the halo days. Given them a chance. But like marty O'Donnell stated Activision ruining the bungie culture. Ever since then nothing has change. Its gotten worse. Sony bought the name of bungie but the og that made bungie who they are and identity is no more

[@choerrycola7666]

I wouldn’t mind it if the delay was truly a ‘we want to polish things off and really make TFS great’ moment. But the fact this news has come so late and abruptly makes me feel like not much will change. Let’s just see what bungie has to say

[@Slayer1106411]

Exactly nothing will change. It will probably come out just how it would've originally.

[@Jvggr]

its been a wildfire today, i wake up to seeing it got delayed, find an article from a minute ago, read it and go back, then 5 more covering it show up. never seen this kind of stuff so early into the announcement

[@lrod6923]

Acquisitions always = layoffs sooner or later. Please learn this young folks. I've been around for a few of these...as a strat, it's considered standard in the playbook. Glad they held out for over a year and a half. For what it's worth, seniority employees will get healthy severance packages..SPECIALLY if they held stocks or were part of profit sharing. Don't ever quit! Let them fire you.

[@ShadowDreamer100]

This was a part of larger shifts at Sony. They just got rid of major execs who were trying to help with Jim Ryan’s vision of live service titles made by Sony Studios, and other projects and studios who were working on live service games (like Naughty Dog’s Last of Us Factions) got cancelled and/or faced layoffs.

[@knowingjake]

The question isn't whether or not Destiny WILL survive. The question is whether or not Bungie should still be supported. They have 15 billion dollars in net worth. 300+ million dollars annual digital revenue. 3+ billion external funding (of which a large sum allegedly went to employee retention). And they instead lay off a huge percentage and push back deadlines. That much dosh, and they can't make a game or pay their workers. People are losing their figurative lives over this and there's zero indication where all that money is going.

[@GriffinLKVW]

This vid actually made me feel better. I saw the news and my heart sank a bit. Thanks Datto

[@Okeen12]

Bro go outside if this makes ur heart sink

[@TrickyTricky914]

@@Okeen12???

[@StayPuft80]

Sad

[@user-js3nk9lh8n]

@@Okeen12not showing passion for your hobbies bc u think it makes you look bad isnt cute

[@heretolearn1354]

Rip that pvp strike team we JUST got

[@claytonmitchell5685]

I wanna start by saying that my thoughts and well wishes go out to every employee affected by the layoffs, and I hope that everyone lands on their feet with new work sooner rather than later. This situation has me thinking though. I can only assume that the video game industry is similar to sports. I was a sports fan my entire childhood, and then started a career working in sports as an adult, even working for several years for a team I had been a fan of. There gets to be a very strong “learning how the sausage gets made” feeling once you get inside the sports industry and learn how your favorite teams operate, and when you are subject to layoffs like I was a few years ago. You like to think that it is fun, and to a certain extent it is, but it also feels dirty and you see stuff that makes you question how it even works or if it should in the first place. Most likely we the fanbase will never learn where the origin of the layoffs came from, and we will just have to speculate, which could lean to much more negative feelings than just learning that layoff directives came from Sony, because we’re just left wondering, “What if Bungie screwed a bunch of employees over?” It sucks

[@Alecallday1107]

Well spoken

[@Slowe_]

I'm worried about the quality of final shape with so many people who have been such a big impact on destiny for so long being let go.

[@catgirlconnoisseur1024]

I'd love a video going over separating the game creators and the higher ups on the business side of things. A lot of hate for Bungie, but we should talk about game direction and the running of Bungie as different things. Especially if Sony is pulling strings, but the Bungie guys get the hate because it's their company name

[@CringeConsultant]

Yeahhhhh no. We learned with the split from Activision that Bungie are just your run of the mill shithead monetization trojan horse posing as a game. Monetization grew exponentially after that split and has continued to get more egregious without any change in gameplay quality.. Haven't played since lightfall, this is just yet another reason not to jump back onto the hamster wheel.

[@smeeblo9846]

Why is this stuff considered acceptable still? It’s disgusting, and i would love for game devs to unionize someday

[@kylecramer1369]

I'm fine with a delay, do what's needed to make the game the best it can be, but these layoffs are what absolutely killed any hope for me that Bungies management could get the job done. Wishing the best for everyone let go ❤

[@8milestudio]

“Don’t know if they can build anything substantial” yes they can. If they actually tried this time, which they might have to.

[@ErR0rPr0n3]

Sad to see... I wonder what the sales numbers looked like this year though? Maybe the delay was because of the game state after the last year? Maybe it is because of the change in game format (episodic). I'm sure they won't announce "Yeah we did this based on sales" or something like that for obvious reasons. I hope that they can find positions in the family of Sony studios or wherever they'll be happy though and it is REALLY dirty that they say the employees won't be affected but then.... It's like "Hey stay and make the company look great for the purchase (no please)!" then afterwards... "Hey, we got our big checks so... Good luck out there!"

[@Parallelocam]

Most likely they felt they were in a good place after the Activision split and felt they could continue operations as usual with a smaller team working on D2 while they shifted other people onto Marathon and Gummy Bears. They didn't forsee how much it would affect the teams still working on D2, and by then it was too late to pull people back off other projects. People started abandoning the game and not buying those seasons. Lightfall had such bad press that a ton of people definitely got deterred from buying. Eververse sales have to be way down with interest in the game waning. But their projections were still that of prior sales before the game started falling off. If you ask me, they need to re-evaluate the whole F2P mentality, because that's when it all started going downhill. They should be more focused on getting the F2P players to buy seasons and expansions. NOT focused on getting F2P/non-F2P players to spend money on Eververse. They're only chasing whales, and the whales are drifting off to sea. The rest of the 99% of players are not touching Eververse bc it's like $7 a skin or $20 an armor bundle. I will never understand the mentality of thinking "well we're far more likely to get 10,000 people to spend $20 than we are to get 100,000 people to spend $2"

[@evgenykudinov918]

Man, they even fired Michael Salvatori, things are beyond f*cked.

[@ThaAlecman]

Seems like it came out of freakin nowhere, hurting for all those affected

[@Audard]

FFXI (MMORPG) came out in 2002 and is still running today with a subscription and new content frequently.

[@beesh8702]

this honestly feels like a sony thing. i don’t believe that bungie would just lay off a ton of people.

[@blookey5707]

Yes, it's a sony thing sadly

[@RoyaltonDrummer922]

That seems to be the case

[@cheesepotato914]

Maybe, but I wouldn’t forget that at the end of the day, Bungie itself is still a corporation center around profit, and the execs probably don’t give a shit

[@iraqnid5013]

sometimes companies have to, and bungies done it before. they aren't a morally good company that can do no wrong with that said, this is definitely a Sony thing. 1. Naughty dog and Visual arts are PlayStation studios that have already been hit 2. there was a report Sony is scaling down it's GaaS approach 3. bungie would not have had 70 open job listings and down size to 19 if the company itself was planning on laying off because they would've saw it coming from a mile away. all these things combined scream Sony cost cutting regardless of who did it, it's really sad

[@cordovalark5295]

So the $1.3 billion that Sony set aside for Staff retention...? Did Bungie already go through that?

[@bait644]

I've said it before. Don't fucking pre-order Final Shape. 😑 I had an itching feeling something absolutley atrocious was coming. With the final DLC being so expensive for its pre-order as a base level purchase. And now... here we are with something even worse that what my feeling had thought. Jesus fucking Christ on a stick.... Bungie's dead. That's it. Destiny is not worth pursuing. Any vision of what was is now gone. The soul is gone. The old crew who knew what the story was is gone. Refund your pre-orders if you can. Boycott the Final Shape. Make those executives pay for this choice.

[@gavo7911]

The worst part is know this is all because of Sony, and you know that none of the CEOs and leaders will see any repercussions. The devs and employees suffer while the people at the top continue to profit.

[@doomslayer8025]

Yep Sony just wanted to make sure another yacht comes into port for the ceo but could care less about anything else.

[@lordofthstrings]

Bungie execs share some of the responsibility too. They made a deal with the devil and now their people are suffering for it

[@SFGiantsFan2482]

This is 100% because of Bungie. They took that 3.6B and put half of it into Marathon and the other half they took as bonuses. Bungie is a trash developer now.

[@SFGiantsFan2482]

The devil? You mean the most successful gaming company in history? These layoffs are because Bungie higher-ups took massive bonuses out of the 3.6B Sony gave them.@@lordofthstrings

[@DragonKnight90001]

@@lordofthstringsHonestly even if they didn’t sign the deal with the devil would Bungie have done better by themselves, would Bungie layoff more people off or would it turn even worse than this. Who knows what would have happened.

[@Father_Prime]

Even Michael Salvatori, the OST Composer, was laid off. What an absolute disaster.

[@gzmazara]

This may be the event that finally frees me from destiny. Been playing nearly 10 years and I think it’s time I move on.

[@FlipFlob13]

Side note but hope you guys and Brim are all ok, glad to hear he’s home safe!

[@MrCharlie6529]

It’s crazy how these layoff and delays are happening when the game has had so many bugs and glitches in the past few months. Hope the employees have backup plans. Or hope they saw it coming and was able to prepare

[@Slayer1106411]

the game has had so many bugs and glitches in the past year

[@warhawkofchogoris8555]

Redundancies being cut are completely normal in a corporate structure after an acquisition. It sucks people lost their jobs, but this isn't an "evil company" situation

[@jessekrueger2964]

In the recent stream where Datto had Joe Blackburn on for the shader gameshow, towards the end when it was time for shoutouts, Joe said "Sony! everyone buy lots of Sony stuff. We loooooove Sony" in a sarcastic tone & everyone kinda gave an awkward laugh. That tells me Joe already knew the news & was fed up with them already.

[@jaidoncastaneda8640]

Getting rid of art and music staff is absolutely insane to me

[@mtt3000]

The Final Budget Cut

[@RvLeshrac]

ALL layoffs are done with malicious intent. There is zero reason for employees to be laid off before management, ever.

[@Quantum_Magnus]

The only good thing to come out of this is that if FS does come out in June, then I can spend my final semester focusing on school and not playing the f**k out of Destiny since I’m supposed to graduate in May. 😅

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

Maybe they fired the people that focused on the Latinx/BLM stuff instead of making a good game ? 🤔

[@Harrison_Rs]

Company is losing money due to bad game moves, sad news for the employees but Bungie isn't the same anymore and the things they bring out just aren't fun.

[@OldgamerSeven]

Unfortunately destiny for me died in lightfall. I really enjoyed the game since vanila, but the game lost its touch.

[@CobraSnatch]

That sucks for all those employees. I was just recently furloughed for money reasons so I can kind of relate. That sucks, I've already been planing for February but I think this is a sign that I should take a break for a little bit. Been playing about 40 hours a week

[@CobraSnatch]

This must have been kept a secret considering Joe was just on the live stream saying how much they love Sony :( I bet it's not as much now

[@woahvro3401]

​@@CobraSnatchI mean it's not like Sony's gonna let him say anything negative about them publicly regardless of how he actually feels about things

[@itsGrzli]

sucks but hopefully they drop the eververse prices

[@carpemkarzi]

Hearts go out to those being laid off more than anything.

[@stevedemarest276]

How is firing somebody for poor performance malicious? They do have poor performance at Bungie - as anybody who bought Lightfall knows....

[@Anonihmus2567]

Surprised it took this long to hit Bungie with all the venture capital funding drying up but this is par for the course with any corporate acquisition its only a matter of time for this to happen to acti-blizzard too and Bethesda-zenimax

[@vexdemyous5390]

Pretty sure it already did. I remember seeing an article saying Bethesda got hit with layoffs.

[@Sentarry]

Sony calling the shots now...

[@RuneRaged]

Much love to the ones affected by the layoffs Hopefully something gets worked out for Destiny but we'll see what happens

[@spork5678]

Just such a sad, terrible situation. So many talented people’s livelihoods thrown into question because of irresponsible top brass who won’t see any of the fallout. It’s made even worse by Pete Parson’s terrible tweet and the fact it seems like this came down from Sony. Meaning that even after 2 terrible buyout experiences that harmed their employees, they went for another one, that has once again harmed their employees. I really hope everyone affected is able to land on their feet.

[@ironladyerimuth]

Corpo corruption? In my 21st century? I'm shocked.

[@KingTraut]

Everything AI can do, maybe so AI can replace them

[@Lifelongjstring]

This correlates with most companies end of Q4, beginning Q1 Nov 1st. This was likely a requirement with the acquisition from Sony.

[@ccrane5959]

My heart goes out to everyone who lost their job. I hope you all land on your feet.

[@kofeyh]

I am less convinced this is "because Sony" as it's more likely to be "because Bungie". They have form with poor decisions. It's simpler/ easier to assume this is all Sony's doing, vs consider maybe Bungie have some issues to work out. Activision was blamed back in the day, however the reality was more complex and a lot less one-sided. It's not all on Sony, imho. For much the same reasons. It's a shame, as TFS was a chance for Bungie to close out the narrative in style. A lot of good people lost their jobs, which is rough. :/

[@hype9630]

Dang dude, you were just hanging out with Joe not too long ago. I wonder if he knew then. The world's not doing so hot. Lay offs are happening all over the place. The company my wife works at literally just did the exact same thing two weeks ago. Completely unexpectedly let go of like 50 employees. I hope people are doing okay.

[@kevina6416]

I hope everyone involved in the latinx scandal got the boot

[@creightonholub]

I'd pay money for a finished "Destiny 2 Offline" like Capcom did with the Mega Man X Dive mobile game.

[@TimLeake040]

My heart goes out to all those who were affected by this. I hope they get back on their feet soon.

[@IMrAverage]

I know you are not likely to see this, but I'd be very interested to hear updated thoughts after the reasoning for the layoff has come out, mostly in regards to "It's still profitable so it will carry on" as this may not continue to be the case after the inevitable mass exodus post final Shape.

[@JayDamaso78]

You should openly share the blame for the state of Destiny.

[@halcyon1644]

Why?

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

​@@halcyon1644he was the biggest Bungie apologist for years.

[@JayDamaso78]

@halcyon1644 Not only an apologist, but he advocated that changes that killed really fun things because "iTs tOo eAsY" or "I hAvE tO pLaY mY wArLoCk tHiS wAy" etc... Very few agreed, he usually just irritated the fanbase for clicks (shocker) and exhibited typical narcissistic streamer logic that "what I want to draw more views is more important than a wider base for the game and its future." It's why there's always an undercurrent of people chanting ABD (Anyone But Datto) as the only reason they pay attention to who wins world's first raids. Ever since he switched from knowing his place as a data bot and started vomiting his thoughts out, he has had significant negative contributions to the health of the game....if it's to be believed that Bungie listens to streamers, of course, that's up to you to decide.

[@ogLenas]

Feels like some of this might be the result of execs asking why they had the game director issuing public apologies and having to create entirely new teams for the game in year 7 to address old pain points.

[@thelordofcringe]

@@user-pq8on8bx9g Sony would spend billions just to keep those people on, what are you smoking

[@LieutenantAlaki]

​@@user-pq8on8bx9g"Forcing social issues"?

[@senormacaco2834]

@@user-pq8on8bx9gExplain forcing social issues. Or dont. You are still missing a few chromosomes regardless

[@BigChungus-gz9vw]

@@user-pq8on8bx9gyou’d be poorly mistaken

[@AstuteObservations]

LMAO so true. This game has been in the gutter for a while and people refuse to see it@@user-pq8on8bx9g

[@infernas]

And just when I thought we were having one of the best years in gaming in recent years... I knew there was a terrible trade-off. 😭

[@CupUhhJo]

Sony 100% put their fingers in the pie. Insane. Community management has been working their collective ass off to reign in this wild ass community. After some of the toughest times in destiny/bungie morale history, things felt like they were on an up swing. This feels like a slap to them

[@1977NOBODY]

I agree I just told my friend this is what happens when Sony has their hand in the cookie jar

[@CupUhhJo]

@@1977NOBODY it was bound to happen, i just thought we’d be closer to the end of destiny’s lifespan before this. Unless this is the death knell sounding off..

[@NobleVI_343]

hard disagree, DMG was someone who did this, Deej was kinda someone who did this, Hippy would argue back and forth after having to write the harshest updates while addressing the community like toddlers (though they can fit that mold quite well, it's still never a good idea, because they will gain spite for you)