Summary
Bungiehas been hit layoffs, several recently terminated staffers have revealed. The Bellevue, Washington-based company hence became the fourth Sony subsidiary that pulled the trigger on workforce cutbacks since the turn of October, a trend that started whenNaughty Dog reportedly downsized its quality assurance staffseveral weeks ago.
Layoffs have long been a common occurrence across gaming, as the cyclical nature of game development often results in redundancies. 2023 still saw an apparent uptick in such cutbacks, as well as the occasional studio closure and project cancelation. Some companies like Swedish gaming giantEmbracer Group attributed these recent layoffs to a worsening global economy. Others, like Sony, pushed through redundancies while trying to minimize fanfare, thus offering little in the way of public explanation for their downsizing efforts.
The latest Sony subsidiary to be hit with layoffs is Bungie,Kotaku reports, citing social media posts from several newly terminated staffers. The full extent of the cutbacks is unclear, as the Sony-owned studio has yet to officially confirm the redundancies. Bungie employed approximately 1,600 staffers before this late October round of layoffs, according to publicly available LinkedIn data. The cutbacks were independently confirmed by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who obtained a copy of an internal memo from Bungie CEO Pete Parsons promising to discuss this turn of events at an October 30 company meeting.
This development further underlines how October has been a troubling month for Sony subsidiaries, not least because of the multiple downsizings that went into effect since the turn of the month. Apart from the aforementioned Naughty Dog cutbacks, PlayStation studios Visual Arts andMedia Molecule have both been hit with layoffsin recent days. Media Molecule eliminated around 20 positions, reducing its headcount to 115, while the extent of the recent redundancies at Visual Arts remains unclear.
Sony Studios Hit With Layoffs in October 2023
The cuts at theDestinyseries developer arrive just two months shy of the two-year anniversary ofSony’s Bungie acquisition. And while the redundancies were presumably decided by Sony, that’s not to say Bungie would have avoided layoffs had it stayed independent. After all, multiple successful indie developers such as CD Projekt Red and Team17 also announced workforce cutbacks in recent months, same as larger groups like THQ Nordic, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts.
Bungieis currently working on a reboot of its sci-fi FPS seriesMarathon, as well as a team-based action game that’s still awaiting an official announcement. There is currently no indication that either project will be affected by these recent layoffs, especially since the company is currently also looking to fill nearly two dozen open positions in its art, engineering, game design, and narrative departments, among others, according to its official careers page.
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