Bungie, the American video game developer and publisher based in Bellevue, Washington that is owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment and known for birthing several hit franchises, including Halo, Marathon, and Destiny, has eliminated 220 jobs for reasons that include “industry shifts” and the rising costs of game development, Pete Parsons has announced. Parsons, who serves as the company’s chairman and CEO, has called this one of the most difficult changes that the studio (est. 1991) has ever had to make.
Parsons writes:
- “Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon. ”
- “…beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of our studio’s workforce. ”
- “…this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials.”
- “For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.”
Some promos for Destiny 2’s new Episode:
Bungie on some of the other changes that are happening:
First, we are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters. SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify roles for as many of our people as possible, enabling us together to save a great deal of talent that would otherwise have been affected by the reduction in force.   
Second, we are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.