Employees at Bellevue-based game developer Bungie said they were hit by a new round of layoffs on Monday.
Posts on LinkedIn and other platforms indicate that the layoffs impacted multiple departments at Bungie, including production, editorial, community management, talent acquisition, and social media.
This layoff is a surprise reversal from August, when Bungie announced it was actively hiring new remote-first workers in order to work on a new mystery project. At the time, Bungie had over 1,400 full-time employees. No current numbers have been made available. Update: Bloomberg reported Tuesday that about 100 employees, or around 8% of staff, were affected by the cuts.
Following a request for comment, a Bungie representative pointed GeekWire to a statement on X (formerly Twitter) by Bungie CEO Pete Parsons:
Bungie, the company behind Destiny 2 and the forthcoming Marathon revival, was acquired by Sony for $3.6 billion last year, which added Bungie to Sony’s first-party network of PlayStation Studios.
The move was advertised to Sony shareholders as a way in which Sony could improve its portfolio of first-party “games as a service.” It also gave Bungie access to Sony’s PlayStation Productions imprint, which could be helpful for Bungie’s announced transmedia strategies for the Destiny universe.
Bungie’s last major release, the Lightfall expansion for Destiny 2, was released Feb. 28. The next expansion, The Final Shape, scheduled for release in February 2024, is said to be the last chapter of the series’ primary story arc to date.
A number of gaming companies based in the Pacific Northwest, or with operations in the region, have undergone workforce reductions this year, including:
- Harebrained Schemes, which is rumored to have lost as many as 80% of its staff in July before being spun off from owner Paradox Interactive.
- Epic Games trimming 16% of its overall workforce in September, including cuts at its Bellevue office.
- Bellevue’s ProbablyMonsters “right-sizing” in September.
- Halo maker 343 Industries eliminating 25% of its staff in January.
- Amazon’s dramatic cuts at Twitch in March.
- Relic Entertainment eliminating 121 roles in May, following the March release of WWII RTS Company of Heroes 3.
In total, more than 6,100 individual employees have been laid off from nationwide games-industry jobs as of September. This has been one of the single best years on record to be a fan of video games, with actual dozens of amazing releases, but it’s also been one of the most unstable periods for anyone who’s involved with game production.
