Two of the leading console publishers, Sony and Microsoft, are both having a mare this week. Xbox, which has caused a ruckus with its intentions to close and lay off, has hit Ninja Theory the hardest. But on the other side of the world, Japan is reportedly ready to lay off Bungie staff, according to the latest reports.
The latest on the Bungie situation comes from French journalist Sylvain Trinel on X, who is commenting on some rumours he has heard. Those rumours suggest that Sony is preparing for a layoff round, with many studios potentially affected. As for Bungie, it seems like it could face up to 50% layoffs, taking its reported 850-person headcount down to 425 if true.
Et si cela ne suffisait pas, Bungie devrait connaître cet été des licenciements massifs.
Je prends des pincettes, mais on me parle d’au moins 50% des effectifs touchés (permanents ou contractuels) consécutifs à la fin de Destiny 2 et à la situation de Marathon.
Sony acquired Bungie in 2022, purchasing the Washington-based studio in the post-Covid buy-up. The company has since only declined in its valuation, with the last 12 months becoming troublesome in terms of player counts, its monetary situation, and more. Sony recently had to mark down Bungie in its recent sales presentation, though it did say there was some goodwill in its performance metrics.
Since then, Bungie has published its last-ever live-service patch for Destiny 2, and there are also whispers that there is no Destiny 3 to follow suit. Instead, all that is left is a Marathon that is ticking along, still underperforming on its player counts well into Season 2.
Based on all of this, it may make sense to see that many layoffs are on the way. On the flip side, though, it could also make sense to not lay off staff and have them work on another upcoming project to try and earn cash back in the long run. Who knows what is going to truly happen until it’s confirmed, which could be later in the summer, again, as stated by Sylvain.
All of the above comes as a wider budgeting outlook that Sony is doing, with it also looking at shuttering other parts of its portfolio, as cost-saving measures. Again, it’s another could situation, as it may just be tales of internal talk at Sony, with nothing entirely pencilled in just yet.
I want to be very clear about this tweet. I never announced the closure of any Sony studios, nor did I mention any studio names. I simply said that some studios would also be affected.
Craig Robinson is an experienced gaming and esports writer with nearly a decade of coverage experience since 2015. With a background in software engineering, he combines his journalistic expertise with a strong understanding of technical SEO and web development fundamentals. He’s passionate about covering MMO games, competitive esports, and crafting guides that help players get the most out of their favorite titles.
He's been writing about gaming and esports for over 10 years, which started as for fun project during university. He has since developed his skill set, contributing to newsrooms coverage of key games and event, and blending evergreen content strategy and a solid grasp of content marketing fundamentals. His work has appeared in Esports News UK, Gamer Guides, theEscpaist, and VideoGamer, and he now contributes to Gamehub's review team. When he’s not writing, Craig can usually be found running, at the gym, or tinkering with coding projects to keep his GitHub active.
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