Bungie has laid off some of its staff, according to a report by Bloomberg, as well as multiple now former Bungie developers on Twitter this morning. Additionally, the Sony-owned studio has pushed back the release of its next Destiny 2 expansion and the target window for its upcoming game, Marathon.
This isn't the first Sony studio to have faced layoffs this year, with The Last of Us Part II developer Naughty Dog also laying off staffers. The report via Jason Schreier from Bloomberg states that an "undisclosed number of staffers" were affected by today's layoffs, which multiple developers have now confirmed via their personal Twitter accounts.
In addition to the layoffs, Destiny 2: The Final Shape has been delayed out of February, now releasing in June 2024. Additionally, Bungie's upcoming multiplayer shooter, Marathon, has also seen a delay, being pushed to 2025.
This has been a hard year for game developers as multiple studios and companies have laid off workers throughout 2023. From CCP Games laying off a small number of devs early this year, to NCSOFT West seeing around 20% of its staff laid off, the body blows to the people who make this industry possible still keep coming. Bungie, which Sony bought in January of 2022 for $3.6 billion USD, isn't the only Sony studio to cut staff, as previously mentioned.
