Destiny, Marathon developer Bungie lays off staff

Employees at Bungie have revealed the Destiny 2 studio is cutting staff. Multiple workers have posted on X that they've been let go by the Seattle-based developer, and at time of writing, the exact number of affected employees hasn't been revealed.

Bungie is the fourth PlayStation studio this month to have seen layoffs. Earlier in October, Naughty Dog laid off two dozen contract workers; eliminations were revealed at Media Molecule (Dreams) and support developer Visual Arts (The Last of Us: Part I) last week. 

More broadly, the layoffs continue the widescale reductions and eliminations seen across the game industry throughout 2023. A website keeping track of this year's cuts shows that every month thus far has seen at least 10 (or more) rounds of layoffs, some of which took place on the same week.

Sony acquired Bungie in summer 2022 for $3.6 billion, and the developer more recently evaluated Naughty Dog's multiplayer spinoff for The Last of Us. After receiving Bungie's feedback, Naughty Dog reportedly put the spinoff on stasis, though not outright canceled it. 

These layoffs come months ahead of 2024's Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion, and as Bungie is developing a reboot of its long-dormant shooter Marathon. Per Bloomberg, staff were recently informed that both titles were hit with delays, with the latter game now expected to release in 2025. 

Meanwhile, The Final Shape will now release in June 2024, four months after its initial February 27 date.