(Bloomberg) — Bungie has decided to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its roughly 1,200 employees following a dire executive warning earlier this month over the plummeting popularity of its flagship video game “Destiny 2.” I put it down.
Just two weeks ago, executives at Sony’s game developer told employees that this year’s sales would be 45% lower than expected, according to people who attended the meeting.
CEO Pete Parsons said Destiny 2’s poor player retention, which has faced poor reviews since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall, was a major mistake.
Officials said the next expansion, The Final Shape, was well-received and feedback was less than positive, but executives told attendees they plan to push the release from February to June 2024. He is said to have said. The people involved requested anonymity for the sake of anonymity. Authorized to speak in public. Additional time gives developers the opportunity to improve their products.
During that time, Mr. Parsons told Bungie staff he would implement a pay and hiring freeze, as well as cut travel and other costs, people familiar with the matter said. He said employees are determined to do whatever it takes to restore profitability because everyone will have to work together to weather this storm.
But on Monday morning, the news got even worse. Dozens of staff woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings on their calendars that they soon discovered were part of a mass layoff. Bungie has laid off about 8% of its employees, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie did not respond to a request for comment.
The laid-off employees will receive at least three months of severance and three months of COBRA health insurance paid for by Bungie, but other benefits, such as expense reimbursement, will end on Monday. Some staff members are busy submitting receipts.
Laid-off staff will also receive pro-rated bonuses, but employees who were on a vesting schedule after Sony Group’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose all unvested shares as of next month. It turns out.
The layoffs are part of a larger cash-cutting plan at Sony’s PlayStation division, which is also cutting staff at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and the San Mateo office.
TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said in a report on Monday: “The events of the last few days suggest that PlayStation is undergoing a realignment.”
PlayStation President Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign.
Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. The rest of his Bungie staff was informed that going forward, some of these areas would be outsourced.
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