Today, Bloomberg has reported that Bungie, the developer behind Destiny, has laid off a number of employees, continuing the unfortunate trend this year. In an email to employees seen by Bloomberg, Bungie Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons said staffers would be “hearing some news today” and that there would be a team meeting later in the day to “discuss today’s events.”
In addition to the layoffs, people with knowledge of the matter have also revealed that the upcoming major Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape has been delayed from February to June which pushes it out of Sony Group Corp.’s current fiscal year. Marathon, Bungie’s next title has been pushed to 2025.
Sony has been cutting staff across PlayStation this year, in part due to delays. Several key producers have left. Current CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan announced last month announced that he is retiring next Spring. Co-Founder of Media Molecule Mark Healey departed the company earlier this year. Last week, the Dreams and LittleBigPlanet dev announced that it was letting go up to 20% of its staff.
PlayStation isn’t the only company in the video game industry that has been impacted by layoffs this year. Microsoft, including 343 Industries and Bethesda were affected. Riot Games, Twitch, Phoenix Labs, Firemonkey Studios, Epic Games, and Team 17 also suffered layoffs this year. Developers weren’t the only ones affected in the industry. Several game media companies including GameSpot and Giant Bomb, The Washington Post, and Waypoint were all affected too.