Been diggin' into this. Reading comments. All that jazz. Some serious business chicanery appears to have been at play here. Grain of salt on all of this, it's all scuttle-butt.

Getting texts from friends impacted by layoffs this morning.

It is frustrating - infuriating even - to continue seeing people who strap in to do good work losing their financial security due to poor management.

The continued echoes of poor decisions made that >feel< avoidable.

— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) October 30, 2023

Bungie leadership assures employees Sony deal will not result in layoffs, restructuring. Key phrase "sony deal". As in "at close". As in "not immediately". Apparently, part of the contract expired not too long ago, the "statute of limitations", and this allowed the floodgates to open up.

In February 2022, Bungie leadership team assured the Sony deal will not result in layoffs or restructuring.

Last month, Bungie began waves of layoffs amid a major expansion on the horizon and multiple titles in development.

Furthermore, Bungie Careers have been active… pic.twitter.com/ENfV1N204d

— The Destiny Show (@thedestinyshow) October 30, 2023

And now... oh wow. Dude, into the holiday season no less.

I was laid off from Bungie today. If anyone is looking for a passionate writer/editor to join their narrative team, please reach out! Bungie was a dream opportunity, and I'm so grateful to all the people I worked with.

— jay? (@Jason_Guisao) October 30, 2023

I am absolutely devastated to say I am looking for work.

Words cannot express all of the emotions I have… my anniversary here was in two days.

I have ~1.5 years of experience in AAA Art at Bungie, and live in the Chicagoland area. Remote would be great, too.

— John Zelman (On Shore Leave) (@TR_BlueJay) October 30, 2023

Well after 10 years at #bungie I was laid off today. I’m sad for sure. Hope the best for the all the people I won’t get to work with anymore. Love you all.

— Jason Larsen - Ancient Mariner Fan (@Crabman54) October 30, 2023

I've been laid off from @Bungie. A surreal thing to write as I sit here pondering what went wrong. I'm still processing it all and while my first instinct is anger I know I'd regret what I'd say.

Thank you to everyone at Bungie who helped make my last 5+ years the best ever.

— Griffin Bennett (@GriffinWB) October 30, 2023

That was a hell of a run folks...
Today I was let go from Bungie.
5 years and 346 days of D2, Marathon and some of the absolute best co-workers in Gaming.

If you are on the lookout for a Producer, Marketing person, Events Manager, or Consumer Products person, hit me up!

— Beeonkey (🐝 on 🔑) (@beeonkeyco) October 30, 2023

People that celebrate layoffs are evil. Plain and simple. This year came with stress you wouldn’t believe, including cancer that I never shared with anyone. To those going out of their way to be cruel, i hope the world shows you some kindness so you can remember your humanity.

— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) October 30, 2023

Yeah.

- No text -

I feel so sad for everyone at Bungie, but finding out they even laid off Lorraine is the one that finally broke me.

Wait what??? They laid off Mclees? Holy shit

No blaming MS, Activision or Sony. This rests solely on the shoulders of the top-execs at Bungie.

Such naivety. Every single time Bungie get acquired, they long for independence because parent corporations always push changes they eventually hate. MS was probably their best "parent" in retrospect. I'm just dumbfounded that they spent as much time and effort into becoming independent only to run back into the fold of another entity.

What a bunch of BS for these employees. I wish all the best for each of them as they rebuild their lives and dreams.

When Microsoft bought Bungie, many people were looking to be out of a job. Everyone from publishing for example, would no longer be needed. You know what Alexander Seropian did? As part of the deal, he MADE Microsoft give interviews to all these people for some position somewhere in the company. He made sure everyone at least had a shot at a job.

Good guy Alex.

JonnyOThan left a while back it seems, I wonder who's still there.

He left in 2021.

With Lorraine gone, the Bungie of old is officially dead, right? Is there anyone else from those early days still there?

Alright, so Marathon is clearly the Next Big Thing (TM) for Bungie. It is receiving the lion's share of the company's attention and resources internally and is being funded by the revenue stream from Destiny 2. That revenue stream is now failing to meet expectations, which is threatening the future growth potential of the entire company, so something has to change. I get that. I was quite negative on Marathon back when it was announced and my position today has not changed. I mean, just take a step back here. Bungie has spent over a decade fine-tuning one of the most miserable PvP experiences in modern gaming -- by almost every single metric -- and their Hail Mary move is to take that "expertise" to a PvP-exclusive title and double down on games-as-a-service? That's the play to secure the future of the company?

Really?!

It's not that I oppose PvP-centric games on principle or that I am necessarily against games-as-a-service. (It's often designed exploitatively, but it can work with smart designers at the helm.) It's just that I am not convinced by Bungie's strategy at all. How can you possibly think of going PvP-exclusive when your current PvP model is complete ass?! They can’t even get matchmaking right.

So yes, I recognize that these layoffs represent a strategic move to bolster Marathon's development cycle as much as possible (arguably), since that is where the company has chosen to place the lion's share of its hopes for the future... but I question the entire strategy here. This really does not feel like a good direction for the company overall.

...

I hate being so negative. I would really, really love to offer something positive here. Bungie is a great developer with a long track record of delivering world-class titles to the industry. They shaped my adolescence and informed my love of video games more than any other single developer. I want Marathon to prove me wrong and succeed beyond anyone's wildest dreams, both creatively and monetarily, as a new world-class title in the storied Bungie canon.

I just struggle to see any trace of the company that actually built that canon anymore.

On the other hand, they (or some past form of "they") did kind of invent Xbox Live PVP. I seriously doubt a PVP-only game-as-a-service will be a thing for me, but I hope they know what they're doing. I wish them well.

The one thing I'll say in their defense regarding Destiny's PvP is that I believe the root of their struggles lies in the large array of weapons needing to be balanced across both PvE and PvP. Remove PvE from the equation (or in the event that Marathon has some PvE elements, at least design weapons PvP-first) and I believe there is a much higher likelihood of being able to craft a good PvP experience.

Alright, so Marathon is clearly the Next Big Thing (TM) for Bungie. It is receiving the lion's share of the company's attention and resources internally and is being funded by the revenue stream from Destiny 2. That revenue stream is now failing to meet expectations, which is threatening the future growth potential of the entire company, so something has to change.

This is something Bungie has never been able to figure out. All through their history up until recently, they have basically been a one game studio. Attempts to go multi-game were always failures. If the Oni team had not gone to Halo, then Halo would never have materialized. Alex himself had to fly to San Jose and help the Oni team out by placing lights and objects in the map editors. It was a skin of their teeth situation.

Phoenix was killed. Gypsum was killed. All because the main games needed the attention.

Bungie has never really figured out how to be a multi-game studio. And now, they are trying to do THREE. Destiny, Marathon, Matter, and maybe other things too.

I feel like all through Bungie's history, they've always been on the razor's edge. They've pulled it off, but usually it's down to the wire. Most of the people there who could pull it out are gone.

I'm going to check back in six months. If things are still shitty and dire, THEN we can talk about the end of Bungie. But, maybe they'll do what they've always managed to do, and land the plane that's on fire.

What if they were the rightful inheritors of Old Bungie's mantle this whole time?

But let's take a step back here. I was quite negative on Marathon back when it was announced and my position today has not changed. I mean, just think about what the project represents. Bungie has spent over a decade fine-tuning one of the most miserable PvP experiences in modern gaming -- by almost every single metric -- and their Hail Mary move is to take that "expertise" to a PvP-exclusive title and double down on games-as-a-service? That's the play to secure the future of the company?

Really?!

It's not that I oppose PvP-centric games on principle or that I am necessarily against games-as-a-service. (It's often designed exploitatively, but it can work with smart designers at the helm.) It's just that I am not convinced by Bungie's strategy at all. How can you possibly think of going PvP-exclusive when your current PvP model is complete ass?! They can’t even get matchmaking right.

I definitely don't agree with this sentiment. Without PvP I would likely have moved on from Destiny a long time ago. As far as I'm concerned PvP kept this game alive through quite a few content droughts, and has been very playable with a few notable time period exceptions when certain abilities or weapons veered into the "silly" zone rather than just very powerful. I will agree that Bungie's "adjustments" are just as likely to make things worse as they are to improve them.

If you want replayability, there's no substitute for playing against other humans. PvE requires a large, constant effort to keep generating the 'E'. With PvP, you've just got to get the sandbox right (with the caveat that you've got to get it right pretty much right off the bat, so there are enough 'P's to make it all work). Then you can add maps or matchmaking adjustments or whatever to keep it fresh. What is seems to have cost them to maintain a GaS PvE for the past few years is "everything", so you can see the attraction of a PvP version.

It's crazy how Bungie laid off Mike Salvatori, who's been with them for over 25 years. This industry is blind. They don't care about retaining top talent and think they're expendable. It's disgusting.

I'm going to reveal something all journalists and fans should know...

It's widely believed that a lot of the original Bungie team had willingly left Bungie, but the truth is that Bungie executives had actually made decisions that led to the firing of Marcus Lehto, Jaime Griesemer, Paul Bertone, Joe Staten, and many others. None of them were officially fired. They accepted separation agreements rather than being fired, except Marcus, who simply got fed up and resigned.

A few months ago I said I'll be telling everyone some untold Bungie/Microsoft history. I've been told I'm not allowed to tell it yet for reasons I can't say, but here's something I'll share now. This all comes directly from my friends at MS or those who once worked for MS.

After Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2001, Harold Ryan (MS Test) and Pete Parsons (MS Marketing, now CEO of Bungie) were introduced to the Bungie team to help Bungie with Halo: Combat Evolved.

Sometime in 2003 during the development of Halo 2, Bungie felt their profit share of Halo was insufficient and thought of leaving MS and start a new company (go pirate). Bungie then convinced Pete (who became Studio Manager in 2002) to help them begin negotiations with MS about changing their deal. MS agreed to share but told them that it'll take time to work out the details and requested that they continue making Halo 2.

Bungie could sense bad things were going on behind the scenes, since their biggest ally at MS, @Ed_Fries (founder of Microsoft Game Studios and who made the Bungie acquisition) suddenly resigns.

Bungie agreed to get 11% of the profits of Halo 2 for the studio. In 2004, Bungie ship Halo 2 and MS tells them they get 11% of the first few million in profits and then the more money MS makes, the more the percentage to Bungie drops to 2%.

On the day Bungie ship Halo 2, they blow through the 11% and by the end of that day they're only at 2% from then on. At that point they decide to leave MS and start negotiating to become independent. Either MS makes a deal or Bungie goes pirate. There were 7 members of the Bungie team who led the charge to leave and speak with MS brass, who at that time was @Robbie_Bach.

Pete Parsons was the intermediary. He talked with Bungie, takes what they want to MS, then returns to inform them of what MS said. This went on for several months. Eventually, both Jason Jones and Marcus Lehto became frustrated and threatened to resign. Pete informed them that he told MS that he too will resign if MS don’t budge.

Bungie then hold a group meeting. It is asked that anyone who threatened to quit should leave the room. Those left in the room decide what they want to do. There were five people in the room (I won't mention their names at this time). At this point, it was suggested that all decisions should be unanimous.

They ask Marcus what they would need to do to get him to stay, to which he comes to an agreement. They do the same for Jason. Then the whole group is asked if they should do the same for Pete — it's not unanimous. Many of them believed that Pete had been double-dealing — playing both sides and not being entirely honest with either.

Bungie say goodbye to Pete and thank him for resigning. They believe that his resignation will get the attention of MS.

Bungie decide that Harold Ryan will run the business side and Marty O'Donnell will oversee the people side. Bungie then hire Don Leeds to be their negotiator. He becomes their strategist in dealing with MS, which at this point is Shane Kim. Bungie basically says, "MS give us Bungie and we'll give MS Halo 3."

It takes more than a couple of years until Bungie make the deal, and on 07/07/07 they get their official independence. Shane is there to offer positions at 343 for anyone who would rather stay safe in the arms of MS.

It was at this point that Bungie found out Pete Parsons didn't resign from MS but was simply given a different executive position; he had deceived them.

This is all I can share for now, and this begins another long part of the saga, one in which Bungie loses the aforementioned employees and many others.

The main reason Bungie changed was because of Harold Ryan and Pete Parsons. These two pretty much ruined Bungie. Someone at 343 Industries had also been bad-mouthing the Bungie team and saying they're difficult to work with. I'll let you figure out who that person was.

You’ve previously referenced the fact that Bungie had to go to extraordinary lengths in order to retain Jason Jones. This tweet does seem to corroborate that claim.

Who is this person? Like, this could just be elaborate fan fiction. It certainly seems believable enough, but that doesn’t actually mean it’s true.

Also, from any legitimate reporting I’ve heard, Bungie was difficult to work with—that’s not just a lie someone at 343 had to make up.