Gaming industry layoffs continue as Bungie reportedly takes the fall

Another episode of the gaming industry layoffs in 2023. Bungie, the developer of the popular video game Destiny 2, is reportedly undergoing a series of layoffs this week. This comes in addition to layoffs that occurred in the last few weeks.

It is unclear how many employees are being laid off. Bloomberg reported that Bungie CEO Pete Parsons emailed employees to say that they would be hearing news about layoffs and that there would be a team meeting later in the day to discuss them. The company has recently delayed the release of the next Destiny 2 expansion and pushed back their next game to 2025.

NEW: It appears that Bungie is undergoing a series of layoffs this week, in addition to those that occurred in the last few weeks. pic.twitter.com/0jgTTFFcbF

— Destiny Bulletin (@DestinyBulletn) October 30, 2023

Having spent 21 years in the gaming industry in various roles, including community management, Liana Ruppert, a former Destiny 2 community manager, said that she’s eartbroken by recent events and feels lost as she looks for new opportunities.

working in games when you have high anxiety during a mass layoff trend (across the whole industry) is panicking at every new meeting invite like “is this the one where I lose everything” and that’s super fun ?

— Liana Ruppert ?The Game Awards (@DirtyEffinHippy) October 30, 2023

 

Bungie joined the PlayStation family in early 2022 in a deal worth over $3.6 billion. At that time, the news arrived amidst Microsoft’s now-resolved attempt to acquire Call of Duty maker, Activision Blizzard.

This isn’t the first downsizing in this year’s gaming industry layoffs. The gaming industry has seen a wave of layoffs in 2023, with over 6,000 jobs lost so far from high profiles like Take-Two, Ubisoft, and more.

Unity Software also cut over 600 of its employees back in March — the list goes on.

Bungie has not yet commented on the reported layoffs.