Sony is restructuring Bungie after the Destiny 2 studio’s second round of brutal layoffs. From all the news that has come out over the years outlining the details of Sony’s purchase of Bungie (and more recently how Sony was misled by Bungie’s financials), it’s possible that layoffs and restructuring were inevitable. Let’s do a quick recap of this piece of news, for those that might not have heard, then zoom out and contextualize this studio’s saga as it pertains to the wider video game industry.
This morning, we shared an important update with the Bungie team on the difficult decision to eliminate 220 roles at Bungie.
The restructuring is part of the massive layoffs at Bungie
The Shakeup
Sony had a briefing where COO and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, gave us the broad strokes of the restructuring. It seems that their main objective in this move is to restructure costs and optimize the portfolio [of games]. Essentially, this means two things:
Destiny 2’s scale of content will shrink, but the remainder of the studio will stay working on it, and the upcoming announced game, Marathon.
Title development (new games) will be integrated into Sony and developed there.
Hiroki didn’t go into more specifics than that, but it is still an interesting development in Bungie’s rocky relationship with its parent company. For Destiny players, this won’t change much in the way of Destiny 2, and the game’s new episodic content.
Marathon is still being developed by Bungie, but other unannounced projects are being moved to Sony
A Symptom of the Disease?
For gamers paying attention to studio scoop ups, this tale might seem familiar. The big corporations have been buying up more and more studios to supplement their own exclusive title lists. However, this tactic rarely works out for them, and when these newly-acquired studios do release anticipated games, they tend to disappoint (see our Starfield Review for an example).
Bungie and Sony’s woes aren’t unique, but the timing is curious as Destiny 2’s latest expansion, The Final Shape, was excellent. It’s a similar situation to the recent misfortune that Tango Gameworks suffered when Microsoft shuttered their doors after the release of their successful game, Hi-Fi Rush. In examples like these, It seems that product quality and performance doesn’t matter in the corporatized sphere.
Hi-Fi Rush did very well, and their studio was closed
Of course, Bungie’s scenario is ultimately different (they aren’t closing like Tango Gameworks did), but someone might still look at it as an apparent case of success being met with punishment. However, things aren’t that simple. Bungie was in dire straights before Sony came along because it was supporting too many projects, and there are even reports it would have closed down if not for the Sony acquisition. In light of this, the current narrative is mostly shaped as who is more at fault for the current predicament: Bungie for its mismanagement, or Sony for buying a sinking ship.
Regardless of fault, once a studio is bought and incorporated into a massive company like PlayStation or Microsoft, all financial hardships are shared. It’s like any two ships that have been tied together; they could rise or fall depending on the tides, and with the growing amount of layoffs the industry has been experiencing in recent years, it seems the tide is currently going out.
On the other hand, there are possible advantages studios can gain from being picked up by one of these big corporations. When times are good, they have access to more funds and resources, and when times are bad, well…being able to restructure and keep some devs employed is better than shutting down for good.
It’s a difficult issue to encapsulate fully, yet we can gleam some wisdom for it from the old proverb of, “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.” When game development is concentrated in a few of these gigantic corporations, it makes it harder for smaller studios to compete, and it makes it easier for them to be acquired, too. Not to mention that if the leadership at the top of one of these corporations decides on a disastrous course, then it could spell doom for all its acquired studios. All we can hope for in this specific example is that PlayStation has a solid plan for what’s left of Bungie.
What do you think? Is this perspective too doom and gloom, or is there real concern for how the industry is being consolidated? Let us know in the comments!
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Kelson H.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
