Bungie Slashes Over 200 Staff & Forms New Studio Within PlayStation

Today, Bungie has declared they are enacting another round of layoffs (220 total affected) and announcing a new studio within PlayStation.

This morning, Bungie published a letter explaining its future. Penned by CEO Pete Parsons, the letter starts like many others to hundreds of staff facing layoffs: “I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio” and “Due to rising costs…” before announcing that 220 Bungie employees will now face unemployment due to a new round of layoffs.

The letter continues, “It has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon .” With this latest round of layoffs, Bungie has cut 17% of its remaining staff, which was left over from their previous cuts that removed another ~100 in October 2023 . This is also compounded by the previous layoffs conducted by PlayStation, which saw 900 jobs cut in February 2024 . The number of jobs cut by both Bungie and PlayStation within one calendar year has reached over 1200.

This comes at a time when the video game industry has seen job slashes all across the board at many companies. Developer Farhan Noor has congregated all of the layoffs and catalogued them by year on a separate site since 2022. This tool shows just how staggering the job loss has been in the video game industry since 2022, proving it’s ‘not just Bungie and PlayStation.’

It’s worth mentioning that although jobs are being cut, Parsons says, “We are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects—an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe—to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.” They’re also actively working to integrate as many Bungie jobs into SIE’s workforce as possible in the meantime.

Employees who have suddenly found themselves without employment have also been covered, according to Parsons, who claims, “For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus , and health coverage.” At a time when the gaming industry is at its most turbulent, it appears no company is safe (look at Tango Gameworks ) when it comes to layoffs .