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What's Next For Bungie? | Spot On

This week, Bungie announced more layoffs and the cancellation of Project Payload, a Destiny spin-off. Tam and Lucy discuss the impact of the Bungie layoffs on this week's Spot On.

Despite releasing one of the year's most critically acclaimed expansions, Destiny 2's The Final Shape, it's been a rough year for Bungie. Last October, the developer laid off roughly 100 people, equating to approximately 8% of it's workforce. Earlier this week, the studio let go another 220--a shockingly high 17% of its workforce--while also relocating 12% of its remaining staff to its parent company, Sony.

Bungie executive Pete Parsons cited "rising costs of development," "industry shifts," and "enduring economic conditions" as the reason for the mass layoffs, which impacted "most" of Bungie's executive and senior leader positions. Considering this loss of leadership, it comes as no surprise then that the studio is entering what the executive refers to as a time of "tremendous change." And as for the mass transfer of former Bungie employees to Sony, Parsons' explained the move aims to "deepen" Bungie's integration with the company--a statement that has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Though it's easy to see these layoffs as merely the latest in a series' of widespread job losses in the industry, it also showcases the trend of large corporations acquiring well-known developers and how it ultimately leads to significant changes in staffing, priorities, and, potentially, identity. This week on Spot On, Tam and Lucy discuss the impact of these layoffs and what it means for the future of Destiny 2, Marathon, and Bungie as a whole.

Spot On is GameSpot's weekly news show in which managing editor Tamoor Hussain and senior producer Lucy James talk about the latest game news. Given the massive video game industry's highly dynamic and never-ending news cycle, there's always something to talk about. Unlike most news shows, Spot On will dive deep into a single topic instead of recapping all the news. Spot On airs each Friday.

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StefanH

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I hate it when people say the book is better than the movie. I so disagree, they are different mediums and comparing them is apples and oranges. Sure, books tend to have more detail as a function of the medium, but films can sometimes illustrate in a single shot what books can never pull off in thousands of words. I think both have their merits and shortcomings and each should be judged on their own merits.

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santinegrete

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Do you think they'll try their hand in doing a fun and varied campaign with tight yet accesible gunplay again?

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hellhammer

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So long!

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phili878

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Deus Ex needs a sequel or rather, the original Deus Ex needs a remake!

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jenovaschilld

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Edited By jenovaschilld

It looks like a corporate buyout, they just wanted the IPs, toolsets, assets (engines, arts, engineering, etc).

I doubt that they will continue any of their previous games, just use it to start creating live service games. Whatever anyone knew of Bungie from the days of Halo, that is all gone now. Just about like a Blizzard before activision blizzard.

Forget table tennis, play rooms, catered food service, craft beers,.. it is now a sweat shop with a quota.

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CJ_Topspin

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Start a new studio, develop some amazing games, cash in by getting acquired by a large/publicly traded company, "downsize" or "shutter" studio, talent goes elsewhere, start a new studio....

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MarthsCape

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Lmao, what were you thinking was going to happen when everyone was saying this shit was coming after the mass studio acquisitions?

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elusivemggaming

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Edited By elusivemggaming

like i do give a shit, they took all of my money from D2, i got all dlcs and what I am not able to replay Destiny 2, sorry, Im not gonna say that i feel sorry for them , greedy company, and even now what... it turns out that this company had a moron in charge?

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Agent_Stroud

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Likely the shuttering of their studio if Herman isn’t able to right that particular sinking ship.

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Crazy_sahara

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Lucy looks like the star wars outlaws character.

🙊

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HAWK9600

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Edited By HAWK9600

It's crazy that a developer can make one of the most successful trilogies in gaming history, then go on to make one of the most successful online looter shooters that maintains its popularity for a decade straight, and they STILL get the shaft. I guess one can only chalk it up to a bad work environment, mistreatment from higher ups, etc. Because otherwise bungie would have remained intact after so many successful releases, right?

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NilsDoen

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@HAWK9600: well they also overhired perhaps?

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HAWK9600

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Edited By HAWK9600

@nilsdoen: There are probably lots of reasons, but the fact that they didn't retain the talented devs that made them successful in the first place is telling, I feel. People don't just give up on a job making video games they love if the company is great to work for.

And destiny itself has gone through a lot of team changes over the years.

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NilsDoen

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@HAWK9600: sure, but the entire games industry is currently stuck crap culture cycle, where 1) there is workforce in abundance 2) you hire and fire based on where you are in a project

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ChubbyGomez69

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Anyone of significance that worked on halo is long gone from the company so any affection for them is unwarranted. For a long time bungie has been a crap company so while unfortunate can't feel to sorry for those that lost their job or the future implosion of destiny

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BDRTFM

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Edited By BDRTFM

What's next? A GaaS Space Pew Pew. Just a shot in the dark. Guess being under Microsoft wasn't the worst thing to happen to Bungie. They get free of Microsoft because they didn't want to make the same space shooter for decades only to get under Activision and make the same space shooter for decades and then get bought out by Sony and lose a quarter of their staff. Not to mention firing one of the best video game composer ever, basically breaking his contract and trying to steal his Bungie stock. But Microsoft bad. LOL. Glad O'Donnell completely wrecked Bungie in court and was pushed out of what's turning out to be a sinking ship. They did him a favor.

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mrbojangles25

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What's next for Bungie?

Hopefully one of two things: a swift, clean death that sees the studio shuttered and the talent moving on elsewhere so they're not wasted; or a new project that isn't a lame GaaS for 20 years.

I'd like to see if they can still actually make a good game that isn't Destiny but that's doubtful at this point I think.

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mogan

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Edited By mogan  Moderator

@mrbojangles25: They said the next thing is them focusing on Destiny and Marathon.

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ezio899

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@mrbojangles25: Going by how the CEO is blowing millions and millions of stupid shit while shoving it in his employee's faces that can't even afford rent. It's gonna be milked dry a slow and painful death until Sony gives up and shuts them down.

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illegal_peanut

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Edited By illegal_peanut

@ezio899: It was $2.3 Million on classic cars.

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LTKCentaur

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@illegal_peanut: Yeah. Stupid shit.

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illegal_peanut

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@ltkcentaur: The worst part is that he actually asked the employees if they wanted to see his cars. Before and after he laid them off.

He seems like a real classy guy.

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LTKCentaur

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@illegal_peanut: A genuinely deranged thing to do.

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