.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp&w=1200&resize=1200,630&ssl=1 "Bungie management reportedly ‘overstated studio’s monetary prospects’ to Sony, main to wish for layoffs")
Following yesterday’s mass layoffs at Future 2 developer Bungie – by which 220 staff misplaced their jobs – a brand new report has claimed the cuts have been a results of Bungie management ‘overstating the studio’s monetary prospects’ to Sony, which acquired the developer in 2022.
That is in line with sources interviewed by journalist Stephen Totilo, who, writing in his GameFile e-newsletter, studies yesterday’s job cuts have been essential to stem Bungie’s continued monetary losses. The studio is alleged to have repeatedly missed monetary targets promised to Sony, and has reportedly misplaced cash for the reason that launch of Future 2 enlargement Lightfall in 2023.
Totilo claims yesterday’s layoffs – the second spherical of job cuts in lower than a yr – had lengthy been deliberate, and “could not be prevented” even when this yr’s Future 2 enlargement, The Closing Form, had “blockbuster efficiency”. Bungie administration reportedly concluded final yr – amid poor gross sales and a dwindling Future 2 participant base – it could must “make deep cuts to point out Sony’s executives that it was taking its funds critically”, with the studio’s autonomy – and administration jobs – seemingly on the road if it failed to satisfy its targets.
That tallies with studies from IGN final yr, by which quite a few Bungie staff advised the publication the temper on the studio was “soul-crushing” as management carried out harsh cost-cutting measures, apparently in a bid to cling onto independence.
Totilo notes Sony’s gaming division has reported slimmer earnings in current occasions, and that when Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino changed outgoing PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan earlier this yr, they wrote, “Expectations for us are excessive and we goal to drive bettering profitability.” Nonetheless, Totilo’s sources say staff have little animosity for Sony over the cuts, with many as an alternative blaming Bungie administration for promising unrealistic progress – an perspective mirrored in employees social media posts slamming studio CEO Pete Parsons following yesterday’s layoffs.
Based on Totilo, Future 2 stays the one recreation presently getting cash for Bungie, and this yr’s The Closing Form enlargement “bought lower than Lightfall”, regardless of its constructive crucial reception. That is an issue for a Bungie management nonetheless trying to show it will possibly flip issues round to Sony, and maybe not an simply solvable one. “The financials simply do not work,” one supply advised Totilo. “Future is an extremely costly recreation to make.”
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