this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Destiny

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More information on the layoffs (twitter.com)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Blxter to c/[email protected]
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• The layoff decisions came directly from Bungie management, not Sony. This is not about Sony replacing Bungie employees with their own people.

• Many employee benefits (though not health insurance), only last until the end of the month if you're let go. Laying people off on the 30th means a single additional day of coverage.

• Many employees had unvested shares as a result of the Sony purchase. These shares would be received based on staying the with company for a certain number of years following the sale. But those shares revert to Bungie if you leave, even if you're fired, which is what's happening now to many of those affected.

• Many Bungie employees that were fired found out in the morning when they were locked out of services, logins, email access revoked.

• Others who instead found out in meetings were told not to tell team members themselves, as teams would be told "by other means." Many employees were unable to say goodbye or exchange contacts.

• Many team managers were not told at all about who on their team was being laid off, and only found out as it happened.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

https://archive.ph/dCHtV

Non paywalled link to a follow up article from Jason Schreier. Some more details:

  • Revenue from Destiny was 45% below projections as of 2 weeks ago.
  • Weak player retention in Destiny 2 following Lightfall.
  • Feedback on TFS was “good but not great”.
  • Bungie tried a lot of cost cutting measures including freezing hiring, travel expenses, and salary increases.

Looks like a bunch of poor management decisions made before Lightfall caught up with Bungie and unfortunately cost a bunch of good people their jobs. A chain of events I can piece together:

  • Bungie decides to cram in another expansion before TFS. Altering their original plan.
  • Lightfall pre orders are extremely high after an admittedly cool trailer. Bungie makes profit projections based on this.
  • Lightfall is rushed and comes out as it did and is very poorly received.
  • Some of the community stops playing after Lightfall. All the folks who just started playing Destiny probably do too.
  • Seasonal content is already stale and drives players to stop playing. It needed to be reworked a year ago but Management was pushing Lightfall.
  • Server issues exacerbate the player retention issue. People just stop playing because the game doesn’t work.
  • State of the Game happens. More people quit.
  • TFS showcase kind of falls flat and can’t convince enough people to pre-order.
  • Revenue stream dries up.
  • Layoffs.
[–] DaforLynx 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Interesting that it mentions this.

The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office.

So it seems Bungie management was told by Sony to start snipping after all? I don't know what to make of this.

Also, crazy that Mike Salvatori of all people was let go. Maybe he can team back up with Marty now...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I mean if you go to your boss and say profits are down 45% in your division they’re going to tell you to make cuts. Regardless of whether the whole company is doing the same.

Mike was probably let go because his work on TFS is done. IMO that shows how little Sony gives a shit about the future of the game.

My doom prediction is that Sony fulfills the 3 episode promise because of pre orders and then no more Destiny content.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did anyone expect Destiny 2 to keep going after TFS? It seems like it's been having issues for a while and the time will be ripe for a fresh start with Destiny 3. Not to mention new fee structures... (monthly subscription model?)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

When they showed off Lightfall in 2022 they literally said Destiny 2 will continue after TFS. So yeah since then people expected it to continue. I think a lot of people (myself included) were skeptical of the sustainability of that because of the issues you mentioned.

Prior to that announcement I was sure they were going to put out D3 or do something like an engine rework.

[–] DaforLynx 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Sucks to be me, who relatively recently hopped on the train and is actually excited to see what happens after this saga.

When art cares only about being profitable...

Then again, I see what they were saying about overdelivering. How do i say this. When expectations are high, so is the risk. The more resources you put into a release, the greater the loss if it fails. Live service is all about momentum, and once you lose momentum, it takes a very careful hand to make sure everything doesn't fall apart. Bungie is not led by careful hands, it seems.