Earlier this week Pete Parsons, chief government officer at Bungie and (in all probability) the one particular person on the studio to spend $2.4M on retro vehicles introduced that the studio can be making a couple of adjustments, probably the most notable one being it will layoff 220 staff.
To say that the announcement was shocking to the builders being laid off and the gamers who get pleasure from Bungie’s video games is a little bit of an understatement, and the announcement sparked a wave of backlash in opposition to Parsons and the remainder of Bungie management.
What was notably shocking is the truth that Bungie’s newest launch, The Closing Form, which was arguably the largest growth in Future 2’s historical past, has by all metrics performed extraordinarily properly.
A brand new report nonetheless reveals that whatever the success of The Closing Form, these layoffs nonetheless would’ve occurred, as a result of they’d been a part of Bungie’s plans since earlier this yr.
Talking to Sport File, three sources declare that these cuts had been selected months earlier than The Closing Form launched. Whether or not or not it was an enormous hit, the cuts would have, and did, occur.
The report even reiterates what we heard from Bungie staff the final time there have been layoffs at Bungie – that the blame isn’t with Sony – however with Bungie’s personal management.
“I feel Sony overpaid for Bungie. I feel Bungie offered issues they had been simply not capable of ship,” a supply informed Sport File.
For his personal half, Parsons has been referred to as “a joke” by former staff, and lots of have straight referred to as for him to resign, with former and present staff criticizing management, Parsons particularly.
It ought to be famous that in his announcement of the cuts, Parsons gave a model of the occasions that led Bungie thus far. Management made selections to determine a number of groups every engaged on large initiatives, budgets and expertise had been stretched additional than they might go, and Bungie started to lose rather a lot cash.
As soon as management realized that this was occurring, they made “exhaustive efforts” to keep away from layoffs however finally determined to go along with layoffs. Although these “exhaustive efforts” would allegedly by no means have included slicing the salaries of executives, the folks in any other case often called management, those in cost who made the choices that led to Bungie shedding cash.
Having all that in thoughts brings up an fascinating question: what number of builders might Bungie have stored on if they’d, say, an additional $2.4 million to maintain folks employed?
Supply – [Game File]