“I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver,” says a former developer.
It’s been a bad week for Halo and Destiny 2 maker Bungie. The studio, which Sony previously bought for $3.6 billion, has now fired hundreds of developers. They are said to have found themselves in an untenable situation due to the excessive ambition with which they approached their future projects. This situation led to the cancellation of a video game and the studio’s reorganisation. In other words, in addition to the already mentioned 220 layoffs, many workers were transferred to Sony, and a new team of 75 developers was created.
More details about Bungie’s internal situation have come to light in the last few hours.
While many developers are calling for Bungie’s CEO to be ousted due to mismanagement and overspending (such as buying new cars), some of the studio’s former developers got a chance to speak out in famous journalist Stephen Totilo’s GameFile newsletter.
According to one of them, the $3.6 billion paid by Sony was far too large for Bungie’s actual value. “I think Sony overpaid for Bungie. I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver,” he says (via The Gamer). Added to this are the comments of three other unnamed sources, who all agree that the company “overstated their studio’s financial prospect”. Moreover, they call the layoffs a “reality check” as they say The Final Shape expansion “sold less than Lightfall.”
Marathon, the next game of Bungie, will be released in 2025
So far, we know that Marathon, Bungie’s next shooter, will be released sometime in 2025. The studio behind Destiny 2 is working on an extravagant action, shooter and PvP multiplayer title set in a sci-fi universe. After the cancellation of the Destiny spin-off, Payback, the team is understood to have focused on the development of Marathon. We’ll likely learn more details about this development in the coming months, though it’s worth noting that the company will also regularly update Destiny 2 with smaller content packs.
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