In a year, unfortunately, full of game industry layoffs, there is confirmation of more at the legendary studio behind Halo and the Destiny series, Bungie.
Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio. What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future.
— pete parsons (@pparsons) October 30, 2023
News broke out yesterday that layoffs were happening at Bungie 15 months after Sony acquired the studio. The news came as a shock, but even more so are some employees let go.
Legendary Bungie Veterans Laid Off
The Bungie layoffs include Michael Salvatori, Michael Sechrist, and Lorraine Mclees. Eagle-eyed Internet users caught onto the news quickly when they noticed Sechrist and Salvatori changed the biographies on their websites to “GONE FISHIN :)” and “GONE FISHIN’ with SALVATORI…”.
For those not familiar with Bungie staff, Salvatori is a legendary composer who was involved in the music behind Halo since Combat Evolved and also lent his talent to the Destiny franchise. Sechrist is widely popular in the Destiny community, most famous for being the composer behind Deep Stone Lullaby and other fan-favorite Destiny tracks.
Bungie letting go of Lorraine McLees might be the most insanely depressing of all the layoffs going on over there rn.
Without her, you don’t get the halo graphic novel. And she personally drew up loads of the old-school Bungie event art.
All that character & spirit, just gone. pic.twitter.com/iTjmWdxk0x
— DreadSnortt (@_DreadSnortt_) October 31, 2023
Lorraine Mclees is a senior graphic designer, illustrator, and art director of Bungie who first began work for the company in 1998 with the title Oni. Halo fans will recognize much of her in-game and real-world work, including the cover of the classic Halo novel Halo: The Flood, the Halo graphic novel, countless Bungie/Halo event artwork, this ship you may have heard of, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, and this logo you may recognize, the Halo logo itself.
People knew that many rock-solid employees would lose their jobs when news of Bungie layoffs broke out, but no one expected the studio’s most senior employees to be among them. These are, after all, people who played integral roles in making Bungie the juggernaut that it is today.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Marathon Reboot Delayed
Following on the heels of the layoff news came word that Bungie is pushing back Destiny 2’s anticipated Final Shape expansion and the Marathon extraction shooter reboot to June 2024 and sometime in 2025, respectively. With both Salvatori and Sechrist gone, many fans question how the quality of The Final Shape will be.
Fans, however, are not happy with Bungie right now, and many Destiny players have begun to cancel their Final Shape preorders.
Was this Sony or Bungie?
Initially, the public forum placed the blame and criticism for these layoffs at Sony’s feet. After all, they acquired Bungie last year. But, according to Forbes writer Paul Tassi, this might not be on Sony.
Paul Tassi made a tweet earlier today with information from an insider source. Allegedly, these layoffs were a Bungie management call, not Sony. Last November, Bungie assured their employees no layoffs would happen after the Sony acquisition.
But the allegations get even worse.
New info about the Bungie layoffs. Per a source: pic.twitter.com/sPs9dLTruI
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 31, 2023
Many company benefits only last until the end of the month if the company lets you go. And since these layoffs happened two days before the end of October, if true, that means people now out of work are now out of most of their employee benefits, as well.
Many Bungie employees let go also had unvested shares after Sony acquired Bungie. If you’re unfamiliar with unvested shares, all you need to know is that unvested shares aren’t immediately yours. You must first fulfill the requirements of your vesting period, like staying on for a certain number of years. If you leave the company before you own these shares, you forfeit them to your former employer.
More, from other sources: pic.twitter.com/DUUUCZycIC
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 31, 2023
Paul Tassi’s most recent tweet through other sources allege that most of the employees Bungie laid off had no idea and found out after noticing they no longer had access to company services. Team managers were also apparently unaware of the team members they were losing until after it happened.
If Bungie made layoffs to cut costs, it makes sense if thinking about it from a purely business point-of-view. But life isn’t that simple, and there’s always the human perspective. While they may have cut costs if these allegations are true, those won’t be the only things going down. Bungie’s reputation as an employee may have just plummeted beyond the point of repair.
Best of luck to former Bungie employees on attaining new positions.