PlayStation is unfortunately still in turmoil. One of its biggest studios has some very bad news to tell us. What does this mean for the future?
It’s definitely a very dark year for video game studios. However, given current releases, one might think the opposite, but that would be deluding oneself. PlayStation is particularly paying the price. Recently, the publisher saw one of its studios resort to a significant wave of layoffs. And misfortune continues to strike. We are told that another studio, from the same team, would be in a difficult situation. The future looks uncertain.
One of PlayStation’s biggest assets in danger?
Obviously, there is chaos at Bungie, the company to which we owe Destiny 2, and one of PlayStation’s big assets bought for 3.6 billion dollars. Various sources explain that there are currently layoffs affecting the company. One of them comes from Bloomberg. Jason Schreier reports in an article that Pete Parsons, the studio’s CEO, sent an email to his employees. The latter said that they would “hear news today”, and that a team meeting would take place later in the day, to discuss “the events of the day”. Following this, a certain number of people would have lost their positions, something which the boss seems to have confirmed:
Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to our colleagues who have all had a significant impact on our studio. What these exceptional individuals have brought to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie for a long time. They are really talented people. If you have any vacancies, I highly recommend every single one of them.
The other source is dmg04, the former community manager of Bungie. The latter says he received messages from his former colleagues, some of whom had become friends, explaining that their positions were going to be eliminated. For dmg04, the PlayStation-owned studio has been going downhill for a long time. He talks about bad decisions made throughout the year, and very questionable management. Unfortunately, we do not have any further details on this subject.
In fact, the number of people thanked remains unknown. We don’t know exactly the extent of this radical decision taken by Bungie, but we have heard from the impacted posts. We find them in publishing, communication, marketing, and social. We will surely have more information in the coming days, but for now we can only wish the employees involved good luck. As for the PlayStation studio, it will have a hard time recovering.
What future for Destiny 2?
Journalist Jason Schreier didn’t beat around the bush: the next expansion of Destiny 2 will be postponed again. The further postponement of the Final Form would cause it to miss the end of Sony’s fiscal year, which could explain the wave of layoffs. It would therefore not be released on February 27, 2024, but rather in June 2024. The pill will have difficulty passing for players, especially for a game live service like Destiny 2, but it’s not like the developers had a choice. Additionally, extraction shooter Marathon would not be left out, since it would not be released before 2025, the fault of the situation of Destiny 2. We hope that the other PlayStation studios will not also have terrible news to announce to us.