Sony Details Bungie Restructuring As Large Portions Move To SIE

While there is not a “takeover” of Bungie by Sony right now, there are large chunks being carved out of the studio that are moving under SIE after it has struggled to be profitable between Destiny 2 and many other side projects which recently resulted in over 300 layoffs in the past year.

Sony President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki has now revealed what exactly is happening with a Bungie restructuring in a recent briefing. Among the details:

• All of what remains of Bungie itself, about 850 people, will be contained and concentrated into Destiny 2 and Marathon development. There are no plans to stop development on Destiny 2 despite recent issues, though as behind the scenes reporting has indicated, content will shrink in scale for the foreseeable future.
• Everything else besides Marathon and Destiny 2 will move under SIE, this includes back office functions at Bungie, including many roles that were hit by layoffs, and also “other title development” at Bungie will move under SIE. This includes Bungie’s “Gummi Bears” project which is reported to have 40 people moving to SIE in a new sub-studio, but this is the first we’ve heard that this will apply to other projects Bungie is incubating, of which there are a few more.
• There is more general talk about “cost restructuring, portfolio optimization, optimizing studio structure and enhancing efficiency” at Bungie.

There has been a narrative in the wake of Bungie’s serious struggles in the Sony era that joining the PlayStation family has significantly harmed the studio. But from what we know, the opposite is true, that if Bungie had not sold to somewhere like Sony it would have faced insolvency, and it was able to sell perhaps because it overpromised what it could deliver. Everyone is blaming Bungie leadership for these issues, Bungie devs and fans, and it’s clear Sony wants to step in with a heavier hand.

Bungie has lost four key members of its leadership team in recent months, Destiny 2 director Joe Blackburn and expansion lead Catarina Macedo, who left outside of the layoff periods, and Destiny overlords Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, who just now departed with this current round of layoffs, as their main project, a Destiny-based adventure game, had been scrapped a while ago and there no longer seemed to be a place for them. Pete Parsons, much to everyone’s surprise, has remained in place as CEO.

The end result of all this will be unclear. Questions include how many players will stick around for a scaled-down Destiny 2, whether Marathon will launch in 2025 and manage to be a hit, and when Bungie’s other unnamed incubated projects will release, now under SIE. It’s a fraught time for the studio, to be sure.

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