Yesterday, it came to light that Bungie, the Sony-owned developer behind the Destiny franchise, has laid off some workers and revised internal release dates of upcoming projects. While not much details about the affected team members were revealed at the time, a new report claims that as much as 8% of Bungie has been affected following a major miss at revenue targets.
According to sources speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Destiny 2 has suffered a massive drop in popularity among players. The free-to-play live service title is reportedly having trouble retaining its playerbase since the poorly received launch of its Lightfall expansion. This had resulted in posting revenue that's 45% below the year's projections, per internal meetings with employees.
The miss had resulted in cost cutting movements within the studio such as reducing travel, as well as freezing existing salaries and gaining new hires. The report adds that only a couple of weeks later, October 30, 8% of the developer's workforce, which is about 100 staff, were let go in a sudden mass layoff.
Alongside the internal restructuring, the studio is also said to be delaying its upcoming projects. This includes pushing back the next major Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, from February 2024 to June. Per today's report, internal reviews were giving the expansion "good" ratings but not "great" ones. This, and the spiraling player numbers, had lead to additional time being allocated for development and improvements.
As it was reported yesterday, Bungie's next live service venture, a reboot of its retro shooter game Marathon, had reportedly been hit with a delay too. The multiplatform extraction shooter is now said to be aiming for a 2025 launch instead of 2024. Sony and Bungie are yet to make any official statements regarding the mass layoffs and reports of project delays.
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