• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover - IGN

calistan

Member
This may be shocking to you but the CEO, who does not make games, is not the reason Bungie is successful. From the looks of it its the reason their monetary practices are ruining them and making them look bad.

Getting rid of them may be a good thing.
It *may* be a good thing for Sony's bottom line but it's unlikely to be a good thing for the employees who joined specifically because they find it a nice place to work. Those are the people who are saying the atmosphere is bad, because they know that if Sony imposes emergency measures then this year's layoffs will seem minor compared to what's around the corner. They're never likely to make great games if morale is low.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
How many times has Bungie gone down this road where they aren’t independent, they don’t like it, cut ties, shit the bed independently, then someone tries to nab again ? Twice ?

Bungie is clearly the problem. Get Sony to stomp the turds down the shower drain.
 

iQuasarLV

Member
What did they expect by milking only ONE game for over 6 years now lol
They are the JJ Abrams of video games. They thought they could dangle the traveler's identity like it was a video game version of the 'Lost' show. They just refused to accept they had to put down all their perks, release a fully fleshed story and characters, then only then could they start expanding the universe. They just went ass backwards and people got fed up with their shit. Then the constant nerfs to their last bastion of playerbase (PVP) sealed the deal.

Milking is exactly what they did with obtuse management and entitled staff.
 

NonPhixion

Member
Guess my comments were against community guidelines ☹️
7mVebKh.jpg
 

MaKTaiL

Member
Good. Bungie was a bad acquisition for Sony IMO. I say bring it down completely and build something better from its ashes.
 

DeaDPo0L84

Member
DEI needs to DIE. It's a cancer to absolutely everything, it accomplishes nothing except attempting to appease the angry mob outside your gates.
 
Last edited:
Okay if this was Larian or CD project red I could understand the concern but what exactly is great about Bungie that it needs to be preserved in its current state?

Ever since they've been independent they released Destiny and Destiny 2. I don't give 2 fucks how much money they make those games are average at best. Under Microsoft there track record was far better.

I'm not gonna shed a tear If Sony gobbles them up maybe they might make good games again.
 

Bry0

Member
Bungie is gone whether Sony does a full takeover or not. The people are gone, the era is gone, the franchise is gone, the goodwill is gone. Simple as that.
 
"...delaying its weeklong company “Pentathalon” event to next December, and reducing numerous morale events such as cooking and knitting classes from monthly to quarterly. Bungie is also pausing or fully ending benefits like annual employee compensation adjustments to meet market rates, its new hire lunch program, employee donation matching, its peer recognition program, and gift cards for employees birthdays."
“soul-crushing”
"Others laid off included a noticeable number of members of Bungie’s DE&I clubs, including co-heads of Pride@Bungie, Women@Bungie, and Accessibility@Bungie. When combined with other recent resource cuts, these dismissals have led to fears these clubs might be shut down."

Goddamn living life on Easy Mode when having less knitting classes can be soul crushing.
Seems Bungie leadership is cutting the excess fat (or let's be real, the obesity) that has accumulated over the past decade.
smh. & people wonder why aliens continue to fail to find any signs of intelligent life on this planet...
 

Raven117

Member
LOL, so they think they can just keep on making games without concern for financial performance?

Okay Bungie. Yall know yall have been putting out sheet in Destiny for years now. No one seems to be super excited for your next project Marathon.... And now you are complaining to your investors that they invested in a company that makes money? K.
 

tmlDan

Member
It *may* be a good thing for Sony's bottom line but it's unlikely to be a good thing for the employees who joined specifically because they find it a nice place to work. Those are the people who are saying the atmosphere is bad, because they know that if Sony imposes emergency measures then this year's layoffs will seem minor compared to what's around the corner. They're never likely to make great games if morale is low.
They don't get paid for arts and crafts, they need to act like adults and make games or else they will have no jobs. I don't care about the devs if they don't produce quality content, they really do love playing the blame game.
 

C2brixx

Member
Bungie is gone whether Sony does a full takeover or not. The people are gone, the era is gone, the franchise is gone, the goodwill is gone. Simple as that.
Exactly. Sony paid $3.6B for a company name. The creative principle people are gone. Who's responsible for this?
 
Last edited:

Thirty7ven

Banned
I will do everything in my power to care about some QA cannon fodder and some purple haired they them thu social media manager.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Destiny 2 is old and busted. An incomprehensible clusterfuck. I actually enjoyed it when it first launched on Steam but trying to go back to it is like trying to learn chinese arithmetic. Just make a new game. Or don’t and continue to lose money.
 

HoodWinked

Member
There's enough blame to go around. Management that essentially negotiated with the terrorists and made this way too big a focus for the studio internally. And the weirdo devs that pushed for. Everyone got way too lax and preoccupied and the game got worse incrementally.

The one saving grace was the day 1 raid races. They were incredible one of a kind gaming experience. But they've become diluted now since there is only so many ways you can skin a cat. But when they were novel and you were figuring things out in real time the reward and sense of accomplishment was unparalleled.
 

Dthomp

Member
Good, let Sony take em over and then keep any/all the talented devs that do the actual gameplay for Destiny and move them into new studios. Imagine a new Killzone or Resistance BUT with the amazing Destiny Gunplay, or build a team with them and revive Socom with Destiny gunplay. Having all your FPS shooters have the bungie style crisp gunplay instantly makes your 1st party shooters system sellers.
 

Gojiira

Member
All those perks and programs, fuck me pampered much? Its supposed to be a fucking workplace not a recreational centre…
Sony bought them and even allowed them to remain independent, that level of autonomy would not be offered by anyone else, they have a obligation to deliver on their end and pissing and moaning that the boss expects results is fucking pathetic…
They should have used that money to buy Kadokawa or Capcom 😩
 
A complete Sony takeover and cleaning the place out to get rid of the wokes and others who contribute nothing would be exactly what Bungie needs
 

Jesb

Member
What a waste of money that was for Sony. They could’ve bought so many competent developers instead of bungie. All they have to show for it is two average games. Brutal.
 

CosmicComet

Member
Its deserved.

Bungie is absolute trash. They are no better than 343 currently.

Sony spent almost 4 billion for these paperweights of course they are going to try to right the ship
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
The report speaks of changing morale-boosting events like cooking and knitting classes from monthly to quarterly.
You can laugh all you want but it is simply one piece of evidence of how a new generation impacts the workplace. They don't want to work for money, they don't want to work 9-5, things like knitting classes and environmental and social causes are important to them.
The problem is they make it more difficult for people that are their for money, that like to get work done and go home and not mingle over Playstation, etc.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Their upper management is clearly struggling in actually managing Bungie so maybe a full Sony take over is just what they need.


This.

Bungie managed to mess up both Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 in the exact same way.
Then somehow managed to take half of the content of D2 away, despite people having purchased it, while emphasizing microtransactions, along with pushing an alphabet-agenda.

A complete overhaul of management is exactly what they need, with Sony at the top.
 
For some reason the tweet I linked to in my post was deleted. Here's a screenshot with it.

Gm11ivx.png


The author of the IGN report also provided more info via the purple forum:

gQ6DV3w.png

qc6ChQv.png

This makes zero sense

Cost cutting only helps profitability

It has zero impact on revenue, in fact it may have a negative impact on revenue

If revenue is the basis for leadership control, layoffs don’t help them whatsoever

Somebody doesn’t have their reported facts straight
 

Baki

Member
This makes zero sense

Cost cutting only helps profitability

It has zero impact on revenue, in fact it may have a negative impact on revenue

If revenue is the basis for leadership control, layoffs don’t help them whatsoever

Somebody doesn’t have their reported facts straight
Reporter seems like they’re out of their depth trying to report on a business issue when their knowledge is in gaming. It’s a nice try at an article but looks like they need support of an editor with some knowledge of business fundamentals.
 
Top Bottom