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[Dynasty8]

"Not an agenda"

.....

Anyone who plays Destiny knows how unnecessarily baked in this storyline was. Turned it VERY cringe and it was never intended to be this weird where an Exo and old wise man have a gay relationship. Saint was/is a killing machine feared by enemies and Osiris was/is a legendary warlock akin to a Obi-Wan like character. I saw this coming as soon as Robert Brookes was hired and started tweeting.

 

[geary]

Anyone who thinks this is not a decision from the mother company is naïve and don't know how corporate world works. This percentage of layoffs is not happening without the approval of Sony or from Sony directly.

 

[AtomicStarving]

Imagine Bungie situation without Sony.... everyone is laying off. Sony is even trying to get some of their staff lol

I have no problem with Bungie CEO buying cars etc, it's his money, but he's a mediocre CEO in general, that's it.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Anyone who thinks this is not a decision from the mother company is naïve and don't know how corporate world works. This percentage of layoffs is not happening without the approval of Sony or from Sony directly.

are you lost?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

That dog is the biggest Xbox shill in the whole internet. That is without doubt a paid shill that Era just ignores. His concern trolling is nauseating. And the acquisition thread was disgusting to read whenever he was barking.

And the worst part is their moderators just "let it happen" because a lot of them are just like vixolus.

Arguably the worst move ever done by Sony PlayStation.

Nah IMO that is still probably exiting the portable market after the Vita, and setting the Vita to fail with the stupid proprietary storage medium that costed a ton.

If Sony had a crystal ball and could see the eventual rise of hybrids like Switch, or PC handhelds like Steam Deck, they'd of probably found ways to rework Vita and phase their lower-end legacy console hardware with portable to unify libraries across portable and console.

Really annoying that we've added false pretenses of corporate social responsibility and layoffs to the console war narrative.

At the end of the day, these are corporations. The entire tech sector and the game industry along with it was overinflated on cheap loan money and an overheated economy. Its not like the ships ran very much better or more efficiently with this glut of people. It's a market correction where educated, skilled office/WFH dwellers are laid off. Fin.

That's the sensible read folks should have but, as we can clearly see, some don't have the ability to do that without conveniently suggesting a certain other company sweep up the laid off (only to then probably lay them off themselves a year later).

Best thing for the fired is that maybe they start up their own indie collective studio. Retain independence for the flexibility.

 

[yurinka]

Anyone who thinks this is not a decision from the mother company is naïve and don't know how corporate world works. This percentage of layoffs is not happening without the approval of Sony or from Sony directly.

are you lost?

They got rid of a third of their manpower, half of it moved to other SIE places.

Bungie now said that Lightfall underperformed and they were in the red, so even if TLS was very successful they had to do this. We also know TLS and Marathon got delayed. A few months ago when talking about Bungie Totoki complained about gamedevs not being disciplined enough about meeting budgets and deadlines plus about financial sustainability.

As subsidiary Bungie reports to the SIE CEO, who is also in Bungie's board of directors -like other SIE top people- since the acquisition, and now is also CEO of the SIE Studios Business Group that includes Bungie and PS Studios plus their non-gaming adaptations.

So yes, SIE/Sony must not only approved but also pretty likely decided that Bungie had to get rid of a third of their manpower, sending half of that people to other SIE teams.

In fact, I bet that inside Sony/SIE Totoki was the one who mandated it. Because Hermen proved to have a lot of patience with several projects: he allowed Arrowhead to have a 5 years delay with Helldivers 2. When he became CEO saw the TLOU1 remake and didn't like it but let it happen. Gave delays to many other games that pretty likely needed it and ended being great, like TLOU2, GoWR, HFW, GT7, Helldivers 2 etc. when other people could have just told them to release the games half baked to don't miss the milestone.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

So yes, SIE/Sony must not only knew but also pretty likely decided that Bungie had to get rid of a third of their manpower, sending half of that people to other SIE teams.

and that is not a secret. it's right there in post from Bungie and we know about some kind of clause tided to Bungie's financial performance and the ability of Sony taking over the studio.

This is Sony cleaning house and trying to fix the bullshit going on with that studio.

 

[yurinka]

and that is not a secret. it's right there in post from Bungie and we know about some kind of clause tided to Bungie's financial performance and the ability of Sony taking over the studio.

This is Sony cleaning house and trying to fix the bullshit going on with that studio.

Yes, we know Bungie said that in the letter.

There's no clause saying Sony can take over Bungie, they already when acquired it: It's also public known info that Sony bought 100% of Bungie, placed it as a fully owned SIE subsidiary reporting to the SIE CEO. And that with the acquisition they did put key SIE members on Bungie's board of directors like Hermen or Eric Lempel. We also know that when Hermen became co-CEO of SIE he also became CEO of the new SIE division SIE Studio Business Group that now handles SIE, PS Studios and their non-gaming adaptations.

This means SIE has full control of Bungie since the acquisition, as we saw with this (particularly with the part of sending half of the people removed from Bungie to other SIE teams, and specially putting the incubated team inside PS Studios and not inside Bungie).

So yes, SIE is cleaning the house and putting some order there because they seriously underperformed with Lightfall and were heavily overstaffed, so had to cut costs there. With way less costs and since the TLS has been very successful, they should be totally fine until the Marathon release, which very likely will be very successful looking at their previous game releases and at the interest raised by its teaser.

In case it doesn't perform well enough, Hermen/Totoki will throw the axe again.

 

[MDSLKTR]

They got Luke Smith

 

[Interfectum]

They got Luke Smith

No way was he fired, he left. He knows Bungie is finished.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

No way was he fired, he left. He knows Bungie is finished.

He was fired, undoubtedly. Luke Smith loves Bungie and Destiny. No way he would ever quit.

My guess? Some of these firings are in order to prevent stock options from vesting - acquisition probably had layoff clauses based on profitability.

Luke Smith is a big target given the amount of stock he probably had.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This lovely specimen was not fired from Bungie

 

[Yoda]

They got Luke Smith

I've been checked out of Destiny for a loooong time, who are these people?

 

[LQX]

Damn, I still remember Luke from his podcast days. Dude was a huge Halo fanboy and got his dream job. I would not be surprised if he ends up back at MS working on Halo.

That said, What a shit-show Bungie has become, and Sony spent nearly 4 billion dollars acquiring them. That sort of wipes out all the success they have had as there is no way they will recoup that investment.

 

[Shifty1897]

Nothing is worse than the corporate all hands meeting the day after major layoffs where senior management pretends everything is awesome and pat themselves on the back for the good job they did.

 

[adamsapple]

They got Luke Smith

Somewhere, Shane Bettenhausen is probably smirking at this.

I've been checked out of Destiny for a loooong time, who are these people?

Luke Smith is a 1up / 1up Yours podcast alumni, he was a massive Halo / Bungie nut in his tenure and eventually landed a dream job at his favorite studio. He's been with them since 2007.

Looks like the grim reaper came for him too.

 

[diffusionx]

"Not an agenda"

.....

Anyone who plays Destiny knows how unnecessarily baked in this storyline was. Turned it VERY cringe and it was never intended to be this weird where an Exo and old wise man have a gay relationship. Saint was/is a killing machine feared by enemies and Osiris was/is a legendary warlock akin to a Obi-Wan like character. I saw this coming as soon as Robert Brookes was hired and started tweeting.

"Turns out these characters were gay in my head canon, and it turned out to be true when I was able to start writing canon"

LOL

 

[StreetsofBeige]

"Not an agenda"

.....

Anyone who plays Destiny knows how unnecessarily baked in this storyline was. Turned it VERY cringe and it was never intended to be this weird where an Exo and old wise man have a gay relationship. Saint was/is a killing machine feared by enemies and Osiris was/is a legendary warlock akin to a Obi-Wan like character. I saw this coming as soon as Robert Brookes was hired and started tweeting.

"Turns out these characters were gay in my head canon, and it turned out to be true when I was able to start writing canon"

LOL

That's video game employees for ya.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Worst acquisition of all time relative to cost.

Based on what metrics?

 

[LectureMaster]

Bungie Layoffs Include Senior Execs Luke Smith And Mark Noseworthy

Smith and Noseworthy were reportedly working on a new game set in the Destiny universe.

www.gamespot.com

Damn, even Luke Smith was swept out. He was the face of Destiny when I still was playing the game. I guess Bungie is but a woke hallow now.

Anyone who plays Destiny knows how unnecessarily baked in this storyline was. Turned it VERY cringe and it was never intended to be this weird where an Exo and old wise man have a gay relationship. Saint was/is a killing machine feared by enemies and Osiris was/is a legendary warlock akin to a Obi-Wan like character. I saw this coming as soon as Robert Brookes was hired and started tweeting.

I always thought they were father/son figure relationship and I swear I read it in the in game codex. Glad I stopped playing right before they made them gay.

 

[OverHeat]

Bungie Layoffs Include Senior Execs Luke Smith And Mark Noseworthy

Smith and Noseworthy were reportedly working on a new game set in the Destiny universe.

www.gamespot.com

Damn, even Luke Smith was swept out. He was the face of Destiny when I still was playing the game. I guess Bungie is but a woke hallow now.


I always thought they were father/son figure relationship and I swear I read it in the in game codex. Glad I stopped playing right before they made them gay.

The problem with Luke Smith is that he was just too good

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Take with however much salt is needed considering the source here

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

so that dude Pete was coming from MS?..... that explains a lot

 

[Goalus]

This lovely specimen was not fired from Bungie

What is her role at Bungie?
Does she happen to run their OnlyFans?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Take with however much salt is needed considering the source here

i think this information was from that self inflicted MS leak.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I'm still firmly in the camp of the economy sucks and companies are having to make hard decisions with staffing. It's happening everywhere and will only get worse if globalists have their way.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Take with however much salt is needed considering the source here

Sony got caught on multiple fronts when they bought them at the beginning of 2022.

- Chasing Bungie because MS got Activision
- Paying an absurd price of 3.6B. This isnt hindsight 20/20 because tons of people thought the same. There werent too many forum posters saying $3.6B was a steal
- Super low interest rates at the time (banks didn't start increasing rates till Feb or March 2022)
- Destiny 2 was probably pulling in much better numbers. This was before they sunk last year laying off people and forecasts down 45%
- Sony was right in the middle with their huge GAAS strategy (those PPT slides). Since then, H2 was a giant success, but the cut back on GAAS, Destiny 2 has sunk and cancelled projects, and Concord is about to bomb. And anything Bungie has in the works would add to it since those slides excluded Bungie
- As for any Bungie execs scamming Sony, maybe they did, maybe they didnt. But no doubt Sony buying Bungie was like someone getting unlucky buying a stock right at the peak and got burned. The next day it drops big and continues to. it gets to a point every investor holds on for dear life it rebounds. Or you start selling some for a loss here and there gutting it (layoffs)

 

[adamsapple]

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Sony got caught on multiple fronts when they bought them at the beginning of 2022.

- Chasing Bungie because MS got Activision
- Paying an absurd price of 3.6B. This isnt hindsight 20/20 because tons of people thought the same. There werent too many forum posters saying $3.6B was a steal
- Super low interest rates at the time (banks didn't start increasing rates till Feb or March 2022)
- Destiny 2 was probably pulling in much better numbers. This was before they sunk last year laying off people and forecasts down 45%
- Sony was right in the middle with their huge GAAS strategy (those PPT slides). Since then, H2 was a giant success, but the cut back on GAAS, Destiny 2 has sunk and cancelled projects, and Concord is about to bomb. And anything Bungie has in the works would add to it since those slides excluded Bungie
- As for any Bungie execs scamming Sony, maybe they did, maybe they didnt. But no doubt Sony buying Bungie was like someone getting unlucky buying a stock right at the peak and got burned. The next day it drops big and continues to. it gets to a point every investor holds on for dear life it rebounds. Or you start selling some for a loss here and there gutting it (layoffs)

Man it really is crazy how closely this mirrors the typical "buy high sell low" trap that you'd see amateur investors fall into.

Wait til something is overhyped and everyone is getting rich from it, you want a piece of that for yourself so you buy when it's overpriced as hell, the bubble pops, then you hang on to it hoping it eventually rebounds because you don't want to admit that you played yourself. Tale as old as time.


And I'll just say, if I worked for a studio building some "entertainment product for Modern Audiences" that's several years into development and needs to sell roughly a zillion copies to break even, I'd be polishing up my resume and making some contacts in the industry right now, because that shit in almost certain to bomb. Doubly so if it's a live service.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Man it really is crazy how closely this mirrors the typical "buy high sell low" trap that you'd see amateur investors fall into.

Wait til something is overhyped and everyone is getting rich from it, you want a piece of that for yourself so you buy when it's overpriced as hell, the bubble pops, then you hang on to it hoping it eventually rebounds because you don't want to admit that you played yourself. Tale as old as time.


And I'll just say, if I worked for a studio building some "entertainment product for Modern Audiences" that's several years into development and needs to sell roughly a zillion copies to break even, I'd be polishing up my resume and making some contacts in the industry right now, because that shit in almost certain to bomb. Doubly so if it's a live service.

Games cost too much to make now. That goes for any decent budget game. Lets face it, Sony and other big corporations arent the ones to make indie games for $15 with 10 people and make small profits. They are mostly go big or go home games where even their $30 or $40 budget game (to them) is huge compared to a Balatro.

Its crazy how you'd read game sales of old games back in the day and if it hit 1M copies that was slick and considered "greatest hits" category. And a lot of great PC games might had sold 500,000 copies or less. But at the time that was good enough to survive and make sequels. And PC games were cheap back then (most seemed like $50 CDN or less). So you got games which might had scraped in $10 million dollars and that was like hitting the lottery.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Optimization of blue-hair hires in progress...

 

[AJUMP23]

They got Luke Smith

I use to listen to Luke Smith on the 1up show.....He was annoying then too. Hope he finds a new passion. But he loved HALO and Bungie.

 

[clarky]

Yellow card for posting anything to do with the mentally ill.

 

[clarky]

I use to listen to Luke Smith on the 1up show.....He was annoying then too. Hope he finds a new passion. But he loved HALO and Bungie.

He designed Vault of Glass so hes got a lifetime pass from me.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Back office functions to Bungie. So I guess sales, marketing, finance etc....

Other titles aside from D2/Marathon to Sony. Just as I said somewhere in one of these threads last couple days. Bungie is dead after D2 eventually fizzles out and Marathon. These are their final games. when Sony announced they took some Bungie employees over to make a new studio and game, it shows thats the game plan. If not, they might as well leave the new game as another Bungie branded game. D2 and Marathon are already existing Bungie games played or under development (Marathon 2025?) so no point rebranding or shifting employees over. But for unknown future games yes.

So it shows all that crap Pete Parsons or whichever exec said a few years ago about "no layoffs" and "Bungie is independent" all meaning they act like silo and control their own destiny (no pun intended) was a total PR lie.

Then again, maybe they were telling the truth, but that clause that swirled around saying if Bungie misses numbers, then Sony takes over full control switched on. At some point Pete Parsons is gone, unless they re-assign him to have a head job at Sony gaming with a different role later. D2 and Marathon wont last forever.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Jesus…..

They have that many employees still?

 

[FoxMcChief]

Yellow card for posting anything to do with the mentally ill.

So no YouTubers at all then?

 

[SnapShot]

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Man it really is crazy how closely this mirrors the typical "buy high sell low" trap that you'd see amateur investors fall into.

Wait til something is overhyped and everyone is getting rich from it, you want a piece of that for yourself so you buy when it's overpriced as hell, the bubble pops, then you hang on to it hoping it eventually rebounds because you don't want to admit that you played yourself. Tale as old as time.

Also crazy to hear how many people want to judge a long term 3.8B dollar investment before Bungie releases a single new game.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

And I'll just say, if I worked for a studio building some "entertainment product for Modern Audiences" that's several years into development and needs to sell roughly a zillion copies to break even, I'd be polishing up my resume and making some contacts in the industry right now, because that shit in almost certain to bomb. Doubly so if it's a live service.

All I know, is it seems the avg tech company is very loose with money. It's like none of them are ever lean or good with money. As if the corporate coffers and partnership deals are forever there to survive and bail them out.

They all need a lesson in budgeting. No wonder so many tech companies fail despite being infused with big budgets and swanky offices.

 

[ArtHands]

Sony made a wise investment