Sony Plans To “Optimize Overall Studio Structure” At Bungie Following Destiny Layoffs

Destiny 2 fans are still reeling from the news that developer Bungie laid off around 220 people in July, or roughly 17% of its workforce. Speaking on an earnings call, Sony president Hiroki Totoki discussed the Destiny studio’s restructure in greater detail, stating that it came from a desire to “optimize overall studio structure.”

Per a report of the call posted to social media, Totoki said that the back-office functions of Bungie will be integrated into other Sony studios, and that the studio’s resources will be focused on Destiny 2 and the Marathon reboot. His comments would seem to indicate that Sony is taking a more-active role in the studio’s direction, making it a more-integrated part of the existing constellation of SIE studios.

This isn’t the first time that Totoki has expressed a desire to see improvement from Bungie. Back in February, he said during a financial-results call (via VGC) that while he was impressed with Bungie’s creativity and knowledge of live service, he felt that the company needed to improve some areas of its business, including “use of business expenses” and “accountability for development timelines.”

The timing of the large Bungie layoffs surprised many in the industry, especially since the studio had just shipped The Final Shape, its best-received content pack for Destiny 2 in many years. However, reports from Stephen Totilo’s Game Fille newsletter and elsewhere claim that the circumstances of The Final Shape’s release were largely irrelevant to the decision, due to Bungie missing Sony’s financial targets since at least 2023. Several senior execs at Bungie were affected by those layoffs, including Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy; Bungie mentioned in its blog post announcing the departures that “most” of its senior staff were being let go. A Bloomberg report suggests that the next Destiny game, codenamed Payback, was also canceled a while ago.