Today, Bungie announced that it was laying off 220 employees, or approximately 17 percent of its workforce. The news, which comes on the heels of a successful expansion launch with Destiny 2: The Final Shape in June and another round of layoffs late last year, has prompted former employees and players alike to criticize Bungie’s leadership. To add insult to injury, the company’s CEO locked his account just as the news hit, shielding himself from flak and criticism online.
As news of Bungie’s latest round of layoffs began to get around this morning, fans of the company and games industry colleagues searched for the Twitter account of Pete Parsons, Bungie’s CEO since 2016. Only, once they found him, they realized that he had set his account to private, meaning that only pre-existing followers of Parsons could see his posts and respond to him. Many took to mocking his bio, which features a call to “be brave,” and stated that Parsons wasn’t living up to his own values.
Dropping the news that you’ve laid off 220 people in a second round of layoffs after launching your most successful DLC to date and then going private immediately is cowardice on an embarrassing level. pic.twitter.com/56z1JdAGOX
— mads ☀️🍉 (@smadseli) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818678522397049082
Final Shape’s staggering success really does the work in proving that it’s always been exceedingly awful management to blame, through and through. https://t.co/Z5cz4RlCKx
— brendan! (year of the gamer) (@personalhimbo) July 31, 2024
i just want to know what they did. Cause iirc pete didnt take a salary cut or anything at least last time. At this point i dont want to hear this kind of surface level things anymore. What DID leadership do exactly? pic.twitter.com/9cm4Jr7neQ
— D2 Postin' ⬛️⬜️🟪 (@destiny_thememe) July 31, 2024
Since then, Parsons, likely reacting to criticisms he was already receiving, has unlocked his account. Despite the gesture, Parsons hasn’t said anything about this morning’s layoffs, and has only shared the blog post via the official Bungie Twitter account.
Coming off the news, disgruntled former employees, fans of Bungie, and voices from around the games industry are now calling for Parsons to take further accountability and step down. Griffin Bennett, a developer who’d been with Bungie from 2018 until the 2023 layoffs, responded to the layoff announcement by calling out Parsons by name and demanding he quit, calling him a “joke.”
Pete is a joke. https://t.co/TtFtEzS0gF
— Griffin Bennett (@GriffinWB) July 31, 2024
C-Suite taking accountability for any of this or still just "withholding bonuses" and it'll be "settled in-house"?
Poor leadership has crushed one of the greatest developers of all time.
Retire, Pete.
— Griffin Bennett (@GriffinWB) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818673183756874159
I didn’t even tweet that I got promoted last month, but now I get to tweet that I got laid off, so there’s that. gonna miss my team. https://t.co/4OE6R3dclt
— beau (she/her) (@BeauOckers) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818669347185082660
I'm one of the affected. Still processing at the moment…I'm supposed to be on PTO today so I found out from twitter and friends messaging….thoughts later. https://t.co/1R2zVN6dHg
— Capitalist Ennui (ADKari) (@zillyhooligans) July 31, 2024
I was affected by layoffs today. I cannot explain how soulcrushing it is to have poured my life and soul into a game that has kept me on this planet in the first place, but Bungie had other plans for me. I’m looking for opportunities in the QA space with years of experience.
— Lucky🍀 luckygunn.bsky.social (@_LuckyGunn_) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818683194860093658
I've been impacted by the layoffs announced this morning. It's been a privilege working with everyone at Bungie for the past (almost) 5 years.
But it's just really bad timing b/c my maternity leave was supposed to start next Monday and I got laid off today. https://t.co/vhDiXiZJVh
— kellybean (@TheRealLexuzi) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818671550163263679
After nearly five years, delivering seasonal story from Hunt all the way to Deep and sending home the most well-received expansion in our history in Final Shape, I have been laid off and today is my last day at Bungie.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
— Robert Brookes 🩷💜💙 (@Sphynxian) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818685329051926747
looks like i got hit. i work A LOT and im obsessed with work, everyone knows this. there's nothing i could've done to not be laid off. in fact i was literally working so much that so many people told me "you'll be ok, we need you to train/manage the outsourcers" https://t.co/lLZ4piq9bB
— ナディア nadia (@nadiaudio) July 31, 2024
Inexcusable. Industry leading talent being lost, yet again. Accountability falling upon the workers who have pushed the needle to deliver for our community time and time again.
Please maintain focus on those who’ve lost their position & income. Offer help where you can. https://t.co/SSDveUd5uW
— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) July 31, 2024
Ben Platnick, a former VFX artist at Bungie, went a step further, saying, “Pete needs to fucking go. This is mismanagement at the highest level.” He goes on to claim that Parsons’ “spending on R&D while Destiny was not doing the best would prove to be a money pit with no return. And my friends suffer because of it.”
Among the teams impacted by today’s layoffs, the Player Support team seems to have been particularly gutted. Some members have begun sharing their own stories of the last few months at Bungie working on The Final Shape and their growing distrust in the studio’s leadership, Parsons included.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818685353462841504
The player support team was also gutted, as well as some of the folks behind the most beloved narrative moments and sounds. The player support team worked harder than anyone else, through weekends – holidays – and the pay was atrocious… only to the tossed out so LY could get… https://t.co/z2XveKAjay
— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) July 31, 2024
I wrote this a few months ago assuming I’d be laid off eventually. I was not, but I’m posting it anyways:
I’m writing this a few days after the metacritic and other scores for The Final Shape was released. I know what is coming, so I want to be clear in my mind as I write this. https://t.co/Je0fGQMpVL
— Duardo (@Duard0) July 31, 2024
Others in the games industry have begun chiming in and expressing their discontent with Parsons’ leadership and have joined in on calls for him to resign. Among the voices are Paul Tassi, who covers Destiny for Forbes, and the Destiny-centric content creator MyNameIsByf.
"no way to prevent this" says only industry where this regularly happens
— Aaron Linde (@aaronlinde) July 31, 2024
Bungie laying off 220 people and the CEO immediately going private on Twitter, all while having “be brave” in his bio is really fucking rich.
You know who has to be brave now? Those 220 people and their families.
— Alex Ackerman🌙 (@alex_frostwolf) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818680699425034431
If an executive team has had to lay off ~350 people in a year perhaps you, not them, are the problem
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) July 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1818674789667447182
Yearly fiasco at this point. All their devs were making the ✨BUNGIE✨ tweets again proud of their efforts rightfully so and Pete Parsons welcomed their efforts with a bath of boiling water. Real life Mr. Krabs https://t.co/bHrexIxUud
— Calico (@2Calico) July 31, 2024
Leadership needs to be changed.
Their decisions have consistently led to disaster for everyone who has actually been making the games we play.
They’ve been reckless with the studio, its employees, and its franchises.
The problem is clear. Bad leadership. It needs to change. https://t.co/ga01igprSl pic.twitter.com/lQhmkUIzgw
— My name is Byf (Lore Daddy) (@MyNameIsByf) July 31, 2024
