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Bungie , the gambling ship’s company that created sci - fi hits such as Halo , Destiny , and Marathon , has laid off 220 employee , roughly a 17 % reduction to its men , the company announced Wednesday . This is Bungie’ssecond bout of layoffssince it was taken over by Sony in 2022 .

Two former Bungie employees affect by Wednesday ’s layoff say they were caught off guard by the men reducing . Bungie recently unfreeze Destiny 2 : The Final Shape , and the project exceeded all inner projection , harmonise to the former employees . In late months , direction had indicate in team merging that the ship’s company was doing well .

Tzivi Sherman , a sound designer at Bungie for more than two years , said he find out about the layoffs from Bungie ’s corporate Twitter account in a military post on X. He found out his use was affect soon after .

“ figure the tweet then about 45 minutes afterwards got an e-mail with a group meeting petition and an threatening deed of conveyance , ” Sherman tell apart TechCrunch .

Although Sherman found out scrolling through social media , he says he ’s been waiting for the other horseshoe to drop ever since Bungie ’s layoffs in October .

“ It kind of feel like [ upper direction ] is being very two - faced about it , ” said Guilhem Lagarde , a product reinforcement technician at Bungie regard by Wednesday ’s layoffs , in an interview with TechCrunch . “ Like they ’re telling us one thing , but behind the tantrum , something else is take place . ”

Sony ’s leverage of Bungie in 2022 kicked off a cultivation shift within the game studio , according to both former employees . This springiness , however , Sony and Bungie push for a more alive consolidation of the two company , they said .

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Over the last two years , monumental layoffs in the gambling industry have becomesomewhat common , especially following major accomplishment , as is the shell here . Kotaku estimates thatmore than 8,800 telecasting secret plan industry workershave been let go in 2024 alone . Investors continue to be concerned in the lucrative play diligence , but developers building the engineering have not been as lucky .

In apress freeing , Bungie CEO Pete Parsons say Wednesday ’s layoffs were a “ necessary decision to refocus our studio . ” rector also note the integration , and said Bungie is work to mix 155 employee with Sony to reduce the need to layoff more employees .

In the same insistence waiver announcing layoffs , Bungie announced it ’s make on a new game . Parsons say Bungie is spinning out one of its brooding projects to form a new studio within Playstation Studios . The chief executive officer described it as “ an action mechanism game set in a brand - new skill - illusion universe . ”

This layoff compounds with another layoff in October 2023 , where 100 Bungie employee were let go and two secret plan press release were delay . parson said the company still has over 850 team members build Destiny and Marathon .

Bungie did not now respond to request for gossip .