Bungie Lastly Releases Assertion On Layoffs, Says It Is aware of “We Have Misplaced A Lot Of Your Belief”

Bungie, like far too many studios this yr has only recently gone by a wave of layoffs, and in accordance with studies let about 8% of its workers go, which was roughly 100 folks.

Now on Thursday, three days since studies of the layoffs first struck, the studio lastly launched an announcement, calling this week “probably the most tough weeks in our studio’s historical past, as we’ve parted methods with folks we respect and admire.”

Within the assertion titled “Our Path Ahead,” the studio emphasizes that it has heard followers’ considerations concerning its final massive growth and up to date seasons, and that the studio understands “we have to make The Closing Form (its upcoming Future 2 growth) an unforgettable Future expertise.”

Bungie additionally admits that it is aware of “we have now misplaced loads of your belief. Future must shock and delight. We haven’t carried out this sufficient and that’s going to vary.”

“We need to construct one thing that shall be regarded alongside one of the best video games we’ve ever made – a becoming fruits that honors the journey we’ve been on collectively for the previous ten years. Forsaken, The Witch Queen, and The Taken King – these are the usual bearers we goal to dwell as much as.

We’re intensely targeted on exceeding your expectations for The Closing Form. Future 2 has greater than 650 devoted teammates pouring all their vitality and experience into delivering this epic second and its subsequent Episodes.”

Bungie then goes on to say that extra information will arrive “within the weeks forward,” concerning what’s subsequent quick time period, like its coming season, and following that we’ll start to see extra about The Closing Form.

Throughout the entire assertion, the phrase “layoffs” is rarely precisely used. Bungie solely admits that there are individuals who have been with the corporate, who now “not are,” implying that the choice for all these workers to go away without delay was an amicable one.

Reasonably shortly, the assertion turns from being about those that’ve misplaced their livelihoods, and to only how jazzed all of the 650 individuals who nonetheless have a job are to make The Closing Form.

Title-dropping the expansions which nonetheless resonate with long-time Future followers minds even looks as if an try to play on the nostalgia of these occasions, and pre-emptively place The Closing Form amongst those self same giants which arguably made Future the phenomenon it’s at the moment.

If 2023 has been nothing else, it’s been a bitter reminder that layoffs are a harsh, terrible actuality of the selections that large firms make, and that they brutally impact 1000’s of individuals a yr, whereas little or no appears to vary for these within the c-suite bracket.

Not that it’s something past a efficiency, however there are nonetheless publishers who will a minimum of name out what they’re doing once they do it, to say the phrase layoffs, and be extra clear in regards to the form of help it should present those that’ve been laid off.

Bungie has carried out neither, and we’re meant to take the studio at its phrase that these individuals are being taken care of, even supposing the layoff was completely timed to make workers lose out on unvested shares that they had inside Bungie because it was bought by Sony, with all these shares now reverting again to Bungie.

And regardless of that barring well being advantages, Bungie solely coated the advantages of these laid off for one additional day past their time period with the studio.

Obscure, missing statements like this make the layoffs nearly really feel worse, and put Bungie’s identify subsequent to others within the trade who’re extra constantly seen in a shady highlight.

If Bungie is conscious that it has misplaced participant belief, then this assertion has supplied no plan of action by which it goals to get that belief again past making The Closing Form “unforgettable.”

A promise that each writer makes, that its subsequent challenge shall be ‘unforgettable,’ identical to it mentioned in regards to the final one, which turned out to actually be forgettable.

Even when The Closing Form is wonderful, it received’t clear up the foundation downside {that a} lack of transparency from Bungie has created with the studio’s relationship with the gamers.

Hopefully there’s extra transparency from the studio sooner or later, and for its personal sake, that it is ready to ship on every little thing it’s making an attempt to make The Closing Form out to be.

Supply – [Bungie, Bloomberg]