Sony-owned Bungie announces fresh layoffs across Destiny and Marathon teams

Sony-owned Bungie has announced another round of layoffs across Destiny, Marathon and support teams. The move follows weak performance from Destiny 2 and Marathon as Sony realigns the studio's long-term plans.

In Short

• Bungie announces fresh layoffs across Destiny, Marathon, and support teams
• Sony calls the workforce reduction a difficult but necessary decision
• Destiny 2 and Marathon failed to meet the company's expectations

Sony-owned game studio Bungie has announced another round of layoffs, affecting a significant number of employees across its game development teams. The cuts will impact most of the Destiny team, some members of the Marathon team, and several Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) employees who support Bungie's operations. While the company has not disclosed the exact number of affected employees, the move marks yet another difficult chapter for the studio.

The layoffs come just a few years after Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, betting heavily on live-service games. However, this is not the first time Bungie has reduced its workforce. The studio also carried out layoffs in both 2023 and 2024.

Sony calls the decision 'difficult but necessary'

In a public blog post, Hermen Hulst, CEO of Studio Business Group at Sony Interactive Entertainment, described the decision as both "difficult" and "painful," but said it was necessary to align Bungie's resources with its current priorities and long-term goals.

In an internal email sent to SIE employees, Hulst said, "This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration."

He added that Sony explored multiple alternatives before concluding that reducing the workforce was the only way to align the studio with its long-term plans.

Destiny 2 and Marathon failed to meet expectations

The announcement comes shortly after Bungie ended new content updates for Destiny 2, whose final content update was released on June 9. The company admitted that the game had fallen short of expectations over the past several years.

"We recognize Destiny 2 fell short of expectations these past several years," Bungie said in a separate statement on X. "Following our final content update to Destiny 2, and with our future projects still in early incubation, we unfortunately could not continue operating at our previous size."

Meanwhile, Marathon, Bungie's extraction shooter released in March, has also struggled to attract players amid intense competition in the live-service gaming market. Despite its slow start, Hulst said Marathon "remains an important part of our portfolio."

Support for affected employees

Sony said its immediate priority is to support employees affected by the layoffs. The company said it will provide transition assistance and, wherever possible, try to identify opportunities for impacted staff across Sony Interactive Entertainment and its global network of studios.

Although Bungie has not revealed how many employees have been laid off, the studio employed around 850 people as of 2024. In addition to Bungie staff, a smaller number of PlayStation employees whose roles supported Bungie's operations have also been affected by the latest round of job cuts.

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