UPDATED: Marathon And Destiny 2 Final Shape Expansion Delayed Amid Layoffs At Bungie

I hate to say it, but we’ve reached the part of the year where we’re probably going to be covering a lot of layoffs in the video game industry. Today news broke regarding layoffs at Bungie. Currently, the number of staff laid off is unknown, but we do know that a lot of the layoffs impact the Destiny 2 community staff. In fact, the game’s CM Liana Ruppert announced today that she’s “looking for opportunities”.

Well... my heart is breaking for all affected

I am now looking for opportunities. I have 21 years of games industry experience in media, production, and community management. I'm processing,I'm so heartbroken. I don't know what to do from here... this was my home. I feel so lost

— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) October 30, 2023

However, according to reports, the community team isn’t the only group that’s been impacted. A post on Bloomberg states that the game’s upcoming The Final Shape expansion has been delayed to June of next year (original release date was late February), while another project, Marathon, has been pushed to 2025. A note on Jason Schreir’s Twitter clarifies that those delays had been known about by staff, while it was made public in the Bloomberg story.

To be clear, Bungie recently *told staff* that The Final Shape and Marathon are delayed. It was not made public until this story

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 30, 2023

These layoffs come almost two years after Bungie was purchased by Sony. At the time of purchase, Sony stated that they were going to support Bungie but let them remain independent and that layoffs weren't likely to be a result of the purchase. The benefit of this purchase to Sony was gaining access to Bungie’s knowledge of live-service games. While Sony will likely continue to benefit from having access to this, things seem to have changed as far as how Bungie will function going forward.

UPDATE 10/31/2023: According to Paul Tassi (Forbes) citing a source of theirs, the layoffs are a result of a Bungie directive, not one from Sony, healthcare only gets covered for 1 day based on the date of termination, and shares of stock post-Sony purchase are reverting back to Bungie since those laid off haven't been with the company long enough after the Sony purchase to have full vesting of the shares. 

New info about the Bungie layoffs. Per a source: pic.twitter.com/sPs9dLTruI

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 31, 2023

More, from other sources: pic.twitter.com/DUUUCZycIC

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 31, 2023

Bloomberg is also reporting that the layoffs hit about 8% (about 100 employees) of the staff and this came on the heels of employees being notified Bungie was projecting to be 45% short of their sales projections for the year. This is just one step in a "larger revamp".