By Nelson Schneider - 08/04/24 at 01:13 AM CT
Uh oh! Not all is well in the studio that Sony bought in 2022 as hilarious parody of parity with Xbox’s massive merger with Activision-Blizzard. No, it turns out that having one game – “Destiny 2” – a live service at that, and mismanaging it into the ground is not a great way to turn a profit.
After a round of downsizing last year to signal “Destiny 2” winding down and preparing to enter End of Life mode, Bungie just culled over 200 more employees, leaving the studio no longer lean and mean, but downright skeletal. While the studio still allegedly has two new games in the works – one being the reboot of their original MacOS FPS, “Marathon,” and the other being a colorful Gen-Z-friendly multiplayer game code named “Gummy Bears” (HOPEFULLY not based on the candies… but might be kind of cool if based on the differently-spelled classic Disney cartoon). With both titles being so far in the future we know next to nothing about them other than (working) titles, I can’t help but wonder if cutting employees is a great idea, when many hands make light work… and Bungie has some HEAVY DUTY work ahead of it to get two new games not only presentable but shippable-enough to release to the public (and, naturally, patch into proper working order post-release).
All I can say is that I’m glad I bailed on Bungie when I did. They had a pretty good run, creating Xbox’s only real claim-to-fame, ‘Halo,’ and introducing the world to some excellent cooperative shooting in the ‘Destiny’ series, before slowly warping and corrupting their flagship product into something I no longer wanted to participate in. Because I jumped-off early, I can always remember Bungie at their best, even while watching their self-destructive horror show from the sidelines.
We’ll always have Operation: Baby Dog.
