Bungie, the Bellevue studio behind the Destiny series, is cutting staff as part of a studio-wide reorganization after nearly nine years of live-service development on Destiny 2. The company says the reductions are necessary while it incubates future projects, but it has not given a headcount for how many people are affected. The move lands as staffers and players who built careers and communities around the game try to figure out what this reset means for the studio and for Bellevue’s growing game-development scene.
What Bungie said
In a short letter to players, Bungie told fans, “With great sadness, we are announcing a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie,” and apologized for the impact on employees and their families. As reproduced by Gematsu, the studio acknowledged that Destiny 2 “fell short of expectations these past several years” and said that with future projects still in early incubation it “could not continue operating at our previous size.” Bungie added that it plans to share more about the studio’s future at a later date.
End of Destiny 2 and the pivot
Last month, Bungie told players that June 9 would mark the final live-service content update for Destiny 2, according to a May 21 studio blog post. The “Monument of Triumph” update was framed as a kind of sendoff, keeping Destiny 2 playable after active development ends rather than cutting the lights completely. That shift toward incubating new projects has left many long-time Destiny teams without a clear next assignment, which in turn helps explain Bungie’s line that it could not keep operating at its previous size. The full post is available on Bungie.net.
Sony confirms scope of cuts
The picture became clearer in an internal memo posted on PlayStation’s corporate site. Hermen Hulst, head of SIE’s Studio Business Group, said the reduction will hit “a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members.” In the memo published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Hulst added that Sony is also trimming teams that support Bungie’s operations and is “providing transition support” for those affected. He stressed that Marathon “remains an important part of our portfolio” and said the company will look for opportunities across its global studio network.
Financial backdrop
Sony bought Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022. Since then, the deal has been followed by a series of write-downs, including roughly $765 to $766 million in impairment losses tied to Bungie in the 2025 fiscal year, as reflected in Sony’s earnings. That accounting backdrop, combined with questions about Marathon’s commercial performance, put pressure on Bungie’s cost base and fed into the decision to reorganize, according to industry coverage from PC Gamer. Investors and executives have been watching Bungie’s returns closely ever since the acquisition.
Layoff history and local impact
This marks at least the studio’s third major workforce reduction in recent years. Bungie cut about 100 jobs in October 2023 and roughly 220 positions in July 2024, reporting outlets said. Those earlier rounds were documented by national business and tech outlets including TechCrunch and the Los Angeles Times. Local coverage has noted that each wave of cuts sends ripples through Bellevue’s small but ambitious games community, and KING 5 said it reached out to Bungie and Sony for more details. For those who remain at the company, reassignment to Marathon or moves into PlayStation’s shared services appear likely in the weeks ahead.
Leadership changes and next steps
Industry reporting also points to leadership turmoil on top of the rank-and-file cuts. Several outlets have reported that Bungie’s studio head is stepping down as part of the reorganization. Coverage compiled by VGC notes that the shake-up may include personnel changes inside Sony as well as at Bungie. Bungie and PlayStation say they will provide transition support and may open roles across the broader SIE network where possible.
What this means for players and workers
For players, the near-term headline is that Destiny 2 will stay online and get its final promised content, even as active development winds down. Bungie has pitched the shift as a “new beginning” for the studio and says it will share more when it is ready; the original message is posted on Bungie.net. For workers, the immediate future is less about lore drops and more about HR emails, as Bungie and SIE move through notices, severance and outplacement while the reorganization unfolds.
