Bungie Devs React To More Mass Layoffs: ‘My Whole Team Is Gone'

Laying off 17% of your staff right before a big DLC is released? I don't need to tell you that it won't be the employees getting a raise or bonus. That would be silly to pay the people that actually make the game more money.

There's a few things going on, here

• A lot of leaders are using layoffs as a flex on workers that got raises post-2020. There's a lot of "they need to know their place" language in boardrooms, and not just in this industry.
• I'm assuming this gets them out of paying company-performance-based bonuses, as well as PTO and leave for people who were looking forward to a post-crunch break.
• AI. Executives, especially in creative fields, are salivating over the kinds of headcount reductions AI can provide.
• There are some relatively forward-thinking leaders who are looking at the economic landscape and figuring they need to conserve cash. Not say that's the case here, but it's a reason that some companies that aren't run by utter assholes are citing.

As someone who's been a Bungie fan since Pathways into Darkness (yeah, I'm that old) this makes me sad in a way that only the sale to Microsoft had managed.