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Bungie CEO faces backlash after announcing 220 employees, or 17% of its workforce, will be laid off | Pete Parsons has spent $2.4 million on classic cars since Sony acquired Destiny developer Bungie (www.techspot.com)

submitted 4 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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It's a sad case of another day, another round of mass layoffs at a game studio. On this occasion, Destiny developer Bungie has announced it is letting go of 220 employees, or 17% of its workforce. CEO Pete Parsons said the eliminations were due to "financial challenges," which isn't going down well, especially after it was discovered he may have spent over $2.4 million on classic cars after Sony acquired the company, and continued buying them even after the previous layoffs.

Bungie blames the job eliminations on "rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions." The Sony subsidiary says it needs to make substantial changes to its cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon.

The cuts will impact every level of the company, including executives and senior leader roles – but not Parsons, obviously.

It was only in October 2023 that Bungie made its last round of layoffs, and the news comes just under two months since the launch of Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which has been well-received.

In December, Bungie devs told IGN that the atmosphere at the company was "soul-crushing" due to fears of more layoffs, extra cost-cutting measures, and a loss of all independence from Sony if Bungie's financials did not improve. Staff said earlier this year that they feared more job cuts were coming.

The latest layoffs have led to many angry posts on social media from current and former Bungie employees. Destiny 2's global community lead Dylan Gafner (AKA dmg04) called the move "inexcusable," and noted that it's a case of "Accountability falling upon the workers who have pushed the needle to deliver for our community time and time again."

What's angering people even further is the discovery of what seems to be Parsons' account on a car bidding site called Bring a Trailer. It shows he has spent $2.4 million on classic cars since September 2022, which includes $500,000 since the October layoffs.

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[-] danc4498@lemmy.world 197 points 4 months ago

TAX THE FUCKING RICH!!!

70% of that $2.4 million should have been taxed and he can do whatever he wants with the remaining money. OR he can get paid what he actually deserves and leave the rest for the company to become stronger.

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[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 126 points 4 months ago

Nobody deserves to be able to buy $2.4mil of toys. Period. This guy is gross.

[-] liam070@sopuli.xyz 52 points 4 months ago

I believe it's peer pressure once you have that kind of money. They are so far from reality they just don't think about it. All their cocaine-buddies ramble about how they "deserve it" to throw money out of the window, they worked so hard yadda-yadda.

It's bonkers. But I also never had that kind of money. Maybe we would all do the same thing?

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 43 points 4 months ago

Maybe we would all do the same thing?

That's precisely my point. That kind of wealth should not be allowed, specifically because it seems to lead to this kind of behavior. Rare is the wealthy philanthropist; common is the wealthy psychopath.

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[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago

I believe it’s peer pressure once you have that kind of money. They are so far from reality they just don’t think about it. All their cocaine-buddies ramble about how they “deserve it” to throw money out of the window, they worked so hard yadda-yadda.

There was a fantastic write up on Reddit 6 or 7 years ago where a person that rubbed shoulders with the rich explained the drastic differences in behavior between different strata of the rich. He cited there are absolutely those that spend excessively to try to appear more rich than they are. I think the net worth of this category was between $20 million and $200 million (those numbers are from memory). Above that those rich largely don't do that anymore, and are surprisingly more practical. If someone has a link to that, I'd love a re-read of it. It was very eye opening.

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[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 months ago

Keeping the wealthy is unethical. They're not getting the right food for their dietary needs and their enrichment activities are unhealthy. We also can't release them back into the wild because they haven't learned the survival skills they need. We really need a rich people zoo where people can go visit them and learn about how capitalism has prevented them from being able to live the healthy normal lives their physiology was built for

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[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago

So incredibly wasteful and vain.

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[-] Alienmonkey@lemm.ee 34 points 4 months ago

Mythic Quest CEO Level Achieved.

Next up, stories of inappropriate conduct leak and somebody tiger's a camero.

[-] Professorozone@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago

At the average American salary (approx. $60,000) Bungie could have employed 40 people for one year on what this guy spent on cars.

[-] letsgo@lemm.ee 18 points 4 months ago

Probably significantly fewer. Here in the UK someone's salary is about half of what it costs a business to employ them. It might be more than that in the USA but there will be other non-salary costs per employee.

[-] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Looks like the rule for the US is much different, only 1.25-1.4x the salary in total costs. That average salary is probably only correct for a junior employee though. But you can safely assume it’s around 100k at least per employee.

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[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The most common number for fully burdened payroll in the US is around 120%. It’s very region, industry, and company specific though.

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

FWIW that is not the average salary in the tech industry.

[-] specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

My neighbor works for Bungie. I’m too afraid to ask if she still has a job. Getting laid off sucks but I bet working there still sucks too. I bet their office is a fuckin graveyard.

[-] cflewis@programming.dev 31 points 4 months ago

The morale nosedive that layoffs bring means the loss of company productivity is so much higher than just who you let go. They have to be the absolute last resort. Pete Parsons has to go.

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[-] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

You might wish to just ask her in passing, "hey, I heard what's going on at Bungie, is everything okay?" Whether she does or doesn't still have a job, she is probably stressed as hell and could probably use some kind words.

[-] kosanovskiy@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago

Wanna know what's even more sad? That 2.4m is only enough to pay for salary of 10 employees. This is salary, benefits, and additional respurce costs and personel usage. Basing this based on my friends who work for bungie and their salary is nothing enough for this areas cost of living.

[-] FierySpectre@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago

So instead of spending money on extravagant expenses they could have fired 5% less people this round.... Compared to what the money is spent on that still sounds good.

Though it indeed makes little difference in the big picture, this is still a bad image.

[-] Kanda@reddthat.com 13 points 4 months ago

That still doesn't justify paying one person so much that his budget for shoving old cars in a garage is the pay for ten people who actually work

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

I guess the final shape ended up being a garage full of cars that will never be driven.

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[-] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 months ago

You finally found out you’re just a digit.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Man as a long term destiny player, this has just been heartbreaking. The latest expansion was absolutely amazing and you could tell the devs really put their heart and soul into it. And now a lot of them are gone. The narrative leads, longtime leaders of the franchise, all canned.

Rumors about what's upcoming suggest a major downsizing in the content that's going to come out for players too. So I'm not even sure how they plan on continuing to make money.

Fuck Parsons.

[-] turmacar@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It just seems like it's dug it's own grave so effectively that there's no way to climb out.

In theory I love their aim of player retention, but they focused on it so exclusively that it became a challenge to start playing, or to come back. The new player experience isn't just bad or non-existent, it's basically actively hostile. Most of the story content isn't accessible anymore, so you're depending on dozens of hours of Youtube videos to catch up on a decade of in-jokes that you can't experience. It's like Eve, but worse because it was written, not just player interaction lore. Even as someone who played D1 and the first few years of D2, looking at current screenshots and trailers is alienating. They've revamped and juggled currencies and what power levels are so much that basically nothing is the same.

The pivot to seasons/microtransactions while ignoring recruitment of new players was a wild choice.

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[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

It would also be another thing is this was a "hero" CEO.

But... what has Bungie done that's interesting besides Destiny? Was his plan was to just keep doing that?

[-] _pete_@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago

Destiny was supposed to be their “forever” game, the problem is that after 2 dozen expansions:

New players are extremely intimidated about joining
Old players dislike losing the content they’ve paid for when it’s vaulted
Long term players will eventually get bored of playing the same thing they’ve been playing for years

Live service games just won’t last forever like they want them to.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Precisely.

Developing one MMO forever is not a great strategy, and I'd argue they aren't executing it like the Warframe devs (which is its direct competitor I guess).

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[-] Quicky@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I never even realised they were owned by Sony. I’m sure I remember them saying they left Microsoft to have greater control internally. Seems mad to go for more of the same.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Looks like Sony only bought them in 2022 source

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Guys, all of you are being really mean. Do you know how many cars he would have to give up buying if he didn't lay all those employees off?

At least one. Probably.

[-] big_slap@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

this company is about to implode, no doubt. there's no way they recover from this when they launch whatever comes next (I hope I am wrong, but this is just so messy)

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[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

I just cannot fathom this absolutely brainlet, short-term thinking. Yeah, these people have created some of the best content we've ever made (according to player feedback). Let's fucking fire them all!

When did "investing" die and rise as a revenant obsessed with burning down the building to get one more penny? Do billionaires know something we don't and are burning everything down because the planet's gonna explode?

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[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago

The 2.4 million are company money. Money that he had no right to spend on himself be it cars or otherwise.

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[-] LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 months ago

destiny moment fr

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this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024

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