Game developer Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced the company is laying off some 220 staff, with many criticizing Parsons’ leadership.

Bungie has a long and storied history in the video game industry, but that hasn’t made it immune to the economic challenges facing companies. In a blog post, Parsons says the company is facing “rising costs of development and industry shifts,” in addition to the general economic challenges.

As a result, Bungie is letting some 220 employees go.

These actions will affect every level of the company, including most of our executive and senior leader roles.   

Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.

I realize all of this is hard news, especially following the success we have seen with The Final Shape. But as we’ve navigated the broader economic realities over the last year, and after exhausting all other mitigation options, this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials.

Parsons says there are two additional major changes the company will be making in an effort to turn things around.

First, we are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters. SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify roles for as many of our people as possible, enabling us together to save a great deal of talent that would otherwise have been affected by the reduction in force.   

Second, we are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.

Employees were not impressed with Parsons’ explanations, with some saying he should step down.

First spotted by PC Gamer, employees’ view of Parsons deteriorated even more when enterprising X account DestinyNostalgia discovered that Parsons has purchased 17 vintage vehicles since 2023, worth $2,414,550.

It’s a safe bet morale at Bungie isn’t going to improve any time soon.