Game News

Sony lays off 292 at Bungie, most of the Destiny team, weeks after the game's final update

Sony laid off 292 employees at Bungie on 25 June, most of them on the Destiny series and a small number on Marathon, MyNorthwest reported from Bellevue, Washington. Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony's Studio Business Group, told Sony Interactive Entertainment staff in an email that the cuts also reach SIE teams supporting Bungie's operations, MP1st said. A WARN filing lists layoffs from as early as 9 July, and most of the roles were engineers, producers and designers. MyNorthwest said it is Bungie's third round of layoffs in three years.

The cuts come weeks after Destiny 2's final content update on 9 June. Japan's Gigazine noted that in April about 550 Bungie staff worked on Destiny 2 and 300 on Marathon, which launched in March and is due to get new content through at least the end of 2026.

“This is sad news for our talented colleagues.” — Hermen Hulst, via Gigazine

How each outlet framed it

• MP1st — Hulst's memo, saying Sony “explored multiple alternatives”; with Destiny 3 no longer in development, Marathon is Bungie's main focus.
• MyNorthwest — the local angle: the headcount, Bungie's Bellevue office and the WARN dates.
• Gigazine — the team sizes before the cuts, and Sony's promise to keep supporting Marathon.

Where the numbers differ: MP1st, working from Hulst's message, gave no headcount and spoke of a “significant number of employees”. The 292 figure comes from the WARN filing cited by MyNorthwest and Gigazine, and Gigazine gave no company-wide total.