Bungie Layoffs Included Two of Destiny’s Biggest Names

Highlights

• Bungie execs Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy leave after the latest round of layoffs, though the reason for their departure isn’t clear.
• Bungie restructuring has led to roles moving to Sony, causing uncertainty for Destiny’s future and the development team.

Two Destiny veterans and senior executives at Bungie, Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, have reportedly left their positions at the studio after the company’s CEO announced it would be laying off roughly 17% of the studio’s workforce. The pair have worked on the Destiny franchise for over a decade, as well as Bungie’s final Halo title, Halo: Reach.

As July came to a close, CEO Pete Parsons announced that Bungie was being hit with more layoffs and would be terminating 220 roles at the company. Parsons says the decision was due to “rising costs of development and industry shifts,” as well as having to “[endure] economic conditions.” Aside from huge layoffs, the CEO also said that Bungie would be “deepening” its integration with its parent company, Sony Interactive Entertainment. This restructuring will see 155 Bungie roles integrated into Sony over the next few quarters.

While not confirmed by Smith or Noseworthy themselves, industry insider and gaming journalist Jeff Grubb has said that Bungie’s restructuring has resulted in the two leaving the studio. “Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy are no longer at Bungie,” Grubb said during a recent episode of Game Mess Decides. Grubb would later clarify on Twitter that Smith and Noseworthy were not laid off but left due to the restructuring at the studio. Bungie’s statement on the layoffs does state that every level of the company would be affected, including most of the studio’s executive and senior leader roles, but does not specify which individuals were laid off or which left of their own accord.

Bungie Loses Two Important Executives

Bungie’s recent layoffs mark the second time in less than a year that the studio has been hit with cutbacks. But it looks like this round of layoffs could be much more damning, as the studio will now be restructuring so heavily that it will become more finely integrated with Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to Grubb, Sony’s CEO Herman Hulst is now in charge of Destiny developer Bungie, but this has yet to be confirmed by Sony or Bungie.

Losing Smith and Noseworthy will also be a huge setback for the studio, as the pair were reportedly heading development on a new project known as Payback, which was supposedly going to be the “next big thing for Destiny,” according to Grubb. While the insider did state that this was not Destiny 3, fellow journalist Jason Schreier then took to Twitter to clear up the rumors and set things straight, saying, “Destiny 3 was not canceled because it was never in development.” Schreier also states that Bungie did some very early work on a spinoff called Payback, but the project was apparently canceled a while ago. This cancelation and the subsequent lack of immediate work for Smith and Noseworthy may be the reason for their departure, according to GameSpot.

The news of Bungie’s newest round of layoffs will be a massive blow for Destiny fans, but also not a very surprising one. The video game industry continues to experience huge layoffs and closures as studios continue to make further cutbacks, with seemingly no studio appearing to be safe. Even the likes of Ubisoft Toronto was hit with layoffs earlier this year. The studio had previously worked on Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist and was gearing up to support Ubisoft Montreal with the highly anticipated remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.