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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

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.

Alienmonkey ,

Mythic Quest CEO Level Achieved.

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

specialseaweed ,

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 ,
@cflewis@programming.dev avatar

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.

kosanovskiy ,

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.

brucethemoose ,

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_ ,

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

  1. New players are extremely intimidated about joining
  2. Old players dislike losing the content they’ve paid for when it’s vaulted
  3. 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 ,

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).

Professorozone ,

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 ,

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.

lanolinoil ,
@lanolinoil@lemmy.world avatar

I’m all for fixing the system but why does the employee CEO of company not get to spend his wages on whatever he wants just like the rest of us?

Was it company money he spent it on? Is he a maj shareholder?

Astronauticaldb ,

That’s the thing, it might have been company funds. Back when Sony bought Bungie, they made a giant fund for severance in case of layoffs, so that devs would have a bit of a safety net if worst came to worst. Fast forward to October 30th, 2023, and that money is just… Gone with the wind. My facts may be a little muddled but I’m fairly certain that’s how it played out.

TheRaven ,
@TheRaven@lemmy.ca avatar

People are pointing out the juxtaposition of many people losing their jobs while one person spends silly amounts of money on toys. It’s not that he spent it on toys, it’s that he made so much that he was able to waste it on frivolity while others around him suffered.

PlasticExistence , (edited )

If the company is doing this poorly under his leadership, why is it he gets to keep his obscene pay while others lose their jobs, their healthcare and maybe their homes?

I’m beyond sick of our class structure.

EldritchFeminity ,

The short of it is: why is he making that much money in the first place, especially at a time where the game’s industry has seen record-breaking layoffs for the past 2 years - worse than during the 2008 financial crash.

The long of it is that they’re symptoms of the same problem and show the ever increasing wealth disparity between the aristocracy and the commoners in the US. In 2020, the wealth disparity in the US was said to be on par with France just before the French Revolution, where the price of a loaf of bread hit a full day’s wages for the average worker. To add to this, at least one of the people laid off was going on scheduled maternity leave the next day, which is probably in violation of some workers’ rights law, but because the majority of states are “at will” employment states, Bungie won’t face any consequences. The average time for people in the industry to find a new job is 2-4 months, and with all the layoffs, plenty of these people will never work in the industry again. And on top of that, these workers are already exploited so badly for their passion for making games that they could see a 50% or more pay increase with lower responsibilities for the same skill set just by changing industries. There are people working at Activision-Blizzard-King who are living out of their cars because they don’t get paid enough to afford rent within commuting distance of the studio.

People are waking up to the fact that the boss makes 10 grand while we make a dime, and they’re getting pretty pissed about it.

Damage ,

Maybe he’ll crash while driving one, and the limited safety features will ensure we’ll be rid of the asshole

lanolinoil ,
@lanolinoil@lemmy.world avatar

… causing the board to hire another equally expensive CEO, – This time he’s into PLANES though!

Sanctus ,
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

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

blindbunny ,

This is exactly correctly astute

DeathsEmbrace ,

You finally found out you’re just a digit.

Quicky ,

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 ,

Looks like Sony only bought them in 2022 source

danc4498 ,

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.

damnedfurry ,

70% of that $2.4 million should have been taxed

It’s literally post-tax income already, lol.

danc4498 ,

Ok, I get it, 70% of what he earned should have been taken in taxes instead of the abysmal 37% minus all the deductions that generally only apply only to the rich. Point remains the same. Tax these fuckers.

big_slap ,

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)

Blackdoomax ,

He knows it too…

LucidBoi ,

destiny moment fr

Telorand ,

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

liam070 ,

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?

partial_accumen ,

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.

Quill7513 ,

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

aniki ,

So we send them to the fucking gallows if they can’t live with the rest of us. ALL OF THEM!

Telorand ,

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.

liam070 , (edited )

The question is: can a wealthy philantropist do more good than a wealthy psychopath can do harm? Buying cars is not really bad per se, it just shows they don’t care for anything but themselves. Spending money on research to solve global warming on the other hand…

Edit: I’m just playing devils advocat. I know it is no solution to all our problems and I hate cumulation of wealth in the hands of a few. But thats the world we live in and I just try to find a silver lining.

Telorand ,

I would argue that a collectively wealthy society with middle-class wealth can do far more good than a single philanthropist with god-levels of money. Buying cars isn’t bad, but you’re glossing over the fact that they’re classic cars, i.e. very expensive hobbyist toys; these are not daily drivers, and the point to the gross inequality of the CEO being able to have millions of dollars of play money while he treats real humans like numbers in an expense formula.

Plutocracy is not the answer just because you have one good plutocrat for every nine monsters, because you still have nine monsters countering the efforts of the one.

SexualPolytope ,
@SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Individual philanthropy is never a solution. Most of the breakthroughs happen by public funding. Tax the rich, and fund the research. Don’t let the MFs claim they’re helping anyone out by donating 1% of their stolen wealth.

Ghostwurm ,
@Ghostwurm@lemmy.ca avatar

Meh imperfect world. Let’s just say it would be nice if the talent got useful recognition too, which shifts the scales.

Telorand ,

I’m sure you didn’t mean anything more by it, but “meh, imperfect world” is the same logic employed by Christian apologists and and fundies too lazy to assess suffering rationally and honestly.

We should reject that kind of thinking, because it only leads to apathy and/or willful ignorance.

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

So incredibly wasteful and vain.

tahoe ,

Is it really wasteful though? Especially if they’re classic cars, it’s not like the money is thrown out the window. The value is still here, just in car form instead of stock/bank account form.

Now vain on the other hand…

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

It’s wasteful to own more than one or two cars, let alone dozens regardless of how well they hold value.

tahoe ,

What would you rather do with all these old classic cars that require a great amount of money to keep running, then?

EldritchFeminity ,

How about putting that money towards museums for these cars that allow the general public to appreciate them as well instead of letting them languish in somebody’s private collection. This would also have the benefit of creating more jobs and helping to improve the flow of money in the economy.

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

Or take that money and lay off a handful fewer people

tahoe ,

Yeah! I like this idea. Not sure how feasible it is but I’d sure like to see some billionaire at least try it.

Main problem with this I think is who would get to drive them? Because they need to be driven at least a little to keep their shape and to make sense. Not all people could drive them because they need to be driven carefully, which most people can’t do (brand new track day cars are famously beaten up even after a few years, not exactly the same context but something to keep in mind).

EldritchFeminity ,

This is why a museum would be perfect. You’d have trained employees to maintain the cars, including taking them for a drive. Plus, you could even sell rides in some of them the way they sell rides in F1 cars. Add in car shows and a cycling of the cars on display the way museums don’t have their entire collection on display at all times, and the cars would probably hold up better in the long run.

Ideally, you’d do this with government money pulled from a wealth tax or a foundation rather than trusting some billionaire to do it and maintain the museum.

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