The last time Bungie announced a mass layoff, it came with lots of controversies eventually leading to the exit of composer Michael Savatori. Bungie’s July 31 layoff was no different. This time it is Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy who have allegedly left the company. But why did that happen?
According to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, Bungie commissioned “Payback” as an “incubation project”, a third-person spin-off of Destiny that would be set in the same universe. This was opposed to the previous opinion that it would be Destiny 3.
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Schreier reported that the game would “allow players to use the franchise’s characters to explore a large world while cooperating to battle monsters and solve puzzles” and would be heavily inspired by Warframe and Genshin Impact.
Although the news is just surfacing, Schreier’s report said Payback was canceled two months ago and that most of the team working on the game has now been moved to the development of Marathon.
The departure of Bungie’s veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy was linked to the cancellation of Payback. On July 31, Bungie announced that it was laying off 220 staff while 155 will be “integrated” into Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Why Bungie’s veterans left
Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy are prominent names in the Destiny series. Speaking on the Game Mess Decides podcast, Jeff Grubb said the departure of the duo was due to the cancellation of Payback.
“Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy are no longer at Bungie, they were let go,” Grubb said. “They were caught in the executive and leadership shakeup mentioned in the blog. Payback has been shelved.”
Grubb later clarified that it was more accurate to say the duo “left due to the leadership restructuring” rather than “let go”. It was claimed that Payback was shuttered around mid-June.
While it may seem as though the layoff was due to the performance of The Final Shape which was released in June, sources familiar with the matter told Stephen Totilo that the decision to lay off more employees was hatched earlier this year.
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Totilo mentioned this in his Game File newsletter which included a quote from one of the sources who said, “I think Sony overpaid for Bungie. I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver”.
Several ex-Bungie employees have taken to social media to criticize the company’s boss Pete Parsons who they said was responsible for the layoff. Parsons was criticized for splashing cash on luxury cars when some of the developers can barely afford groceries. See the full backlash here.
