Bungie Faces Catastrophic Layoffs Affecting Half Its Workforce Due to Destiny 2 Content Cycles and Marathon Development Hardships
It appears that Bungie is gearing up for a wave of layoffs estimated to be "catastrophic" and intended to be executed in mid year. French journalist Sylvain Trinel took to X (formerly Twitter) to report the news on Friday that this upcoming layoff may even affect upwards of 50% of the entire active workforce within Bungie itself. While these reports specifically mention both contract and full-time staff, the current situation places both at risk within Bungie, as it faces a period of intense transition.
Et si cela ne suffisait pas, Bungie devrait connaître cet été des licenciements massifs.
— Sylvain 🧡❤️🔥 (@SylvainTrinel) June 16, 2026
Je prends des pincettes, mais on me parle d’au moins 50% des effectifs touchés (permanents ou contractuels) consécutifs à la fin de Destiny 2 et à la situation de Marathon.
The effect that Destiny 2 and the Marathon development project has had on the company is directly correlated to the current state of their current games. Trinel states that these potential layoffs are being implemented after the ending of current content for Destiny 2, and because of the current hardships of development of Marathon, an upcoming Extraction Shooter which has been plagued by internal problems in keeping its production afloat without current profit, thus demanding that their overall employee count be decreased to continue operations.
This could be a serious turn of events for Bungie as a whole. They have long been viewed as the foundation for a vast amount of modern day first person shooters, and this issue can be correlated directly to the mismanagement of the company which can be seen as the direct cause for such a drastic decision. This would obviously raise the question whether or not they will be able to maintain the constant updates for their current live service games, and in doing so whether or not future games will actually be completed and on time.
This news undoubtedly comes as a devastating blow to the developers who have dedicated their careers to creating these virtual worlds, and if this news holds true, these summer months could very well be a historic turning point for Bungie and will put a significant amount of people out of work.
