I always tell people that I determination since the first alpha test. For some reason, it was always a point of pride for me. My own way of saying, “Hey, I’ve been behind this vision since the beginning. I’ve been through the ups and downs and I’m still here.” But after a second round of brutal layoffs that seemingly ruined Bungie and most teams participating Fate 2I’m not quite sure why it’s worth being “here”.
The majority of Bungie’s cuts this week have raised several alarms. Not only do they come nearly two months after the hugely successful launch of The final form, Fate 2is the conclusion of a decades-long story, but they have also destroyed parts of the team to the last bit. The player support team has almost completely disappeared, Raid designers were fired, Sound teams were guttedand quality assurance seems to be left largely to Sony rather than Bungie’s internal teams. The narrative team has been all but eliminated. There are reportedly still tons of people left to work on. Fate 2but these cuts signal changing priorities at Bungie and suggest that this game will be radically different in the future.
Accordingly Giant bombAccording to Jeff Grubb, “different” will look like a completely new method of delivering content that determination Community in the wrong direction. The cuts at Bungie seem to project a new vision of the future of live service gaming, a vision that moves away from large-scale expansions full of new areas, assets, etc. that have historically appeared once a year. Instead, new content will draw on the studio’s existing resources – which is in line with the Planned updates for the rest of the year– and will be released in smaller “content packs.” In other words, the team is moving away from developing the game and instead moving toward simply keeping it going.
Bungie will continue to support Fate 2 with smaller publications, while Marathon (due in 2025) off the ground and spins off an in-development title in a new franchise into a full-fledged studio under the PlayStation banner. But with a dwindling headcount – Bungie still has over 800 employees, but several hundred fewer since this time last year – and all these new projects, Fate 2 is currently in a sort of vegetative state and it doesn’t feel like it will be coming out of it anytime soon.
Read more: Bungie developers react to further mass layoffs: “My whole team is gone”
The hope seems to be to continue producing content for the live service treadmill, but to cut spending, which will be reflected in both the size of future updates and the number of people actually working on them. Fate 2. Despite repeated calls for Bungie to drop the game and instead produce another numbered sequel to the series, BloombergJason Schreier has confirmed The Fate 3which was probably discontinued as a result of these layoffs, was never in development to begin with.
To be clear, most fans assumed that after The final form, determination would slow down if it was pushing new storylines or a potential new game. After the last expansion, the studio revised its seasonal model into an episodic model, reducing it from four seasons per year to three episodes. The episodes are each divided into three acts, which Bungie said would lead to even more content. But given the lukewarm reaction to the relatively thin episode that is underway, players already feel like they have been led by the nose by the studio and we are barely out The final form‘s start window.
Now that it has been confirmed that no new game is in sight, the community is left with an increasingly complicated and rapidly aging game, a disappointing development of a failed content delivery modeland no prospect of improvement in the near future. They are stranded.
Furthermore, the lack of communication about this uncertain future continues to fuel discontent with Bungie in the community. The studio has refused to openly commit to any future plans beyond what has been announced, namely next year’s episodes and a Content package codenamed Limits. People want to look forward to their upcoming trips. And more importantly, they want to know that determination is something they can keep coming back to. They want to feel like their investment in the series isn’t completely wasted. In return, Bungie’s leadership seems content to stall them, hoping their nebulous promises come to fruition while they pick the studio apart, looking for the last few bricks they can bleed dry for a little extra cash.
Combined with the confirmation that no numbered sequel is in the works, the severity of these layoffs, the lack of meaningful communication and the move away from expansions paint a grim picture for Determination. Although it is announced as the end of the beginning, The final form really feels like the nail in the coffin of the game. There seems to be no certainty that determination will even exist in a few years, or that it is a priority for the studio, aside from being a cash cow full of microtransactions. As long as it can keep a number of players actively playing (and more importantly, expenditure), Bungie seems to have plans for determinationSustained growth has been halted indefinitely.
To add fuel to the fire, there was one person who was not affected by this week’s layoffs: Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie and the man who hired several former determination The developers claim that Parsons is largely responsible for the difficult times the team has fallen into. When developers were laid off earlier this week, several senior developers who had previously left the studio repeatedly demanded Parsons’ job. One called Parsons a “joke,” while another accused the CEO of Turn determination into “a bottomless pit”. Accordingly, it was determined that Parsons, who players and employees must now trust to manage the franchise and the studio, spent over $2.3 million on purchasing cars since Bungie was acquired by Sony.
I trust that the talented developers who remain behind will continue to do their best to determinationa franchise that means more to me than I care to admit. But it pains me to say that I don’t know if I trust Bungie’s leadership to ever make it the best it can be. And as unfortunate as it is, it may be time determination At least until it is back in capable and caring hands.
