Gaming thread

The general consensus is The Final Shape will be the end. The seasonal models will have thrown together content, no more DLC or major expansions, etc.

I remember when Bungie broke from Activision and we cheered because we thought the game would improve without Activision's toxic leadership and priorities. I was a "little" off on that take. This is Bungie's L, not Sony's.
 
Here's the link, but I'll post the story so no one has to pay for it or register an account. In a nutshell, the last DLC was poorly received which meant pre-sales for the next DLC were well under projections. Players weren't sticking around and Bungie cut jobs. As someone with a metric shit-ton of time in Destiny 2, I know that Bungie basically ignored player feedback about the game. Poor DLC + poor game decisions = reduced sales.

I feel for those laid off because it could have been avoided had Bungie's leadership listened to the players.

Sony’s Bungie Game Unit Cut 8% of Staff After ‘Destiny’ Play Wilted

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2.

Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting.

Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall.

The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product.

In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up.

But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts.

Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month.

The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office.

TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.”

PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign.

Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.
Click to expand...
 
AWP said:
Here's the link, but I'll post the story so no one has to pay for it or register an account. In a nutshell, the last DLC was poorly received which meant pre-sales for the next DLC were well under projections. Players weren't sticking around and Bungie cut jobs. As someone with a metric shit-ton of time in Destiny 2, I know that Bungie basically ignored player feedback about the game. Poor DLC + poor game decisions = reduced sales.

I feel for those laid off because it could have been avoided had Bungie's leadership listened to the players.

Sony’s Bungie Game Unit Cut 8% of Staff After ‘Destiny’ Play Wilted
Click to expand...
I've pre-ordered Every Destiny game/expansion including the base version of D1...I will not be pre-ordering Final because I have zero faith in managements ability to do anything at this point.

Best case, they identified dead weight and got rid of it...but given their track record and the fact that they got rid of Salvatori...I'm not holding my breath or opening my wallet.
 
757 said:
I've pre-ordered Every Destiny game/expansion including the base version of D1...I will not be pre-ordering Final because I have zero faith in managements ability to do anything at this point.

Best case, they identified dead weight and got rid of it...but given their track record and the fact that they got rid of Salvatori...I'm not holding my breath or opening my wallet.
Click to expand...

I've pre-ordered all DLC starting with Shadowkeep, the first DLC after I started playing. I've suffered waits of hours on the first day of the new DLC because the servers were jacked. I have every badge from every season minus Season of the Undying and last season's. I've guilded every badge I've earned, including Dredgen 9 times. I have 5,100 hours in game with 3,100 of those actively playing.

I will not pre-order The Final Shape.

Everyone is always looking for a Destiny killer. Turns out, we knew the murderer all along: Bungie execs.
 
F1 '23 is free to play this weekend and 60% off to buy. I am an absolute monster in a F2 car, but pure dogshit in F1 cars.

Of course, just like in real life, I had Lance Stroll run me off the track.
 

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