Chris Barrett, who previously led the development of Marathon, is set to sue his former employers — Bungie and Sony. He accuses the companies of deliberately ruining his reputation and career.

Within Bungie, there was a dedicated team responsible for defining the visual style of its games, preparing guides and benchmarks for working with graphics, and assisting production with lore. This team was called Bungie Creative Studios. It no longer exists. It has become part of PlayStation Studios.

Author Kelsey Martineau has filed a lawsuit against Bungie, accusing the studio of plagiarism. He claims that the developers borrowed many plot elements from his work for the “Red War” campaign in Destiny 2.

In March 2024, it became known that the head of the upcoming Marathon shooter development, Chris Barrett, left Bungie after 25 years with the company. Bloomberg found that Barrett was fired due to inappropriate behavior.

Former Bungie employees told journalist Stephen Totilo from Game File that the studio’s management had long been preparing for large-scale layoffs. The decision was made months ago.

Yesterday, Bungie announced a major staff reduction. After that, some current and former studio employees took to social media to criticize the management.

The studio Bungie has announced significant layoffs. A total of 220 employees, or roughly 17% of the workforce, will lose their jobs.

Bungie’s layoffs affected 8% of the studio’s staff, or about 100 people, according to Bloomberg and IGN sources. According to their information, the cuts took place against the background of serious problems with Destiny 2.

Composer Michael Salvatori (Micheal Salvatori) could fall under the wave of layoffs at Bungie. He has collaborated with the studio for more than 25 years.

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons wrote on X (former Twitter) that his studio had indeed cut some of its employees. He stated that this is a sad day for Bungie.

The fact that the Sony-owned Bungie game studio will be affected by a wave of layoffs was reported by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier.

In mid-July, Bungie filed a lawsuit against streamer Luca Leone, who threatened studio employees. The Canadian court probably helped to find out his identity, which a month before demanded that the TextNow provider disclose the data of an anonymous attacker/intruders.

Users of Bungie games have noticed that developers have been communicating with their audience less often lately. The other day, the studio’s community manager confirmed that Bungie really decided to reconsider its approach to interacting with players – this is how it tries to protect employees.

Bungie will be suing streamer Luca Leon, who specializes in Destiny 2. The studio accused him of using cheats, circumventing bans with 13 new accounts, selling logos and threatening employees.

NetEase now helps with the entry into the mobile market not only Blizzard, but also Bungie. It is said that the studios have been working together for more than two years on a mobile shooter game in the Destiny universe.

In March, owners of YouTube channels with Destiny 2 videos began to complain en masse that their content was being blocked due to DMCA strikes sent on behalf of Bungie. Recently, the studio was able to find out who was behind the attack, and demanded compensation in the amount of $7.65 million through the court.

The official statement is published on the studio’s website. Bungie stressed that such tragedies often originate in online communities, because criminals can promote ideas and recruit people there.

The other day, the media reported that Sony forbids internal studios to speak out on the topic of abortion in the United States. But that didn’t bother Bungie. The developers of Destiny 2 said — “no one will be able to put a muzzle on us and prevent us from standing up for a just cause.”

At the end of January, Sony announced that it was going to buy Bungie for $3.6 billion. Almost four months after that, the US Federal Trade Commission became interested in the deal, sources tell The Information.