Latest news with #DestinLegarie
Metro
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Former Bungie developers blame 'greed' as cancelled subscription plans revealed
Former staff at Destiny developer Bungie have spoken out about the studio's downfall, citing 'disconnected leadership' and a toxic work culture. Bungie were once one of the most respected developers in the world, following their work on Halo and Destiny, but the situation at the studio is drastically different as we approach its next project, Marathon. Since the launch of Destiny 2 in 2017, the studio was acquired by Sony and subject to several rounds of layoffs. While job cuts have been widespread across the industry over the past few years, the situation at Bungie goes beyond post-pandemic cuts; with missed financial targets leading to drastic structural shifts. Reports of leadership mismanagement at Bungie have cropped up before, but several ex-employees have now spoken out about their own experiences within the studio. In a video by YouTuber Destin Legarie, former employees at Bungie cite various reasons for the studio's decline, including a 'lack of player empathy, disconnected leadership, and a corporate-first culture'. The recurring point of contention is the studio's 'toxic' leadership, who allegedly 'shut down creatives on a core level' and prioritised monetisation over player satisfaction. According to one ex-employee, staff received a huge 'scolding' in a meeting with leadership over monetisation. 'Everything happening to Bungie is because of greed,' said one former employee. This alleged push for further monetisation was presented in various ways. One source claimed the studio's leadership pitched the idea of adding a subscription model to Destiny 2 at one point, but the idea was 'vehemently' shut down by the team. Another source claimed Bungie leadership were concerned the Trials Of Osiris PvP armour was 'too attractive with its glow effect', which might negatively impact Eververse sales (Destiny 2's cosmetic store). Destiny 2 launched as a paid-for game but it became free-to-play in October 2019, with DLC expansions being sold separately. The next expansion, The Edge Of Fate, is set to launch on July 15, 2025. The video features other allegations, including 'HR working in their own best interest' and claims leadership undermined the ideas of staff in public. 'If they didn't think of it, it wasn't worth doing,' one former employee said. GameCentral has reached out to Bungie for comment. One former employee suggested these issues have now 'just shifted to Marathon instead', which is currently in the middle of a plagiarism scandal, after an ex-artist at the studio took assets from someone else's work without permission. More Trending As detailed in livestream last week, Bungie is currently in the process of 'auditing all of the previous work by the internal artist' and is looking to remove 'anything which is questionably or inappropriately sourced'. Beyond this controversy, Marathon hasn't exactly hit the ground running. A closed alpha test last month was met with mixed reactions, which has reportedly led to several changes to the game's future plans. Marathon is set to launch on September 23 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but all signs suggest it could be delayed. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: No PlayStation showcase this summer suggest insiders as Sony waits till autumn MORE: Games Inbox: Would you buy a PlayStation that was a PC? MORE: PlayStation Stars loyalty programme is closing but Sony promises replacement
Forbes
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
More Bungie Reveals From ‘Destiny 2' Subscriptions To Eververse Demands
Destiny 2 Well, as it turns out, when things are going bad at your studio, there's a lot you want to get off your chest about events both past and present. Bungie certainly does not need another report about internal issues affecting both Marathon and Destiny, but here we are. Destin Legarie, formerly of IGN and now with his own channel, has just released a report touching on a number of things within Bungie spanning a wide range of topics. The video is below, and I certainly have thoughts on parts of this. These are all ex-employees, who I have also found are very eager to talk after being laid off. Some of the biggest takeaways we haven't heard before will intrigue (and probably stun) Destiny fans. At one point, leadership brought up a subscription model for Destiny as another path toward ongoing revenue, something that was shut down so hard by staff it did not in fact happen. Another instance had a concern being raised about Trials of Osiris armor and its cool glows being so attractive to players it would actually cut into Eververse sales, as part of a larger 'monetization scolding' culture. The leadership toxicity is sadly nothing new, though there's one point in here about Bungie allegedly buying pricey penthouses for some higher tiers of management. And speaking of management, the Destiny team was sometimes relieved when its poor managers were…moved over to Marathon. Marathon I highly suggest you watch the whole video, as there's a lot more than I'm touching on here, and again, this is probably the sixth or seventh internal report on Bungie culture we've seen in the last few years, and there have been a few this year alone, including from me. Someone told me that Bungie tells people specifically not to talk to me, but as you can see, a lot of people want to talk to a lot of outlets and journalists, given what's going on over there. The state of Bungie is teetering on a knife's edge where both the launch of the first 'new era' expansion of Destiny is releasing in a month, then Marathon, a project supposedly 6-7 years in development, is out in September after being mostly roasted online between gameplay and now actual plagiarism for its art assets. What happens next will be some extensive Destiny Edge of Fate previews. Then some more Marathon tests, closed or open. But an open question now is if Marathon is going to be delay past its September 23 release date, something most observes see as a good idea, if not inevitable. But there may be other, financial factors at play here including, you guessed it, leadership. The saga continues. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former PlayStation boss says the Nintendo Switch 2 will determine if the OG Switch can ever claim PS2's best-selling console of all time title
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The PlayStation 2 is still the best-selling video game console of all time, having sold more than 160 million units to customers worldwide. But the Nintendo Switch ain't far behind. In fact, it's inching ever closer to that record every month and a former Sony executive now reckons it can actually overtake the PS2 - as long as the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't get in the way. The competition between Nintendo and PlayStation has been contentious for decades - just look up the Nintendo PlayStation for all that jazz - but things have recently been heating up as far as sales records go. Just a few months ago, years after the company stopped manufacturing the console, Sony announced that the PS2 had sold another 5 million units, seemingly shifting the goalposts. Nintendo then revealed that the Switch has surpassed 150 million units last month, OLED and Lite included, meaning it only has to sell another 10 million to claim Sony's crown. Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden now says the "record is out there for the breaking" in an interview with Destin Legarie. "I don't know," he said. "I think the Switch 2 will have a lot to do with that [record] - depending on the price point it comes out at. If it's super competitive to the current market, maybe you get people switching over faster than if there's, you know, when you have two consoles out the same manufacturer but the delta is more than $150 and getting people to move is hard." The OG Switch's RRP is currently $299 at most retailers - though you can often find it much cheaper via sales - and if the Switch 2 is anywhere close to that price point, Layden is right: why wouldn't people simple buy the successor? That's unlikely to be the case, though. Some analysts have already predicted that the Switch 2 will launch with a price tag between $400 and $500, making the OG Switch a much more attractive proposition for lower income buyers, especially if Nintendo eventually gives it a generous end-of-life price drop. Nintendo quietly confirms "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games" as a separate thing to console exclusives following Virtual Game Cards' big reveal
