Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is leaving after 23 years. Fellow veteran Justin Truman will take over because the storied Halo studio struggles with flagging curiosity in Future 2, the delayed launch of Marathon, and a painful Sony integration following a sky-high $3.6 billion acquisition again in 2022.
“After greater than twenty years of serving to construct this unbelievable studio, establishing the Bungie Basis, and rising inspiring communities round our work, I’ve determined to go the torch,” Parsons wrote in a weblog submit over on Bungie’s web site. “This journey has been the respect of a lifetime. I’m deeply happy with the worlds we’ve constructed collectively and the hundreds of thousands of gamers who name them house – and most of all I’m privileged by the chance to work alongside the unbelievable minds at Bungie.”
Parsons joined Bungie again in 2002 and was an government producer on Halo 2. He took over the studio when earlier CEO Harold Ryan left in 2016, the 12 months earlier than Future 2 shipped. He helped engineer the studio’s exit from a publishing cope with Activision in 2019, and Bungie continued to develop amid near-annual expansions for the hit sci-fi loot shooter.
However issues started to alter after promoting to Sony in 2022. Bungie’s experience in multiplayer video games didn’t cease PlayStation’s reside service technique from rapidly going sideways, and the studio suffered mass layoffs in each 2023 and 2024, with key expertise departing, together with veteran designers Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, after a Future spin-off codenamed Payback was reportedly canceled.
IGN reported that a “soul-crushing” environment amongst some employees in late 2023, amid the primary spherical of cuts, as Bungie’s independence inside Sony started to crumble following the declining fortunes of Future 2. Parsons got here below fireplace through the 2024 layoffs after listings for his sports activities automobile assortment indicated hundreds of thousands in purchases following the profitable 2022 sale to Sony, whilst rank-and-file employees got pink slips.
“Once I was requested to guide Bungie in 2015, my purpose was to develop us right into a studio able to creating and sustaining iconic, generation-spanning leisure,” Parsons wrote in his goodbye submit. “We’ve been by way of a lot collectively: we launched a daring new chapter for Future, constructed an enviable, unbiased reside ops group able to creating and publishing its personal video games, and joined the unbelievable household at Sony Interactive Leisure.”
Extra not too long ago, Bungie has confronted an uphill battle with Marathon, the extraction shooter revival of one in all its oldest franchises. The sport was supposed to return out in September however was indefinitely delayed following a middling reception to a closed alpha earlier this 12 months and a plagiarized artwork scandal that noticed the workforce compelled to overtake advertising property, together with trailers, to take away components created by an outdoor artist.
Truman, a 15-year veteran of Bungie, started working on the studio on the unique Future. He admitted to among the studio’s current fumbles however mentioned it stays dedicated to “create worlds that encourage friendship.” “I’ve additionally been a part of these efforts at Bungie once we’ve perhaps not been at our greatest,” Truman wrote. “After we’ve stumbled and realized by way of listening to our group that we had missed the mark. I do know I’ve personally realized lots through the years, as have all of us right here, from these conversations.”
He added, “We’re laborious at work proper now doing that–each with Marathon and Future. We’re at present heads down, however we’ll have extra to point out you in each of those worlds later this 12 months.”
