Bungie

## Bungie, Incorporated.

Company logo since 2009, a slight variation of the logo Bungie had for seventeen years between 1992 and 2009

### Formerly

Bungie Software Products Corporation (1991-2000)
Bungie Studios (2000-2007)
Bungie, LCC (2007-2011)

### Parent company

Microsoft Studios (2000-2007)
Sony Interactive Entertainment (2022-current)

### Foundation

May 1991
Chicago, Illinois, US

### Founders

Alex Seropian
Jason Jones

### Key people

Pete Parsons (Chairman/CEO)
Jason Jones (CCO)
Danielle Porter (CFO)

### Notable products

*Destiny* series
*Marathon*

### Number of employees

826 (2022)
~1100 (2023)

### Subsidiaries

Bungie Amsterdam

**Bungie, Inc.** is an American video game developer and publisher based Bellevue, Washington. Established in 1991, Bungie started out as a developer for Macintosh computers before moving to Windows and console platforms. The studio is best known for numerous first-person shooter franchises created through the years including their self-owned *Marathon* trilogy and Microsoft's flagship *Halo* series; since 2014 the company is best known for the *Destiny* franchise. Since 2022, Bungie is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Bungie's first decade of existence saw the company working as a developer on Macintosh computers with various partners. In 2000, the company was acquired by Microsoft to become a primary asset for Microsoft's console brand, Xbox. The studio's success with *Halo* - a launch title for the original Xbox - was pivotal for the console's success and turned into a billion dollar franchise. In 2007, Bungie split from Microsoft, with a final project in 2010. The same year, Bungie signed on a 10-year publishing contract with Activision to develop *Destiny*. The partnership saw two releases in 2014's *Destiny* and its 2017 sequel *Destiny 2*. In 2019, Bungie terminated the contract, with *Destiny* titles moving to self-publishing by the company.

In 2022, Bungie was acquired by PlayStation manufacturer Sony Interactive Entertainment, becoming a direct subsidiary. As a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Bungie remains an autonomous developer and publisher that releases titles on both PlayStation consoles and other platforms. Under this ownership, Bungie provides support and guidance to Sony's multiplayer and live-service video game offerings. In 2023, Bungie unveiled a revival of its *Marathon* games, to co-exist with *Destiny* as a second franchise for Bungie.

## History

### 2010 - 2019: Activision partnership, *Destiny*

In April 2010, Bungie announced that it signed a decade-long deal with American game publisher Activision, after nine months of negotiations. As part of the deal, Activision would act as the publisher for Bungie's new intellectual property and bring it to platforms outside of Xbox, while Bungie will retain the rights to the franchise. An Activision lawsuit unrelated to Bungie leaked the project's title and that the contract was to include four games released every other year beginning 2013.

Following leaks occurring in 2012, Bungie and Activision announced their joint project as *Destiny* at E3, in June 2013. Originally slated for a 2013 release, *Destiny* was eventually released in September 2014 to seventh- and eighth-generation consoles. It received largely favorable reviews, and was an enormous commercial success to Bungie and Activision, grossing over $500 million on its launch.

In January 2016, Ryan stepped down from his position as CEO and Chairman of Bungie. Pete Parsons, Bungie's chief operating officer who previously worked at Xbox and joined the company in 2002, was appointed as his replacement.

### 2019 - 2022: Self-publishing efforts

On January 10, 2019, Bungie and Activision jointly announced the termination of their publishing deal; as a result, Bungie would retain their ownership of the *Destiny* IP, will take over publishing duties from Activision and the existing *Destiny* games will transition from Activision's Battle.net service to Valve's Steam online storefront. Despite rumors of conflicts between the two companies, Bungie's communications director David "Deej" Dague dismissed notions of Activision being a "prohibitive overlord" over *Destiny*, and claimed the split was "amicable", with both companies having different goals for *Destiny*. Following the split, Bungie unveiled *Shadowkeep*, the forth expansion for *Destiny 2*; it was released in October 2019 to mixed reviews.

### 2022 - current: Sony acquisition, IP expansion

On January 21, 2022, it was announced that Sony Interactive Entertainment would be buying Bungie in a deal worth $3.6 billion. As a SIE subsidiary, Bungie would remain an independent and autonomous game developer and publisher existing alongside PlayStation Studios; as part of the deal, Sony would help Bungie in expanding hiring efforts for the *Destiny* franchise and other projects as well as multimedia expansion, while Bungie would share its knowledge, expertise to support Sony's pursuit into the live-service market. At the time of the acquisition, Bungie employed 826 people.

In July 2022, Sony and Bungie announced that the acquisition was completed, making the latter a SIE subsidiary. With the acquisition's completion, Bungie became involved in all of the live-service titles in production at PlayStation Studios and collaborates with Sony for "rigorous" portfolio review processes. In return, SIE president Jim Ryan explained that Sony would help Bungie to gain market foothold in European and Asian territories, in which Bungie had a smaller presence than in the Americas; in May 2023, Ryan reiterated that both companies would explore further media expansion of Bungie's intellectual properties.

In August 2022, Bungie announced the seventh expansion of *Destiny 2*, *Lightfall*. Releasing in February 2023, it was the first release by Bungie as part of Sony Interactive and PlayStation. In May 2023, Bungie introduced its first crossover with PlayStation properties, based on *God of War*, *Horizon*, *Ghost of Tsushima*, *The Last of Us* and *Ratchet & Clank*. The same month, Bungie and Sony announced *Marathon* and *Destiny 2: The Final Shape* expansion pack at Sony's PlayStation Showcase.

In August 2023, Bungie announced that the company would not mandate return to offices and instead will prioritize a digital-first working environment. The studio also confirmed that it was working on a third game in addition to their work on *Destiny 2* and *Marathon*.

In October 2023, Bloomberg reported that Bungie laid-off an undisclosed amount of employees as part of cost-cutting and reconstruction within Sony Interactive Entertainment, and due to Bungie's announced titles, *Destiny 2: The Final Shape* and *Marathon*, getting delayed to June 2024 and an unspecified 2025 release window respectively.

## Controversies and legal issues

### 2023 wrongful termination allegations

In 2023, Ingrid Alm, who was hired by Bungie as an HR manager in May 2022, filed a complaint against the company for retaliation and wrongful termination. In her lawsuit, Alm alleged that she was instructed by Bungie to investigate the performance of an employee, who felt he was being racially targeted and singled-out by his supervisor for being the only Black person in a team of 50 employees. According to Alm, upon sharing the information with her supervisor, her suggestions to send the employee's superior to diversity training were met with "hostility and denial", and that similar reactions were met with previous individual employees she recommended for training. Alm alleged she received a message that her resignation was accepted without her knowledge, and that she declined to sign a document claiming she "voluntarily resigned". In a statement, Bungie claimed the company "lack[ed] knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth or falsity of the allegations."

## Relationships with other studios

### PlayStation Studios

Following its acquisition by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2022, one of Bungie's purposes is to share its experience, technology, input and results in game-as-a-service development with PlayStation Studios.

#### Firewalk Studios

Bungie provides support for Firewalk Studios's debut title, *Concord*.

#### Naughty Dog

Bungie aided Naughty Dog in unknown capacity during the development of the multiplayer mode of 2009's *Uncharted 2: Among Thieves*; Naughty Dog thanked Bungie among other studios for its contributions. In May 2023, it was reported that Bungie evaluated Naughty Dog's *The Last of Us* multiplayer title at the request of parent company Sony, and questioned its ability to sustain player engagement; as a result, Naughty Dog scaled the development back while pursuing other projects.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bungie-signs-10-year-activision-deal
2. ↑ https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/05/21/details-on-bungie-39-s-new-project-39-destiny-39-revealed.aspx
3. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/e3-2013/2013/6/13/4426716/bungie-unveils-its-destiny
4. ↑ https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/11318/7\_destiny-launch-date
5. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/destiny/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-4
6. ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-review-roundup/1100-6422299/
7. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/technology/wp/2014/09/11/activisions-destiny-ships-500-million-in-one-day/
8. ↑ https://gamerant.com/bungie-pete-parsons-ceo-destiny-132/
9. ↑ https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/01/10/bungie-splits-with-activision-and-takes-over-destiny-publishing
10. ↑ https://www.eurogamer.net/bungie-on-this-years-break-up-and-building-a-better-future-for-destiny
11. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/destiny-2-shadowkeep
12. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sony-buying-bungie-for-usd3-6-billion
13. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/playstation-bungie-will-considerably-accelerate-our-journey-with-multiplatform-live-service-games
14. ↑ https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/irday/pdf/2022/GNS\_E.pdf
15. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/15/23220335/bungie-sony-acquisition-complete-official-done
16. ↑ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-is-using-bungie-to-rigorously-vet-its-upcoming-live-service-games/
17. ↑ https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/lightfall-twab-03-02-23
18. ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-adding-playstation-crossover-armor-including-god-of-war/1100-6514437/
19. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/23735830/bungie-marathon-sci-fi-pvp-extraction-shooter
20. ↑ https://twitter.com/Bungie/status/1692594054603890851
21. ↑ https://twitter.com/damascus111/status/1692594406602469590
22. ↑ https://twitter.com/Bungie/status/1692594057594429472
23. ↑ https://www.gamesradar.com/bungies-next-secret-game-is-finally-out-in-the-open-its-team-based-sci-fi-and-whatever-frog-type-means/
24. ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-30/sony-s-bungie-game-unit-cuts-staff-following-delayed-titles
25. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/former-bungie-hr-manager-is-suing-for-wrongful-termination-after-she-reported-potential-racial-bias
26. ↑ https://www.giantbomb.com/app.php/uncharted-2-among-thieves/3030-22420/forums/naughty-dog-explains-why-they-thanked-bungie-and-i-266667/
27. ↑ https://www.gamesradar.com/bungies-next-secret-game-is-finally-out-in-the-open-its-team-based-sci-fi-and-whatever-frog-type-means/

***Destiny***
*Destiny* (post-release support) - *Destiny 2* (post-release support)

**Other titles**
*Marathon*

**Technology**: Tiger