Bungie Shrinks to 500 Staff as Marathon Stumbles and Most of Its Projects Get Cut

Bungie is subleasing its roughly 20,000 square foot Bellevue headquarters and has fallen from about 1,600 staff to 500, a downsizing Gamereactor reported and Bungie confirmed on September 7. The studio framed it as a move to a digital-first work model, but the timing follows a weak launch for its extraction shooter Marathon and a declining Destiny 2. Reports say most of the six games Bungie had in development when Sony bought it for 3.6 billion dollars are now cancelled. Marathon Season 3, its first permanent PvE (player versus environment) mode, still lands September 22.