Bungie CEO Pete Parsons spent $2.3 million on cars before laying off 220 devs and employees

SOURCES

TOP PATRONS
[BIG BOSS]
- Devon B
[BOSS]
- Gerardo Andrade
- Michael Redmond
- Phil

[YongYea]

They really said we couldn't afford keeping these employees around after the successful launch of The Final Shape while the CEO is paid so well he can buy and collect cars like he's building a Magic The Gathering deck.


TOP PATRONS
[BIG BOSS]
- Devon B
[BOSS]
- Gerardo Andrade
- Michael Redmond
- Phil

[Lanewreck]

When companies "fail" why do ceos get to keep their money and jobs, but the people who actually do the work, don't?

[BBonsteel]

Reminder that in 2013, Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, took a 50% pay cut to avoid layoffs. RIP to a CEO who earned his position.

[jimbeaux]

“We did everything we could to avoid this outcome”.

Dude is so full of shit

[StrangerX]

You can't type Pete Parsons in game chat, it's censored like a word like fuck or shit.

[callumfaulkner]

Can someone help me budget my video game company?

Employees = $10M
Hardware = $5M
Candles = $1M
Advertising = $30M
Research Into Addictive Microtransactions = $100M
CEO Bonuses = $250M

[vanlaar]

These CEOs are wayyyy to overpaid. Honestly rediculous, why do we reward such scumbags?

[thisisfyne]

I was almost hired by Bungie for a lead role last year, but the process was cut short as the position disappeared and layoffs started to happen en masse.
I was looking to leave a job I've had for more than 8 years because the megacorporation owning our studio is insanely profit hungry. And now that megacorporation is being bought off (and soon managed) by an Equity firm specialized in finance and real estate, of all things. No creative interests whatsoever. Their only incentive is to fluff their shareholders and it's not even subtle.

The situation in the gaming industry is currently *extremely dire* because of the takeover from the suits and ties over passionate (and actually human) people.
It's actually crazy how the reality of your day to day experience trickles down from good or bad upper leadership. Values matter.

Music, Hollywood, and now gaming. It's utterly disheartening.

[brettrobbins]

It's the same at the most minimum jobs these days. I worked at a bowling alley, they wouldn't hire anybody and paid $10 an hour, had me working by myself every day running everything in that place, the counter, the snack bar, the lanes, slot machines, cleaning you name it. meanwhile the Manager has 3 people work on staff with her and makes salary 6 times my wage doing jack shit. People get these manager spots or leading roles and force the workers to do everything while they all sit back and make bank

[saiyanspirits]

Guys, this is happening everywhere. I work for a fortune 50 company who has hired a consulting firm that basically told them they need to lay off another 15K employees for better profit margin. On top of the thousands they laid off at the beginning on the year. I was actually told that one of the executives at a meeting was gleefully excited about how he thought he could replace the hundreds of people in my group with AI one day. These people are destroying so many lives just to get richer than they already are, it's disgusting.

[ProdByAD]

Do bad - get fired
Do good - get fired

[devastatheseeker]

"We can't afford to pay staff"

-ceo that spent 20 mil last year

[Ruination]

It's sad to think that CEO has been growing exponentially but the average worker has been getting paid like garbage. Trickle down economics does not work.

[sallthewaybaby]

Cut the hard working little guys, pat yourself on the back, and feed your ego, the CEO mantra.

[randyderricott]

Two years ago, Sony acquired Bungie, the software developer best known for HALO & DESTINY for almost $4 billion USD.

The initial announcement was that Bungie would be an "independent subsidiary". While Sony officially owned them, they would pretty much be left to their own devices.

However, that deal also came with some conditions, among which were that if Bungie failed to meet sales goals set by Sony, Sony would dismantle their board of directors and assume control over management. (The main reason Sony agreed to buy Bungie was because the latter wasn't doing so financially hot).

With two mass layoffs this year which saw 320 of Bungie's employees losing their jobs, Sony is now taking matters into their own hands and assuming management roles over Bungie as promised.

[eenfingers]

We've gone from a labor economy to an investment economy. CEO's get paid, not employees and if it doesn't change, it will collapse.

[WolvieXXXZandalari]

If you look at the amount of $$$ so many AAA CEO's are paid its simply insanity.

[Gamma_]

This is yet more cemented proof that wealthy, high society executives want nothing more than to sit on a pedestal and laugh at the people who struggle for their passions, who struggle just to live. We can not continue to stand for this.

[MedalWelder]

Currently a game development student, and stuff like this is the main reason I will NOT be working for a “AAA” company. They make record profits, and then layoff like 800 people. It’s insane.

[LavosGaming]

That unsustainable, infinite growth they expect is a result of a late stage hypercapitalist hellhole of an economy. The longer we prolong the effects of such a disaster, the worse these people will be and game development will become one of the most volatile fields to work in. Things need to change from the ground up. Either these corporate CEOs need to get a clue, or they all need to be replaced and every game dev studio needs to unionize.