As an Amazon Associate, Modded gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons has made headlines for allegedly spending over $2.4 million on antique and classic cars after his company laid off about 300 staff due to rising development costs, game industry shifts and enduring economic conditions in nine months.
On July 31, 2024, X user DestinyNostalgi unearthed a profile named bngpparsons — seemingly a shorthand for “Bungie Pete Parsons” — on the online auto auction platform Bring a Trailer (BaT). A BaT member since October 2018, bngpparsons won 25 auctions, including a 1965 Porsche 356C Cabriolet worth $235,000, between September 2022 and June 1, 2024.
This discovery has rubbed salt into the wound of 220 Bungie employees who lost their jobs in a round of layoffs the Bellevue, Washington-based developer announced on the same day. It has also removed the scab of the cut of the initial 100 casualties, whom the game studio let go in October 2023 due to Destiny 2’s poor player reception.
More Dirt on the Bungie CEO
In light of the sacking of 17% of the game developer’s workforce and the revelation of Parsons’ winning BaT bids, many former employees took to social media to lend more credence to DestinyNostalgi’s findings and offer some inside scoop on the Bungie head honcho’s tone deafness in the office.
Ex-Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert shared her experience on X about her financial struggles at Bungie. Before the first round of layoffs, she was conversing with another community manager about being short on cash for groceries when Parsons approached them to flex his classic car collection and invite them to his house to see it.
Another former employee allegedly had a similar encounter with the Bungie CEO slash classic car collector two days before being terminated in 2024.
Proof Against Salary Cuts
Openly swimming in wealth while publicly firing employees was odd at best and insensitive at worst, begging the question — was Parsons immune to Bungie’s financial woes? He was.
During a post-2023 layoff Q&A, a department head admitted that senior leadership was not taking salary cuts when asked by the remaining personnel. This news must have been demoralizing for those who managed to avoid the ax, especially after employee morale declined following the Sony takeover.
On January 31, 2022, Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion. The Japanese multinational earmarked $1.2 billion for employee retention, knowing competitive pay was a tried-and-true incentive to discourage top talent from leaving.
However, Bungie management itself implemented various drastic cost-cutting measures to meet its financial goals and maintain its independence from its parent company. Aside from trimming its personnel by one-fifth, the studio has also stopped hiring budding developers hoping to make it big in the game industry, reduced travel budgets, removed holiday bonuses and discontinued numerous employee benefits.
Ultimately, the company’s higher-ups have explored many avenues to protect the existing board — which includes the Bungie CEO and two fellow high-ranking officials — from dissolution and avert complete Sony control to the detriment of everybody else.
Will Bungie Employees Catch a Break?
The studio’s autonomy hangs in the balance. Only time will tell if Bungie can survive as an independent entity under the Sony umbrella, but Parsons’ antics don’t help improve the brand’s image in the game industry.
Stay up to date with the latest by subscribing to Modded Minute.
Author
Jack Shaw is a senior writer at Modded. Jack is an avid enthusiast for keeping up with personal health and enjoying nature. He has over five years of experience writing in the men's lifestyle niche, and has written extensively on topics of fitness, exploring the outdoors and men's interests. His writings have been featured in SportsEd TV, Love Inc., and Offroad Xtreme among many more publications.
