Several former Bungie employees are revealing in public that they have started moving from their former employer to its parent company, PlayStation.
Bridget O’Neill made this post on her LinkedIn:
“Today was my team’s last day at Bungie, but not our last day working on Destiny (and Marathon)!
Bungie Creative Studios is joining PlayStation Studios to build the foundation for a creative team that can support all PlayStation live service games. As part of this move, I am taking on a new role as Senior Director of Creative at PlayStation Studios.
Working on Destiny has been a dream of mine ever since getting lost in the Gorgon’s Labyrinth back in D1 VoG because I was too distracted checking out all the environmental textures. Working at PlayStation was not even a dream because I never imagined it was possible!
This opportunity to share our experience working on Bungie titles with other studios that are building live service games is so exciting. Live service is hard and comes with a unique set of challenges, so with PlayStation and Bungie working together we will be able to give a huge jumpstart on development for new games as they enter this super competitive market.
I am grateful for all the amazing creatives and artists I’ve had the opportunity to work with at Bungie. Can’t wait to make more stuff with you!”
O’Neill was senior director of creative studios at Bungie, and she holds the same position today at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Levi Park made this post on his LinkedIn:
“I am excited to share that today is the start of my first week at Playstation! I cannot overstate the role that Sony and Playstation have played in my upbringing, design sensibilities, and personal interests, so it’s all a bit surreal. Put simply, I am humbled to be joining this team. I am looking forward to continuing to support Bungie in their creative marketing efforts from the Playstation side, as well as lend my efforts to the world-class team at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
I also would like to express gratitude for my time at Bungie and the chance to cut my teeth working on Destiny 2, a singular presence in the industry and a visual brand that I’ve long admired. Specifically I want to shout out and thank Garrett Morlan, Eric Littlejohn, Alex Griendling, Bridget O’Neill, and Alanna Cervenak for their trust, encouragement, and mentorship over the last few years.“
Pack was Visual Design Lead at Bungie, and is now Manager of Design at Sony Interactive Entertainment. We won’t link to more posts or accounts, but the other people Park named here are also from Bungie, some of whom also moved to PlayStation. If you don’t have access to LinkedIn, you can verify some of their identities and work on Mobygames.
This follows the announcement from July of this year that Bungie would have to let go of one-third of their workforce. As a reminder, the studio would retain 850 employees, 155 employees would move to other divisions in PlayStation, and 220 would unfortunately be laid off.
O’Neill and Park are among the lucky 155 employees whom Sony was able to retain in other positions in the company. They do not seem to be part of the team that is allegedly being formed to help spin off one of the games Bungie has in development.
We also reported on rumors that Sony had completed their takeover of Bungie last August. These posts do seem to generally corroborate that that has taken place. There was likely a period of time when O’Neill, Park, and others were still getting their transfers processed through Sony’s red tape.
But at the time, it seemed that Bungie was fighting to keep their independence from Sony. The rumors from Jeff Grubb suggested that the writing was on the wall that they would lose that control even before the release of Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
We wish O’Neill and Park the best in their new journeys in PlayStation. With their former studio, current parent company, and the video game industry itself in flux, careers and lives can disappear or change just like that.
