Bungie CEO Pete Parsons Steps Down After A Decade

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is officially stepping down.

Pete gave this statement:

After more than two decades of helping build this incredible studio, establishing the Bungie Foundation, and growing inspiring communities around our work, I have decided to pass the torch.

This journey has been the honor of a lifetime. I am deeply proud of the worlds we’ve built together and the millions of players who call them home – and most of all I am privileged by the opportunity to work alongside the incredible minds at Bungie.

Bungie’s New Boss Is One Of The Devs

Pete also named the new CEO, Justin Truman. Truman cites his own achievements in his 15 years at the studio:

As an engineer, I wrote some code I’m really proud of for our original weapon, abilities, and networking in Destiny 1.

As a designer, I helped craft many of our Destiny 2 systems (including some of the endgame systems I got terribly wrong at Destiny 2 launch).

As a producer, I helped our team build and roll out Destiny’s first Seasons.

More recently, I’ve helped with our overall talent strategy as Chief Development Officer, and have been helping the Marathon team as we build our next world.

Justin hints at the studio’s struggles for the past few years, and tries to rally the troops as best he can. He said this:

I’ve also been part of these efforts at Bungie when we’ve maybe not been at our best. When we’ve stumbled and realized through listening to our community that we had missed the mark. I know I’ve personally learned a lot over the years, as have all of us here, from those conversations.

I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion.

Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them.

This Was Long Overdue

We won’t make a comprehensive review of the turbulent past two years since Sony acquired Bungie. That in itself has created a cloud that’s made gamers forget the struggles Bungie had as an independent studio, and working with Activision. Most of Parsons’ tenure as CEO actually consisted of that period.

But this has happened months after salacious allegations about Parsons’ business dealings and work ethic spread. Neither Sony, Bungie, nor Pete Parsons has addressed these claims. We will see if Parsons or anyone else will feel a desire to speak up about them now.

This is part of Sony’s plans to finally absorb Bungie as an internal studio. This won’t be enough to turn the studio’s fortunes around. But clearly they needed to do this.