Former Bungie devs show fury and sorrow over layoffs, following the revelation that CEO Pete Parsons allegedly spent at least $2,414,550 on vintage cars in the past 2 years

220 Bungie developers lost their jobs in July, as a dire industry climate of similar layoffs continues well into 2024. As is usually the case, those impacted took to social media to make the human cost of the cuts, which Bungie describe as being due to «enduring economic conditions», known.

The layoffs themselves have been unceremonious and poorly timed, according to former employees: «Right after a great performance review, I got [laid off],» writes vista artist Weston T. Jones. «This is how I found out I'm laid off,» adds sound designer Tzvi Sherman, quoting Bungie's announcement on Twitter.

One particularly harrowing example comes from Kelly Jin, a former producer at Bungie, who was laid off right before she received maternity leave benefits: «It's just really bad timing b/c my maternity leave was supposed to start next Monday and I got laid off today.» Jin adds that her child is due to arrive «literally any day now».

«NGL, after I found out this morning I keep crying. Partly b/c of pregnancy hormones but partly b/c this is the first time I got laid off. And it's not even my fault,» Lin says she'd contacted Bungie's HR to see if she'll still be eligible for her maternity benefits, but later reveals that her «maternity leave benefits are gone b/c the baby isn't here yet.»

Which, in face of the possibility that CEO Pete Parsons spent at least $2,414,550 on vintage cars in the last 2 years, has caused some understandable outrage.

Yesterday, Twitter account DestinyNostalgi discovered a profile named bngpparsons on bidding website bringatrailer.com. Adding the winning bids between the dates of June 1, 2024 and September 23, 2022 produces the number above.

DestinyNostalgi then went on to cross-reference photos of the account's won bids with what appear to be photos of Parsons showing off his collection. For what it's worth, during my own digging I found (among an avalanche of deleted tweets) a photo at the end of a set of tweets that opens with «E30 m3», which directly