On October 30, 2023, it was announced that Bungie, the studio behind Destiny 2, had laid off employees. The extent of the layoffs and who will be affected are not yet known. However, new information suggests that the long-time Destiny 2 composer also had to go.
What happened at Bungie? Destiny 2 developer Bungie surprised everyone with a major wave of layoffs on October 30th. Exactly how many employees had to leave and who was affected is currently unclear. CEO Pete Parsons informed the affected employees about the terminations in a team meeting yesterday.
So far, Bungie employees from the areas of communication, PR, support and sound design have spoken out.
You can read our news on the topic here: Destiny 2 has to lay off employees, the extent of the layoffs is still unclear
“Destiny 2” composer Michael Salvatori apparently fired
Why is it believed that the composer was fired? Composer Michael Salvatori has been writing music for video games since 1997. His works include the soundtrack for Halo 2, Halo 3 and, since 2014, the Destiny game series – primarily games from developer Bungie.
The CEO of Cinema Motions first wrote about Salvatori’s firing based on an alleged internal source in a post on X.com (formerly Twitter). The X.com account Destiny Bulletin later posted about an update to the composer’s homepage:
The description of the composer’s career has been replaced by Gone Fishing 🙂.
What does this mean for Destiny 2 and Bungie? The background and effects of the layoffs cannot yet be foreseen. As written above, so far primarily employees from the communication, PR, support and sound design departments have reported their resignations.
How does the community perceive this? Video game music and its composers are very important to many communities. For example, when it became known that long-time “Elder Scrolls” composer Jeremy Soule had not been hired for the Skyrim successor The Elder Scrolls 6, players reacted with disappointment. Our colleagues at GameStar reported.
When the composer of the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV Masayoshi Soken announced that he was seriously suffering from cancer, it rained community support.
The Destiny 2 community reacted accordingly to the possible dismissal of the composer:
However, some players also point out that Michael Salvatori is now almost 70 years old and has well earned his pension.
There is currently no statement from the composer himself about the situation and Bungie has not yet made any further statements. As soon as there is more information, we will update this news.
What do you think about the possible dismissal of Michael Salvatori? Will you miss his music? Feel free to write it to us in the comments.
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