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I think we could. But he said he understands why they left. They had sold their business for a certain amount of money. They saw what Halo turned into. Newer shots released this week have fans again looking for hints of a more substantial connection. But the pending removal of Destiny from the Xbox Game Pass service has lowered hopes. A rep for Bungie told Axios this week they preferred to keep the 30th anniversary content a surprise. That led Polygon to recently ponder an alternate history: What if Halo had been a Mac exclusive?

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. Krot told the man. Kid Cudi. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feels a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts," Parsons wrote. Parsons listed the changes made, including the removal of some of the bad actors at Bungie.

However, he acknowledged that this can only occur when "brave people come forward. Parsons stated that based on the report, that many of the abusive and toxic individuals are nor longer at the company, but if new information comes to light they will investigate it. Parsons pointed to the delayed releases of Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, and The Witch Queen for Destiny 2 as a way to lessen the amount of crunch at the studio and put the health of its employees first.

Parsons also acknowledged in the letter that these improvements don't change what happened to employees in the past nor does it erase the suffering they experienced.

It also does not sweep away the bad experiences people have had at our studio," Parsons wrote. This roughly means "Don't make us kick your ass", and this is the translation given by Bungie. Technically speaking, it should be "Noli facere nobis Many of Bungie's employees have left the company to form their own studios. Double Aught was a short-lived company comprised of several former Bungie team members, founded by Greg Kirkpatrick.

The company helped Bungie develop Marathon: Infinity , the last game in the Marathon series. It collaborated with Bungie in releasing the last two maps for Halo 2. Xbox Wiki. Xbox Wiki Explore. Xbox Prototype Xbox Watch View more.

Xbox bundles Xbox bundles Xbox One bundles. Xbox View more. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk 0. Stuck in last place This article hasn't been able to keep up and may now include information that is no longer correct, you can help Xbox Wiki by bringing it up to speed and updating any old information.

Retrieved on I Issue 1 ". Facts ". The non-lead writers — both women and allies — would push back, fighting to tell the kinds of hopeful and empowering stories with Destiny's women that were so often told through its male characters.

While they did have a number of successes on this front over the years, it was often extremely challenging and painful for those bringing these issues forwarded to be heard, sometimes requiring assistance from sympathetic individuals with clout outside the team. A number of sources told stories of male narrative leads at the studio who pushed forward storylines for characters like Eris Morn, Mara Sov, Ana Bray, Ikora Rey, Suraya Hawthorne, and others that leaned on harmful stereotypes of women and mental health struggles, often despite objections from women and supportive allies across the studio.

Another example of a time when the diverse members of the writing team were not listened to is in the instance of Devrim Kay, a scout players meet in the European Dead Zone location who provides missions and talks about his love of food and tea. At one point in Destiny 2's development, a member of the writing team added in a tiny piece of dialogue for Devrim referring to missing his "partner. The line passed multiple edits and checks and was put into a build of the game before someone high up at the studio noticed it and demanded it be taken out — or else they couldn't ship the game in Russia or China because of the mere implication of a gay romance.

The issue received attention across the studio when it was sent to a QA tester to fix as a "bug," causing an internal uproar. Eventually, the line was adjusted to have Devrim just talk about someone named "Marc" without any reference to who it was.

This made it into the final game, and Bungie ended up being lauded for including a gay character, especially as Devrim's voice actor confirmed their relationship to media not long after , unaware of the stir it had caused within the studio.

One source recalled being furious: Bungie's writers had tried to gently make their story more inclusive with Destiny's first canon gay relationship, Bungie leadership had tried to stop it, but then got to enjoy positive attention anyway. In all of these situations, the members of the writing team who fought for change would routinely be told they were difficult to work with, not supportive enough of their leaders, or were aggressive or abrasive and needed to be better at taking criticism.

These criticisms were often used as feedback when the team pushed for promotions after each new challenging release period, with several being turned down time and again. Hiponia specifically was told she couldn't get promoted because she "wasn't good enough at the game," despite the fact that her core narrative responsibilities were unrelated to gameplay design.

But when she asked to be given time at work to play and improve, even offering to tie those hours into a specific work task, her request was denied. She also said that her own stress levels skyrocketed during her time at Bungie, increasing her need for anti-anxiety medication and therapy, and ultimately resulting in stress-related gastrointestinal issues that required surgery.

Hiponia was not alone — other sources close to narrative saw their colleagues grow increasingly stressed and broken down as they experienced more health issues as time went on.

In , the situation became untenable. The entire writing staff tried a last-ditch effort to mediate their constant conflict with their leads with HR, but were once again told they needed to try harder to work with the people who were making their lives miserable daily — despite the team reiterating that the leads did not appear to be making efforts to build these same bridges on their end.

They never heard back. Those connected to the narrative team today say that things have improved, with more funding and employees to share the load, and new leads specifically tasked with helping the department recover. But it ultimately took a sacrifice of many people's careers and mental and emotional wellbeing to get it there.

While it may be the best example, narrative is far from the only department to have suffered this way. In fact, our sources pointed to issues within almost every major team at the company. Some noted the hypocrisy at work here — of Bungie's seven stated company values, first on the list is this: Teams are Stronger Than Heroes.

Our wins are always team wins. According to those we spoke to, this translated to a bit of a shorthand internally, namely that Bungie "doesn't tolerate assholes. But many of our sources say that this company line has, up until very recently, simply not been true.

Almost everyone we spoke to had stories of at least one, if not multiple individuals with long histories at Bungie that seemed to be able to get away with anything, protected by either those above them in the leadership chain or long-serving HR employees. All that's aspirational. Those are the values they want to get to, but they're not enforcing them.

The stories of Bungie's problematic rockstars go way back to its success as the creator of Halo. Some names only came up once or twice — others we heard repeatedly, across multiple different departments and over many years of Bungie history. One top-level company leader who had been with Bungie since Halo was described by sources as an "asshole" who would constantly disparage others, was dismissive of those who brought up the company's toxic culture, didn't bother to learn anyone's name, and whose inappropriate work wardrobe at one point included a shirt that advertised 'free lap rides'.

He was also seen getting incredibly drunk at company events, and would clip his toenails at his desk. Notably, this person rose to the company's topmost levels before being quietly let go after years of issues.. An ambiguous company email announcing his departure referenced the company's zero tolerance policy for bad actors and offered employees mental health support if needed. Sources described him as excessively abusive to his team, with some noting that his team seemed to work more late nights than others.

One described him as "just torturing" his staff, while another described multiple instances of sexist and racist remarks. Another source close to his team described numerous instances of him intimidating employees in one-on-one meetings and viciously berating his team when work didn't meet his standards.

The stories shared here are far from the only examples — we heard a number of other similar tales of behavior from not just Bungie leadership, but other employees across multiple departments who were often enabled by their superiors, who would ignore or dismiss bad behavior or complaints against those they favored.

In the vast majority of these cases, sources felt their stories were too specific to share in this piece without personally identifying themselves and risking either retaliation at work or violating a non-disparagement agreement — which many former employees we spoke to say they felt pressured to sign upon departing the company.

Their fears may not be unfounded. In almost every story we heard, sources say that numerous reports were made to HR and leadership about these individuals, but to no avail. There was at least one long-standing Bungie employee in HR, still with the company, who almost all of our sources described as actively protecting harmful individuals. Multiple people said that their job seemed to be to "make it all go away" whenever someone had an issue with the company. One person recalled them as incredibly insulting to various employees behind their backs and being "catty" toward women about how they dressed, including calling a woman a "slut.

The influence of this individual, coupled with numerous other negative encounters with other HR representatives over the years, resulted in a near-universal mistrust of HR from almost everyone we spoke to. Many of them noted that they struggled to trust HR anywhere as a general rule. HR, they pointed out, generally exists to protect the company rather than its employees, but Bungie's HR was, for many, on a different level. They've always been there to protect the company. I've watched it happen a few times at Bungie, where someone went to HR and things went completely sideways for them.

Aside from the obvious issues inherent to having a number of people in positions of power at Bungie who were known as toxic, sexist, or otherwise problematic, their behavior and beliefs over the years permeated the company's culture in other, less immediately obvious ways.

For instance, in deciding what kinds of people would, over time, get to wield power and creative influence at the company alongside them — and what kinds of people would not. Women especially have struggled at Bungie over the years. Multiple women I spoke with described an environment where many men cultivated a pervasive atmosphere in which women were inferior.

Multiple sources said women were disproportionately talked over in meetings, had their ability to do their jobs questioned, had their ideas ignored and then used by men who later took credit for them, or simply had their questions or input dismissed — issues that also seem to have impacted people of color at the studio of all genders, though women of color were especially impacted.

One woman recalled numerous meetings where she would give feedback or ask a question and it seemed as though no one had even heard her: "I was completely invisible. One woman pointed to these and similar scenarios as clear examples of why Bungie has historically had so few women in leadership. Too often, she said, it boiled down to who the top level men at Bungie were friends with, and then who those people were friends with, and who was in the "in" group.

And because it had been white men from the start, that was how it historically tended to stay. Another source recalled upper management men at Bungie having "code names" for the women at the studio they found attractive, which they would openly use at the studio without the women knowing. Some of these names were references to their physical form, hair color, or outright derogatory terms.

One producer was frequently mentioned by sources for routinely making sexist comments and openly talking about his love life and asking his colleagues to comment on images of women he brought up on Tinder. This producer is said to have "skyrocketed" through the ranks at Bungie and was very charismatic and well-liked by Bungie's old guard — enough so that any reports to his managers about his behaviors seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Though he was eventually fired, one former employee recalls a number of his colleagues discussing his departure shortly after as "a good guy who got taken out by political correctness," suggesting the women who reported him just needed to get a sense of humor.