Michael Salvatori, the co-composer of a number of the Halo games, Destiny and Destiny 2, appears to have been hit in the wave of layoffs announced at Bungie.
“Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio,” said CEO Pete Parsons in a post to X on October 30.
“What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future.
These are truly talented people. If you have openings, I would highly recommend each and every one of them.
— pete parsons (@pparsons) October 30, 2023
“These are truly talented people. If you have openings, I would highly recommend each and every one of them,” he concluded.
Bloomberg‘s report on the losses alleged that Bungie has not disclosed the number or extent of the people who have been let go.
However, fans saw that a change to Salvatori’s official website seemed to suggest that he is one of those affected in these shakeups.
All that it says on the home page for the official website is that Salvatori has “gone fishin’ :)”. While this is not an outright declaration, the meaning of the idiom is that the person has availed themselves of their routine responsibilities in their life.
As well as working on Halo with collaborator Martin O’Donnell, Salvatori produced the soundtrack to Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth 2: Soulblighter, Septerra Core, Oni, Stubbs The Zombie and more.
Fans have expressed their sympathies to Salvatori if he has been laid off by Bungie and their admiration for his contributions to their favourite games.
Analyst Doug Creutz, who works for TD Cowen, told investors that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” Sony bought Bungie in 2022 and spent $1.2billion (£980,000) on staff retention in incentives to remain with the Destiny developer.
In other gaming news, Todd Howard has been said to be the “last say guy” for every game that Bethesda has recently released: “[he’s] somebody that has opinions and whose opinions are highly valuable”.