After the surprise acquisition of Destiny series creator Bungie by Sony Interactive Entertainment, SIE CEO Jim Ryan and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons discussed extensively a lot of details of this latest partnership in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. One of the main topics was the latest workplace culture of the latter after previous employee reports of toxicity in the workplace.
Late last year, IGN posted an article revealing 26 Bungie employees reporting toxic workplace culture like sexism, racism, abusive bosses, and systemic discrimination at the company. After publishing the article, Bungie apologized publicly and quickly made detailed measures to address the issues and they even dismissed the leaders that have abused the employees.
SIE has been very vocal when it comes to toxic workplace culture, which made some loyal players concerned of their recent acquisition. They wanted to know if this was going to be a problem for them to take care of.
Ryan confirmed first of the company making a serious stance against toxic workplace culture. They have “extremely high standards” throughout their organization and that would extend with their partners. So yes, they have been really sensitive of the recent happenings to the Bungie’s workplace culture now. He is proud to say that he is impressed of the great strides they have made now and can only praise they highly for it. He even says Sony could learn a thing or two from Bungie’s new workplace culture.
Parsons then added to confirm their transparency with SIE in their works and the difficulties they currently face. “We are a 30 year-old company and we’re continuing to learn, build and grow,” he revealed. “I am extremely proud of the work that we are doing to create a thriving, inclusive environment for people.”
It is now clear that Bungie has made a lot of changes in their game company in order to make amends to the incidents that previously happened. Hopefully, this time around, Bungie is a place many people are happy to work in.