Destiny is one of the largest intellectual properties in the video game industry. Gamers and science-fiction fans alike know of Destiny's massive lore and gameplay systems.
A game the size of Destiny takes a large, dedicated group of people to create. Bungie, also known for creating the popular Halo series, are the developers of the massive IP. After their split from Activision, many gamers have shifted their attention to Bungie to see what they would do next. Thanks to websites like Glassdoor, it is much easier to see how a company works without needing insider knowledge. Whether you are a major fan of Destiny or are curious about the video game industry, here are the 5 best and worst things about working at Bungie based on Glassdoor reviews.
10 Best: Benefits
Many employees have praised Bungie's plethora of benefits, both large and small. With all of the studio's negatives aside, they provide many benefits that are hard to compete within the industry.
Bungie provides strong health benefits for its employees on top of competitive salaries. The studio also includes a fully stocked kitchen that includes anything you want, ranging from snacks to even beer. They also provide carpools and public transit reimbursements and gym memberships for full-time employees.
9 Worst: Activision Split
Bungie is one of the largest independent video game developers in the world with over 600 employees. While this sounds great on paper, it doesn't pan out as well in practice.
After Bungie split with Activision, taking the Destiny IP with them, reviews during that time mention Bungie going through additional growing pains trying to make up for lost resources. A lot of these jobs aren't being backfilled, resulting in many employees having to do more with less. Morale has suffered because of this, although the company repeatedly mentions that they are working to improve it.
8 Best: Work-Life Balance
Nothing is worse than having a terrible work and life balance. This is a notorious issue in nearly every studio, but it seems that Bungie has found a great middle ground.
Most reviews of Bungie mention how work rarely interferes with their life balance, mainly due to the company's reduced reliance on crunch. Company events that allow workers to relax and relieve stress have also helped immensely with this balance. With that said, a few reviews that seem to be in more senior positions complain about working more than 40 hours a week due to other people not getting work done, but this is to be expected with a studio this large working on a property as large as Destiny.
7 Worst: Uneven Workload
While the work-life balance is great, the same cannot be said for the workflow between employees. This is easily the most conflicting part of reviews among developers who've worked at Bungie.
Some praise how the workload is just right and engaging while others argue that they make up for lost time. This lost time comes from managers who take too long to accept ideas, check work, or approve anything that is needed to continue development. Even Luke Smith, the lead director for Destiny, mentioned this was an issue during the second year of Destiny 2. Again, this could come from more senior positions getting swamped with more work, but the complaint about workload is so consistent among every review that it seems to be a large problem at Bungie.
6 Best: Caring People
While this isn't something Bungie can directly control, the people that work at the studio have been praised as being some of the most caring and passionate people in the industry.
This is likely thanks to the great work-life balance employees have while working at Bungie. Even those who don't go on Glassdoor can see this passion with Bungie's quarterly video documentaries—called ViDocs—on new expansions, seasons, and additions to the Destiny series. Their lead director of Destiny, Luke Smith, has even taken time out of his job to post his thoughts on Destiny in a written series called the "Director's Cut."
5 Worst: Crunch
Crunch has been mentioned several times already, but it seems that Bungie still struggles with ridding it from their culture entirely.
While it isn't mentioned as much anymore, this use to single-handedly be the reason to not work at Bungie. Fans of Halo 2 will remember from that game's developer documentary that, in essence, the game was scrapped and recreated in about a year. While not nearly as bad, developer crunch also occurred with Destiny's launch, Destiny's "The Taken King" expansion, and Destiny 2's "Forsaken" expansion. It seems to have been resolved with Destiny 2's "Shadowkeep" expansion, but another large expansion for Destiny 2 could very well see the return to this crunch.
4 Best: Frequent Raises
Reviews of Bungie mention a unique raise system that other studios should consider using. Consistent work at Bungie leads to consistent raises.
According to numerous Glassdoor reviews, Bungie will access employees every six months to see how much they have contributed to the project. Those who consistently do well will see frequent, yearly raises. Going above and beyond makes them more likely to get promoted as well. This is a great system that removes much of the ambiguity about expected raises.
3 Worst: Tools
Many articles and videos about Destiny have talked about the game's mountain of cut content and bizarre update model. This is thanks to the tools Bungie is using.
A new engine was constructed for Destiny and its sequels to make it easier for all departments to add and edit assets into the game. The issue is that much of this tech was designed and created as far back as 2010, which is still in use today with no creator insight to consult with. This results in engineers having to edit outdated tech with no guidance from its creator, making iteration for the game much harder to do than it should be.
2 Best: Company Culture
Very few reviews of Bungie criticize the culture of the studio. Despite their faults, this is a group of passionate fans that want to make the best product they can.
Thoughts and opinions on the project that are negative or antithetical to its design are accepted and encouraged at Bungie. There are also plenty of company events to keep the team happy and encourage co-workers to learn about each other. This passion for working on Destiny also makes it easier to work with co-workers as well, according to many of Glassdoor's reviews.
1 Worst: Management
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there isn't a single well-constructed review for this company that doesn't mention the terrible management Bungie has in some form.
Employee workloads are mishandled, decisions among managers are not made fast enough to allow for adequate change, certain departments don't get the help or guidance they need, and an uncountable amount of issues with older managers set in their ways. Bungie seems to be slow at changing things in their studio, which fans have already speculated considering the game's rather insubstantial content drops for the past year.