Post-layoff justification is quickly becoming its own technical term. Late last month, Bungie laid off 220 employees due to "rising development costs," "economic conditions," and a host of other reasons.

The initial statement painted at least some sort of appropriate picture. The layoffs were a restructuring and refocusing on the studio's core games: Destiny and Marathon.

Nevertheless, the restructuring took some employees by surprise, while others claimed that the layoffs were planned because of the studio's over-promising and under-delivering, regardless of whether "Final Shape" (the latest expansion for "Destiny 2") would do well or not Some.

Sony is like spaghetti thrown at the tough walls of an entire industry, because it throws more buzzwords at you. During Sony Group's quarterly earnings call (thank you, GamesRadar), Hiroki Toki, Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment (and Sony Group CFO and COO), was asked about the company's restructuring efforts and stated:

"The purpose of this restructuring is to optimize cost, structure and portfolio. That is the objective. And at the same time, we have to improve the efficiency of our business". Toki went on to say that "there is also a reallocation of resources" to the Sony Group as a whole, and that "we want to optimize the structure of the entire studio, that's all." He concluded, "Thank you very much."

These are words translated by an interpreter, but based on content alone, I am convinced that these words are utter fluff. We have seen this kind of ambiguity before, even after Microsoft shut down Tango Gameworks. Once you get past a certain salary level, you develop a peculiar allergy to answering direct questions.

An avalanche of explanations were offered about economic conditions, rationalization, optimization, and prayers to ancient mythological gods of flexibility. All of these are words often uttered by the very leaders who put the studios at risk in the first place, and the grim tidings of 2023 and 2024 will continue until an efficient portfolio is optimized and a lean, flexible refocusing is possible.