There are swords dangling over the top of Xbox right now as it seems multiple studios face closure or heavy job losses. In the middle of that, it’s easy to forget that other studios are also staring down the barrel of major cuts. One of those is Bungie, and according to one journalist, it might be losing half of its staff.

French journalist Sylvain Trinel claims Bungie could face massive layoffs this summer, saying he is “taking this with caution” but has been told that at least 50% of the studio’s workforce, including permanent staff and contractors, may be affected.

Je prends des pincettes, mais on me parle d’au moins 50% des effectifs touchés (permanents ou contractuels) consécutifs à la fin de Destiny 2 et à la situation de Marathon – Sylvain Trinel

I’m being cautious, but I’m being told of at least 50% of the workforce affected (permanent or contract staff) following the end of Destiny 2 and the situation with Marathon. – Sylvain Trinel, AI translation.

Sylvain Trinel is a French tech and video games journalist at BFMTV/Tech&Co, with previous experience at IGN France, Jeuxvideo.com, JV/LeStream and Jeuxvideo.fr. He has previously been credited in French games media for reporting on industry closures such as Bethesda France and Game One.

It’s important to note that he’s discussing his claims on social media, rather than writing up a published piece. This could indicate he’s not completely confident in his sources, or it could be a case of him wanting to put some information into the public sphere quickly. In short, take it with a grain of salt.

If true, this news is terrible, of course, but not exactly unexpected. Bungie and Sony’s partnership has been troubled from almost the start. Sony has already written down hundreds of millions of dollars tied to Bungie, recording impairment charges that made clear the acquisition has not gone to plan. Over the years Bungie has dealt with several plagiarism scandals and accusations of poor leadership.

Most recently, Bungie announced it was ending live-service development on Destiny 2, marking the end of an era. Surprisingly, reporting suggests Bungie doesn’t have any other projects currently in development – not even Destiny 3. That just leaves them focusing on Marathon, which doesn’t seem to be meeting expectations.

At the same time we learned that no other games were in development at Bungie, we also heard about layoffs likely occuring, too. Bungie is said to have around 800 employees currently and is based in California, a very expensive place in terms of wages and costs. The company’s overhead is likely huge, and until they get the ball rolling on a new project Sony probably doesn’t want to be spending that much. If Sylvain’s reporting ends up being true, that will cut Bungie down to around 400 people.