Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is departing the company after 23 years and nearly 10 as CEO. He is succeeded by Justin Truman, currently chief development officer and fellow Bungie veteran.
In a blog post on the official Bungie website, Parsons wrote:
When I was asked to lead Bungie in 2015, my goal was to grow us into a studio capable of creating and sustaining iconic, generation-spanning entertainment. We’ve been through so much together: we launched a bold new chapter for Destiny, built an enviable, independent live ops organization capable of creating and publishing its own games, and joined the incredible family at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Today marks the right time for a new beginning. The future of Bungie will be in the hands of a new generation of leaders, and I am thrilled to announce that Justin Truman will be stepping into leadership as Bungie’s new Studio Head.
Parsons has overseen Bungie during many turbulent years, first taking over as CEO in 2016 from Harold Ryan and overseeing its break from Activision in 2019. He was at the helm throughout many of the events catalogued in our 2021 expose of Bungie’s internal work culture. Though those we spoke to reported that Bungie had been toxic and hostile toward women in particular prior to Parsons taking charge, they also told IGN that he was frequently slow or reluctant to take action when issues were reported, or even seemed clueless as to how to reign in problem employees. Parsons apologized at the time, saying, “Our actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feel a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts.”
Just months after our report, Bungie was acquired by Sony for $3.7 billion, ending the studio’s flirtation with independence. As the acquistion settled in, concerns began to arise about Bungie’s future. Destiny 2 was struggling, and upcoming game Marathon was still years away. In 2023, Bungie laid off roughly 100 individuals and delayed Destiny 2’s The Final Shape DLC, with Parsons taking responsibility for the layoffs. Developers told IGN at the time that the atmosphere at Bungie was “soul-crushing” as fears grew of a total Sony takeover of the company. In 2024, this was followed up with even more layoffs, impacting 220 people this time, despite The Final Shape’s success. 155 people were also integrated from Bungie into Sony at this time. Troubles continued to rock the studio through 2024 and into 2025, with Marathon seeing a delay out of September of this year to an unknown future date.
It’s in this environment – Destiny 2 struggling, Marathon delayed, a smaller staff, and Sony looming, that Parsons departs the company. He leaves it to Justin Truman, who began at Bungie as a developer 15 years ago working on Destiny 1 and who has since worked his way up to chief development officer and now studio head.
When we’re at our best – we create those worlds alongside you, our player community, and build something that matters. Something that’s worth your time, your passion, and your investment in us. Something that I’ve learned, hopefully, overdelivers.
I’ve also been part of these efforts at Bungie when we’ve maybe not been at our best. When we’ve stumbled and realized through listening to our community that we had missed the mark. I know I’ve personally learned a lot over the years, as have all of us here, from those conversations.
I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them.
We are hard at work right now doing that – both with Marathon and Destiny. We’re currently heads down, but we’ll have more to show you in both of these worlds later this year.
Per Bungie’s social media post, Parsons is retiring and will seemingly not remain at the studio.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
