Sony claims that the 220 layoffs were made at Bungie in the name of - you guessed it - things like 'portfolio management' and 'enhancing the efficiency of the business.'

The excuses for layoffs are becoming their own form of technobabble. If you haven't heard, Bungie laid 220 employees off late last month because of "rising development costs", "economic conditions" and other things you're familiar with.

The initial statement at least painted a picture that was accurate. The "incubation project" model that "stretched out talent too quickly" and "too thinly" was cited. The layoffs were characterized as a restructuring of the studio and a refocus on its central games: Destiny, and Marathon.

The restructuring blindsided some employees, while others claim that layoffs were inevitable due to a studio that overpromised and under delivered, regardless of how well The Final Shape, Destiny 2's newest expansion, performed.

Sony is going to throw more buzzwords at you, like spaghetti against a grim industry-wide wall. Hiroki Totoki, the chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment (as well as the Sony Group CFO and CEO) responded to a question about the company's restructuring during the quarterly Sony Group Corporation financial results briefing.

"For this restructuring, the purpose is to optimize the portfolio, structure and cost. These are the goals. "We have to improve the efficiency of our business at the same time." Totoki went on to say that "there will some re-allocation" of resources to the larger Sony group. He concluded with a quick "We'd love to optimise our studio structure, thank you."

This is a translation of words by a live translator, but I'm pretty sure they're just fluff. Microsoft has used this type of vagueness in the past, after shutting down Tango Gameworks. It's a unique allergy which occurs when you reach a certain salary threshold and become unable to respond directly to questions.

You can expect a flurry of waffling on economic conditions, streamlining and optimisation, as well as the oft-invoked ancient chthonic deities of flexibility. All of these words are often used by the very people who put their studios in danger, and which, barring extreme circumstance, will keep their jobs. The grim news of 2023 and 2020 will continue until the portfolios have been optimised, and the leanness has become flexible.