„Thank God” Bungie fans react to CEO Pete Parsons passing the torch

Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie, has announced that he will be “passing the torch” after more than two decades at the studio. In a post on Bungie’s blog, Parsons thanks the Bungie community and praises his replacement, Justin Truman, who gives a brief statement as well. This news all comes about a month before Marathon would have originally been released, but is now delayed into 2026 after less-than-stellar community feedback and a controversy over stolen artwork. When the news was shared on Reddit, the same community that Parsons thanked said, “Thank god.”

Bungie community is more than happy to see Pete “Fancy Cars” Parsons leave the studio

The post was shared on the PCGaming subreddit, so not exactly the most dedicated fanbase, but players had some choice words for the former CEO across the social platform. A major complaint, and where Parsons got the sarcastic nickname, “Fancy Cars,” is how Parsons behaved during layoffs at Bungie last year. According to an article from Kotaku at the time, Parsons appears to have spent millions of dollars on classic cars, purchasing over 20 of them, even as employees at his studio were losing their jobs.

According to some Reddit users, these layoffs also included legendary composer Michael Salvatori, and Parsons' comments at the time were something akin to “we kept the right people,” which rubbed many people the wrong way. Ironically, as recently as last month, it appears that Salvatori has been brought back onto the team at Bungie. This not only calls into question the leadership decisions but also Parsons’ half-baked statement about keeping the right people. To be fair, running a studio is an immense challenge, especially in transitional periods, but there is still so much Parsons could have done differently.

In another Reddit post, this time on the DestinyTheGame subreddit, attention turned to the incoming CEO, Justin Truman, who has also been at Bungie for many years. Unfortunately for Truman, a past comment of his seems to have followed him all the way here. Apparently, Truman used the term “overdelivery” in a Bungie presentation on live service games, warning other studios not to fall into that trap. This has apparently been such a common reference now that even Truman calls it out in his statement of accepting the new CEO position, writing in the blog post: “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…” italics used by Truman.

The Reddit post shared to the Destiny community argues that the phrase “overdelivery” has lost its meaning, and there is some validity to the statement. But in the comments, many were quick to argue against that sentiment, saying that there is some wisdom in the statement, but that, given the context of Bungie, especially at the time, it rings hollow. One user wrote: “There’s nothing wrong with the sentiment of what he said, the problem is he’s saying it in the context of a company that has massively squandered the potential of their main IP…”

Of course, it’s good to keep in mind that these discussions are happening with a small percentage of the Bungie fanbase. Destiny 2 is still a massively popular game, and thousands of players may never even hear about this leadership change or the context surrounding it. But a sentiment like this will grow, and it’s up to Truman now how to best handle it, whether that’s ignoring it or finding a way to truly and consistently overdeliver.

Destiny 2

September 6, 2017

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