Bungie Longtime Composer Michael Salvatori Is Laid Off

Today’s a bad day for Bungie, as the company had to cut off a lot of its staff following what would presumably be the fallout of past corporate decisions from its current owner. But even legends aren’t safe from the metaphorical guillotine.

We found out that longtime Bungie composer Michael Salvatori is among the many who were laid off from Bungie. Initially, this was a rumour stemming from a X/Twitter post from Cinema Motions CEO Carson Reed.

he was laid off; source internal

— Carson Reed (@cinemamotionss) October 30, 2023

After multiple reports however, it has been recently confirmed on Michael Salvatori’s official homepage; all references to his upcoming work Destiny 2: The Final Shape have been scrubbed off the website and the front page has the text “Gone Fishin'”.

To illustrate how grave the situation is at Bungie, Michael Salvatori has been making music for Bungie since 1997, with his first work being the soundtrack for strategy title Myth alongside co-composer Martin O’Donnell and Paul Heitsch. His music alongside O’Donnell has been instrumental in making all of Bungie’s games amazing, from the Macworld debut of Halo: Combat Evolved in 1999 to his current works in Destiny 2.

It’s very devastating to many to hear that a legend like Salvatori isn’t safe from being laid off by corporations. Hopefully, the man can pull through these tough times made by boneheaded decisions from high up. For now though, here are a few music tracks that stress on the importance of his work to Bungie. Because if your core loop gameplay is already close to being trash over time, it’s hard to salvage it without great epic music to back it up.