Few corporations in the gaming industry look outside of their monetary ambitions to drive the success of their business model. However, one small studio stands out among the rest as an industry leader to emulate. Bungie studios has modeled itself as a flexible, adaptive, and evolving company in an industry that is plagued by leadership failure. Bungie’s leadership in the gaming industry provides an interesting perspective on application of the skills approach to leadership as they evolved from a small studio to a major industry influencer over the course of three decades.
Bungie: Then and Now
Bungie studios has developed multiple games as they have grown over the last three decades. Some of their titles include Marathon, Halo: Combat Evolved, and the Destiny series. Bungie was established in 1991 as a software products corporation (Mastery, 2023). Marathon served as Bungie’s breakthrough game that helped establish them in the gaming industry (Mastery, 2023). By the early 2000’s, they partnered with Microsoft and in conjunction with them, the developed the highly acclaimed Halo series (Mastery, 2023). The first installment of the Halo series helped to revolutionize the first-person shooter genre within the gaming industry (Mastery, 2023). In the late 2000’s, bungie separated from Microsoft and became an independent studio once again (Mastery, 2023). Bungie sought to pursue development on another title, the Destiny series, which was made available on all platforms (Mastery, 2023). By the early 2010’s, Bungie partnered with Activision to collaborate on the production of Destiny (Mastery, 2023). In collaboration with Activision, they were able to create a massive multi-player online game that has evolved extensively since its inception (Mastery, 2023). In 2019, Bungie split from Activision and retained full publishing rights to the Destiny franchise (Mastery, 2023). In 2022, Bungie reached a deal to add themselves to the Sony universe as they look to the development of their future releases. Bungie has evolved over time while recreating and growing themselves along the way.
The Skills Approach
The skills approach to leadership is applicable to many different leadership situations and Bungie’s approach to game development provides a unique perspective. Northouse (2021) highlights that “the skills approach provides a structure for understanding effective leadership” (p.69). This approach is primarily descriptive and not prescriptive (Northouse, 2021). This approach combines technical, human, and conceptual skills as it applies to attributes and competencies (Northouse, 2021). The skills model asserts that leadership can be learned through knowledge and skill attainment (Northouse, 2021). Additionally, the skill approach is viewed as a capability model (Northouse, 2021). This capability model leads to the effective performance of leaders through problem solving based upon knowledge and skill attained through experience (Northouse, 2021). Bungie has effectively applied the skill approach on a collective scale to drive their game development.
Bungie and the Skills Approach
Bungie has a unique way of interacting with their gaming community that stands out above the rest. Over time, they have adapted their game to meet the demands of the community they have created. They have managed to do this by learning from mistakes, as well as taking risk in the gaming development. Their adaptation to their community is best analyzed from the three-skill approach to leadership. The skills approach utilizes technical, human, and conceptual skills as they apply to capabilities and problem solving (Northouse, 2021). Northouse (2021) asserts that through learning, people can gain leadership skills and gain further capacity to lead (p.59). Their most recent spectacle of failure led to an uproar in the community over the roll-out of their Lightfall expansion in the Spring of 2023. Bungie’s response to the failed roll-out of the Lightfall expansion to their game goes into detail on addressing community feedback to improve player experience and what the community has come to know and love about their game (Clark, 2023). Albeit on a collective scale, Bungie is applying general cognitive ability, crystallized cognitive ability, motivation, and personality in their response (Northouse, 2021). Bungie is combining technical, human, and conceptual skills to solve problems related to the consumption of their game. They are applying their technical expertise to upgrade the game based on community feedback. They are adapting to other perspectives on gameplay and making changes to satisfy their community. Bungie is also modifying the vision of their game to fit the market they have developed and strategize ways to improve upon it in the future. Outside of the obvious marketing stunts, this response from a corporation such as Bungie is interesting as it showcases one of many instances of their skill approach to leadership among employees and their gaming community in which they creatively solve problems.
Bungie Engagement and Problem Solving
As Bungie applies the skills approach, they solve critical problems to keep their community engaged and ensure future success of their gaming experience. As problems from Bungie’s roll-out of Lightfall progressed, community sentiment grew increasingly negative, and Bungie’s response provides a curious glimpse of applying problem solving skills. By August 2023, Bungie was further backed into a corner with their game development failures and game director Joe Blackburn addressed community concerns directly (Clark, 2023). In his video, Joe Blackburn goes on to address many of the complaints and community feedback regarding their game (Clark, 2023). He lays out the different technical changes that will be made to address player complaints (Clark, 2023). He also provides a clarified vision for the game moving forward which helped to restore community faith that they were addressing feedback (Clark, 2023). Bungie clarified problems with their game through community feedback. Then analyzed their goals along with player goals in the constraints of their game development. Planned and forecasted against their combined goals based on development constraints. Then, as showcased by Joe Blackburn, developed creative ways to tackle game development problems that satisfied corporate and consumer needs. Lastly, Joe described the future of what Destiny will be for Bungie and the community’s part in making the game what it has become, now and in the future.
Conclusion
Bungie studios provides and interesting look into the application of the skills approach. Though not on an individual level, the complex corporate processes at work can be viewed within this perspective. Applying technical, human, and conceptual skills to problems solving can be an effective way to tackle problems. It takes the right approach to leadership to, given the right circumstances, to ensure success. Bungie’s leadership provides a roadmap to this approach on a larger scale for the gaming industry to adopt.
Clark, T. (2023). Bungie responds to Lightfall complaints and details improvements to come: The initial experience we delivered didn’t provide the clarity we planned for. Retrieved from https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-responds-to-lightfall-complaints-and-details- improvements-to-come-the-initial-experience-we-delivered-didnt-provide-the-clarity- we-planned-for/
Clark, T. (2023). Joe Blackburn on Destiny 2 conspiracy theories, what happened to the PvP team, and the Witness being able to 1v1 anyone in the universe. Retrieved from https://www.pcgamer.com/joe-blackburn-on-destiny-2-conspiracy-theories-what- happened-to-the-pvp-team-and-the-witness-being-able-to-1v1-anyone-in-the-universe/
Mastery, T. (2023). Bungie Inc. – Top Ten Powerful Things You Need to Know. Retrieved from https://dotcommagazine.com/2023/05/bungie-inc-top-ten-powerful-things-you-need- to-know/
Northouse, P.G. (2021). Leadership Theory and Practice (9th ed). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Tassi, P. (2022). So What Changes With Sony’s Acquisition of Bungie Finalized? Nothing, Allegedly. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/07/16/so- what-changes-with-sonys-acquisition-of-bungie-finalized-nothing- allegedly/?sh=89cfdd55e142