It looks as if Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie is still a pretty hard place to work at if reported statements from former devs have any merit. According to Destin Legarie, a former IGN reporter and now runner of his own YouTube channel Save State Plus, several anonymous statements from ex-Bungie employees continue to paint a grim setting of life inside the studio.

According to sources, leadership at Bungie have created a “cool kids club” where devs who disagree with decisions from higher-ups were reportedly “put on a list, berated publicly, and told [their] ideas didn’t matter.” One former dev is quoted as saying that creatives were shut down “on a core level”; another said that if leadership didn’t think of an idea, “it wasn’t worth doing.”

Some of these ideas from studio leaders managed to hit the cutting room floor even despite this studio culture, including a floated suggestion to add a subscription to Destiny 2 and an attempt to block Trials of Osiris armor glows because studio heads feared they were “too attractive” and would divert attention away from cash shop skin sales. Despite this pushback, devs said that employees received a “huge monetization scolding” and argued that monetization of D2 is the first thought over player experience.

Sprinkled throughout the video are a number of allegations including coverups supposedly made by a former member of Bungie’s HR department in order to get a multi-million dollar payout after Sony’s buyout of the studio, leaders reportedly getting expensive penthouses as “crash pads” that devs believed Bungie was footing the bill for, and an internal tonal shift of games being called “products” and players being called “customers.”

As for Marathon, former employees claim that problematic leaders were moved over to the project instead and inexperienced developers were filling seats, leading to the variety of issues on both the project and the studio as a whole.

Devs also had several opinions about leadership both in general and in specific. Thoughts here include confirmation that former director Joe Blackburn was well-liked, suggestions that the “only way forward” for Bungie is to be consolidated into Sony wholesale, and that “everything happening at Bungie is because of greed.” It’s an unflattering picture being painted and just continues to expand the long-running tailspin of morale at the studio.