Following massive layoffs at Destiny 2 developer Bungie on Thursday, the company announced it would be changing course. According to a new report, that includes moving away from annual Destiny 2 expansions.
Sources told Bloomberg that while Bungie will still update and support its flagship live-service title, it won’t continue to release paid expansions every year. This is related to declining sales year over year, and how The Final Shape, its latest release, underperformed.
Instead, Bungie will focus on free, smaller updates. Into the Light, a Destiny 2 update from April, is one such example. It filled the gap before The Final Shape launch and introduced a new PVE mode called Onslaught, a new social hub, improved character customization, and, of course, new gear such as weapons and armor.
A lot of the company’s efforts will be moving to Marathon, which is set for a 2025 launch. The PVP extraction shooter is a revival of Bungie’s Marathon series of games, which predated its success with Halo. This lines up with CEO Pete Parsons’ announcement that the studio would be canceling several incubation projects to focus on improving The Final Shape and shipping Marathon.
Other revelations from the article include that Bungie was working on a project called Payback that sources said was more of a spinoff from the Destiny universe rather than a proper sequel. It would have a third-person POV and more about exploration and puzzle-solving than Destiny 2. However, it was canceled a couple months ago.
Bungie laid off 220 workers, roughly 17% of its workforce, and integrated 155 others into Sony Interactive Entertainment. One incubation project is moving forward, and a small team has been formed inside PlayStation Studios to work on that.
The company rapidly expanded over the past few years before getting hit with “a broad economic slowdown,” Parsons says, spreading the team too thin as it worked on multiple projects. Bungie has been struggling for a while, laying off around 100 people in November 2023 due to declining sales.
After the previous round of layoffs, Bloomberg reported the company had to delay and overhaul The Final Shape for a new June release date. This came after its last expansion, Lightfall didn’t hit with critics or players.
