The latter, who previously leaked information on Marathon’s price and weapons, said they’ve been “sitting on the info for a few weeks now.” They reiterated how early of a state it’s reportedly in, but plans to “share more info in the coming months as we wait on the larger scale things to develop and take shape.”

For years, the community has debated whether Destiny 3 will happen. Some feel that a fresh start is required, especially with how muddled Destiny 2’s story became after the removal of old campaigns. Others feel that the latter is more than equipped for whatever Bungie wants to offer.

Regardless, with Destiny 2 player numbers dropping to record lows, perhaps the franchise could do with a clean slate, if only to get new players in. Of course, given how early the development is, there’s also a chance Bungie doesn’t proceed forward with it. Time will tell.

In the meantime, Destiny 2: Renegades, a Star Wars-themed expansion, launches on December 4th.

Director Joe Ziegler addressed this in an interview with GamesRadar+, and while the development team can help “smooth out” some of the barriers to entry, “I think there are other things that maybe we can’t, just to be 100% honest.

“I think part of it is we don’t expect Marathon to become Destiny 3. Our goal is not to basically make a new product that replaces Destiny 2. We believe Destiny 2 has a future, and the team working on it has been working really hard to understand what players’ needs are.

“But if you like Destiny, and you happen to like a lot of PvP sandbox experiences, and those are other games that you play, then we think that Marathon could be something very exciting for you.”

Since the weapon systems for Bungie’s shooters tend to be a “little bit similar,” Ziegler feels that Destiny players may feel “a certain advantage” when trying Marathon. However, “there’s just enough change where I think you’re gonna have to relearn some of that curve as well.” Alternatively, if you only enjoyed Destiny for its PvE and not PvP, this likely won’t change your mind.

“If you are a Destiny player who’s really not interested in any PvP at all, it’s probably not the game for you because there’s gonna be PvP interactions that occur. At some point, someone else who is a player is gonna come across you and shoot you,” said Ziegler.

“I think if you are only looking for PvE experiences, definitely Marathon is not the game for you. […] We are very comfortable saying, yeah, this isn’t a game for everybody. This is a game for: if you like PvP experiences, especially in sandbox spaces, then this is probably something you’re gonna enjoy.”

There are some PvE aspects with hostile NPCs that you must deal with sooner rather than later (and who pack a wallop, based on alpha impressions). However, PvP is a core ingredient in the formula that Bungie wants to focus on as much, if not more.

Marathon launches on September 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC with three maps and six Runners. Check out the gameplay overview here and learn more about the intent for seasons here.

CEO Pete Parsons recently announced that the developer was eliminating 220 roles – a 17 percent reduction to its workforce. However, 155 roles, about 12 percent of the studio, are also being integrated into PlayStation. The latter may seem like silver linings, but the process will take multiple quarters.

A new studio is also being formed to work on one of Bungie’s incubation projects, touted as having a brand new sci-fi universe (hopefully not another PvP shooter like Concord). Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that 40 employees are moving to this new studio. As a result, a studio of over 1300 has dropped to 850. Still fairly sizable, for sure, but tell that to those who lost entire teams, much less those who didn’t get lucky and have lost their jobs.

What happened? Parsons explained that developers became stretched too thin with all its incubation projects. It thus scaled higher to compensate, but like many others, the company was affected by the “broad economic slowdown” and “a sharp downturn in the games industry” in 2023. It also failed to deliver with Lightfall, a pivotal moment.

Couple that with delays to Marathon and The Final Shape – which costs money, let’s be real – and eventually, the studio “exceeded” its safety margins. “After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were not enough,” said Parsons, resulting in the current layoffs.

You’ll probably remember that Bungie laid off staff last year, owing once again to issues with Lightfall (also subsequently poisoning the well for any future stories presented in seasons leading up to The Final Shape, as indicated in player counts). However, as always, there’s more to the story.

Game File’s Stephen Totilo spoke to anonymous sources (including those who worked at the studio), reporting that Bungie has been losing money since Lightfall’s launch. Not only is it consistently missing targets set by Sony, but one source feels the leadership may have “sold things they were just not able to deliver.” While the last round of layoffs was for Bungie to show how serious it was in correcting the ship, they were reportedly not enough – the most recent had already been planned earlier this year. The Final Shape allegedly sold through less than Lightfall, but the result was seemingly already decided.

It’s thus less of a matter of whether the expansion – the end of a ten-year-long saga, where it’s guaranteed that a large chunk of players would jump ship after everything – performed well critically or commercially; whether the enthusiasm and support of fans actually meant anything to Bungie’s bottom line. Instead, it’s the ramifications of leadership, once again, that utterly failed its developers working tirelessly to deliver an exceptional experience.

Given how consistently its executives have been missing, you would wonder if this would lead to any change in leadership, such as firing Parsons. That apparently won’t be necessary right now because, as Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb reports, Sony Interactive Entertainment joint CEO Hermen Hulst, also president and CEO of PlayStation Studios, allegedly runs Bungie. The studio will reportedly “lose its autonomy and will become like any other PlayStation Worldwide Studios under SIE and Hermen Hulst,” said Grubb, also noting that the process is already happening.

What shape the studio will take in the future remains to be seen, especially with Sony shifting course on its previously big live service plans. However, past and present employees speaking to Totilo believe that not selling to the publisher wouldn’t have been ideal either. One even went as far as to say “The alternate history is insolvency.”

What about the rumored Destiny 3, codenamed Payback? In the latest Game Mess Mornings episode, Grubb said that this experience, considered the “next Destiny,” has been shelved “indefinitely.” Internally, it wasn’t called Destiny 3; Schreier would then report that it was a “spinoff project” cancelled a “while ago” and the developer did some “very early work on it.” The cancellation reportedly happened before the layoffs.

All of this feeds back into the current approach for Bungie, which is devoting all resources to Destiny 2 and Marathon. The latter is still allegedly coming in 2025. There are no changes or disruptions to the current roadmap for Destiny 2 this year or beyond, which means

Codename Frontiers – whatever it may be – is still happening. However, Grubb reported there will be “lighter” and “smaller” content drops for the game known as content packs. “When it comes to Destiny 2, the expectation internally is that the future content will be lighter, smaller, to take less time than what The Final Shape did, and require fewer people.” This doesn’t completely discount epic expansions, but they may be much less frequent.

For whatever it’s worth, a former employee revealed that a new raid was in the works and “looking really good.” How that will mesh with the current content plan or whatever Bungie is cooking up in the future remains to be seen.

As a fan of the franchise, one who wants to support the studio despite management’s decisions, it’s hard not to feel bummed out by all this. The fact that several developers responsible for some of the best memories I’ve made with the franchise over the past few months are gone just outright sucks. There are also bigger worries over the studio’s plans for the future and these reported “content packs.”

Leave aside whether the studio will consistently hit the same quality benchmarks with its environments, story-telling, activities, visuals, music, weapons, and so much more. Fans are already mixed about the whole Episodic approach, which isn’t all that different from the seasonal format that Bungie abandoned. With big expansions de-emphasized, that’s one less revenue stream and another opportunity to get new players into the franchise, leading to further stagnation.

While I don’t think Destiny 2 will be abandoned outright any time soon – because it’s the only game earning Bungie any money right now – all these events paint a grim picture of the future. Why should anyone looking at all of this be excited for Marathon?

One could argue that it will set a benchmark for the extraction shooter genre, but that has its own challenges in a market quickly becoming stuffed with competitors. Between its delays, Christopher Barrett no longer directing (allegedly) and a reported shift towards playable heroes, it could also end up as another mess for the studio, further compounding its financial failures.

Maybe there’s some hope, and Bungie could make a comeback, but many believed that would happen with The Final Shape. Whether it’s due to bad leadership, economic downturns, etc, the franchise is entering a dark time. For all the triumphs and catharsis that the expansion provided to hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of fans in-game, the industry has proven once again that reality can often be disappointing.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Instead, as per Schreier, Destiny 3 is not in development, and has yet to enter development so far. While there’s obviously the chance that the studio does get to work on the next mainline numbered Destiny entry at some point in the future, as per the report, its current focus remains Destiny 2.

More specifically, it’s claimed that Bungie is instead focusing on coming up with “a smoother onboarding process” for Destiny 2. The looter shooter has attracted growing criticism over the years of feeling too inapproachable for fresh players, but Bungie is hoping to attract more newcomers to the game going forward.

That said, it’s also claimed that the studio is pivoting its content strategy for Destiny 2, which will entail replacing annual large-scale expansions with smaller content updates. Read more on that through here.

Specifically, the report claims that Bungie cancelled a project codenamed Payback two months ago, with focus shifting to the development of Marathon. Past reports had suggested that Payback was the codename given to an in-development Destiny 3, but Schreier says that wasn’t the case, and that Destiny 3 is not (and has never been) in development.

Instead, Payback was a third-person spinoff set in the Destiny universe. Though some perceived it as the next big Destiny game, it was designed as a significantly different kind of experience, allowing players to play as a variety of different characters in the Destiny universe. The game would have involved co-op, with gameplay revolving around fighting enemies and solving puzzles, with inspiration allegedly being taken from the likes of Genshin Impact and Warframe.

The report further goes on to reveal that longtime Bungie veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy have also left the studio as part of its shake-up, following which there are allegedly some internal doubts over the future of Destiny.

In addition to the cancellation of Payback, and one of its incubation projects being spun off into a new and separate studio, it’s reported that Bungie will also be reformulating its future content plans for Destiny 2, with annual expansions supposedly being ditched. Read more on that through here.

While some theorize it could be Destiny 3, despite having Destiny 2 attached to it, the rumored sequel is allegedly a separate game, not a “big DLC.” This is according to a Reddit user in contact with “a couple of former Bungie employees” who also leaked the first details of Prismatic. Destiny 3 has reportedly been in development since The Witch Queen, though the current game and Marathon demanded most of the studio’s resources.

Whatever Codename Frontiers is, perhaps it entails leaving the Solar System and venturing into a new one. Time will tell, so stay tuned. In the meantime, Destiny 2’s first Act of Episode 1: Echoes starts tomorrow, alongside a new activity for players to earn Exotic Class items.

“Destiny 3 is Destiny 3. Not a big DLC. Not a revamp of Destiny 2. Destiny 3, as far as my most recent info goes, is a new game in the franchise. I thought that would be obvious.” While still in contact with their sources (previously noted to be “a couple of former Bungie employees”), they learned that Payback has been in the works “at least since” The Witch Queen, but “heavily in the background.” Destiny 2 and Marathon still took up the lion’s share of the development resources.

As for the players’ ability to use any ability, they heard about it “late Summer of last year.” They also clarified in a comment under their previous rumor about Payback’s story that “I’ve never explicitly stated that it is confirmed to still be happening. This is just my most up-to-date info.”

Take things with a grain of salt, as usual. Plans could always change, and predicting the future of Destiny – and Bungie as a whole – is challenging, especially if The Final Shape under-performs.

In the meantime, The Final Shape launches on June 4th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Head here for more details about how Transcendence and the new Exotic class items work.

The catch is that they’re unsure if this is still the case. However, one of the major changes was apparently for “classes to no longer exist and allow any character to spec into any ability since lore wise there is no reason you couldn’t (Hunters explicitly learned to blink from Warlocks, and blink isn’t tied to a single element, hence the logic there).”

Regarding whether this is speculation, the user said they spoke to “a couple of former Bungie employees who told me about these.” However, because they’re former employees, they may not have the “most up-to-date information anymore”, so much of this is up in the air.

The codename led some to believe that the Vanguard loses against The Witness in The Final Shape or even after the three post-expansion Episodes. In a recent post, the user clarified that they know nothing about the episodes but that the internal name is “not a reference to any story events. Rather, Codename Payback refers to Bungie getting payback against themselves by creating something they hope everyone will love.” Unfortunately, it’s unknown if items from Destiny 2 will carry over into the rumored third game.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, especially since Bungie has noted in the past that it’s not keen on a Destiny 3. In the meantime, Destiny 2: The Final Shape launches on June 4th – head here for more details on the Prismatic subclasses and new Exotic class items.

As spotted by The Game Post, Bungie recently sent out a survey to a select group of players, which has caught the eye with a couple of its questions in particular, asking players how likely they would be to play a new game in the Destiny franchise.

Bungie has, of course, previously confirmed that it has a number of unannounced projects in development. Leaks have claimed that one of them will revive the Marathon IP as an extraction-based PvPvE shooter, while job ads have also suggested that a new competitive game set in the Destiny universe might be in the works.

Meanwhile, where Destiny 2 is concerned, it will, of course, continue to receive its ongoing seasonal support, while 2024 will also see the launch of its next expansion, The Final Shape, which is being billed as the conclusion to the game’s long-running story.

Bungie recently raised the price of Destiny 2’s season passes- read more on that through here.

With Bungie now being the sole owners and people in charge of Destiny and how the series progresses, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about what’s yet to come. But if you’re hoping for the next big step of that future, you’re going to have to wait a while.

Speaking in an interview with PCGamesN, Bungie’s communications director David Dague said that Bungie are currently completely focused on the content they’ll be putting out for Destiny 2 over the next year. As such, though they will eventually have “a lot of cool stuff” to show, Dague says the conversation about Destiny 3 is one that will have to wait a little bit longer.

“I don’t have any good announcements to make about the next bold moves we’ll make in the franchise,” said Dague. “Right now our commitment and our attention is to make the seasons that will unfold over the course of the next year interesting and sustain a perennial story arc that will keep players engaged.”

“I understand the question you’re asking and it’s certainly an interesting one,” he continued, “and we’ll have a lot of cool stuff to say on that later, but I’m afraid that moment will have to wait a little bit longer.”

There have been plenty of reports over the past year that have said that Destiny 3 might arrive some time in 2020, but looking Bungie’s current support for Destiny 2 and how they plan on keeping it up, there’s a good chance that that might not end up happening. Curiously enough, there were also alleged leaks last year that gave some interesting (possible) details on what Bungie’s got planned for Destiny 3. Read more on that through here.