Bungie’s issues with its storied sci-fi shooter, Destiny 2, began around the time of the last summer’s Edge of Fate expansion, which reportedly underperformed. The decision to pull the plug was allegedly made “earlier this year” after it decided not to relaunch the franchise as “Destiny Infinity.”
That’s according to Forbes, which said the Sony-owned studio began discussing different scenarios about “what the future of Destiny 2 would look like” after December’s Renegades, its Star Wars-themed crossover expansion, “did even worse [than Edge of Fate] and didn’t change sales or retention trajectory.”
Destiny Infinity would have been a relaunch alongside a return to the one big expansion model Destiny used to have, but the idea fell by the wayside after it was allegedly decided that the costs and risks were too high, especially in the context of support for Marathon.
Destiny 3 “was considered, as ever, but things didn’t swing that way,” and there has been no behind-the-scenes hints that a third Destiny game is coming, with the cost of the game’s production cited as the key issue. Interestingly, it’s thought Marathon’s subjective success or failure was “not the tipping point of all of this.”
The revelations come a week after Bungie confirmed content updates for its live service shooter would end on June 9, nearly nine years after launch. The studio behind Halo, which recently released extraction shooter Marathon, said Destiny 2 will remain playable despite active development ending.
Destiny 1 launched on September 9, 2014 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It enjoyed enormous commercial success, but met with a mixed response from critics. As part of a high-profile publishing deal with Call of Duty company Activision, Destiny expansions and updates followed.
Destiny 2 launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, 2017, with a PC version following a month later. Behind the scenes, however, tension between Bungie and Activision emerged, and the two companies officially parted ways in January 2019, ending their 10-year publishing deal five years early.
With Destiny in its own hands, Bungie self-published the game, but it couldn’t escape financial troubles and layoffs as Destiny 2 expansions failed to hit the mark and the player base dwindled. Sony bought Bungie in early 2022 in a deal valued at $3.6 billion, although Sony has admitted the acquisition has yet to pay off, and it recently reported a $765 million impairment loss due to underperformance of Bungie specifically.
Extraction shooter Marathon launched early March, with a reported budget of more than $250 million. It too, according to analysts, has failed to meet sales expectations.
Destiny fans distraught over Bungie’s decision to end support for the franchise are planning to try and “crash the servers” to demonstrate that there’s still huge interest in the game. In a lengthy thread on reddit, Destiny fan w1nds0r issued a call to arms for all Destiny players to return on June 9, when the game’s final ever content drop arrives.
“We need to at least smash Marathon’s all time high to show them they made the wrong decision,” w1nds0r wrote, suggesting that this would show Sony that Destiny remains “a franchise worth continuing to invest in… It’s our last chance to send a message the franchise is still valuable.” (Marathon launched in March with a Steam peak of 77,358 players. Its daily peak is now hovering around 10,000 players.)
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
