Destiny fans are spamming Sony’s State of Play livestream chat with the hashtag #WeWantDestiny, as they continue to call for more from Bungie’s looter shooter franchise, including Destiny 3.
At the time of this article’s publication, with 15 minutes until today’s State of Play (check out our live blog here for all the announcements), chat across various livestreams was packed with #WeWantDestiny as well as calls for Destiny 3, as fans continue to push for a continuation of the series.
Bungie walked away from Destiny 2 earlier this year, with parent company Sony backing a focus on struggling extraction shooter Marathon instead. However, various Marathon updates have failed to kickstart the game, leading to ever louder calls for a return to Destiny.
Despite the focal support for Destiny 3, it seems unlikely that Sony will green light the game, which would surely be yet another risky expensive development project at a time of extreme caution across the video game industry. But could Bungie have more Destiny in some shape or form in the works? With Marathon struggling for player numbers, how long will Sony give it before the axe falls on that game, too?
Bungie’s issues with Destiny 2 reportedly began around the time of last summer’s Edge of Fate expansion, which was said to have underperformed. The decision to pull the plug was allegedly made “earlier this year” after it was decided not to relaunch the franchise as “Destiny Infinity.”
Forbes reported that Bungie 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.
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 publisher 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. 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.
Bungie has struggled financially for some time, and reportedly was on the brink of closure before Sony bought the studio back in 2022 for $3.6 billion. Sony recently reported a $765 million impairment loss due to underperformance of Bungie specifically.
Bungie suffered a significant round of layoffs that came with the decision to end Destiny 2 development. The cuts hit nearly 300 staff who worked at the developer’s Bellevue, Washington office, official records revealed.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice issued by Sony to the Washington State Employment Security Department, reported by Game File, revealed 292 staff had been let go with a formal separation date set for July 9. This number does not account for Bungie staff outside Washington state. It is unknown how many staff remain at Bungie following the cuts, although the studio was reported to have employed 850 staff as of 2024.
It was Bungie’s third round of layoffs in three years. According to The Seattle Times, Bungie once had 1,000 employees in Bellevue, according to a 2023 annual financial report from the city. Between October 2023 and July 2024, Bungie laid off around 320 staff. Local press called the cuts a “bloodbath.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
