2026 has been a terrible year for Bungie. With Marathon failing to garner a major audience base, and Destiny 2 being all-but-shut-down, the future of this once iconic studio remains in flux. Adding to the confusion, Marathon’s Game Director Joseph Ziegler has now announced that he is departing the studio.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, Joseph Ziegler confirmed that he will be parting ways with Bungie, writing: “Friday 7/17, will be my last day at Bungie and I'll be passing the torch of Game Director to the very capable and amazing hands of Del Chafe III, who will guide the game forward alongside the Creative Director Julia Nardin. Both of them have been operating in a strong leadership capacity for the team and are ready to guide Marathon into the next chapter with an even better and brighter future.”

Unlike the recent retirement of industry veteran Glen Schofield, Ziegler appears to be staying in the games industry for now, adding: “As for me, I'll be heading to something new, somewhere else, and will update you on where and what soon. I just want to say a deeply heartfelt thank you to all of you for supporting me and Marathon in our windy mission to bring a dark and terrifying space survival frontier to your screen.”

The full post can be found HERE, and includes plenty of pleasantries towards Ziegler’s fellow Bungie developers.

For the uninitiated, Joseph Ziegler was brought in to help direct Marathon back in 2022, following the departure of Christopher Barrett. Formerly the director for Riot Games’ Valorant, Ziegler helped to push Marathon past the finish line – for better or for worse.

While the state of Marathon right now is far from perfect, the team do have quite a bit planned, most recently confirming that they will be bringing in some form of permanent PvE mode in the future.

Either way, the departure of Ziegler is a big deal, and marks another pivotal moment for this struggling live-service title. Hopefully the new management can help turn things around.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest departure? Is this good or bad news for Marathon in the long-term? Let us know down below.

Bungie announced plans to bring an experimental PvE mode to Marathon last month. The limited-time version of this mode will still be happening, but it will be back sooner than expected, as Bungie has already decided that PvE will now become a permanent part of Marathon. 

In an announcement this week, Bungie confirmed that its limited-time Vault Breaker PvE mode for Marathon will eventually be a permanent fixture of the game. The mode will first go live from July 21st until August 4th. After that, Bungie will make some changes based on feedback, before bringing the mode back permanently during Marathon Season 3, which begins in late September.

In Vault Breaker, players head to the Cryo Archive map with a unique loadout kit specific to this game mode. Instead of extracting with all of your gear, players of this mode instead earn a new in-game currency called Vault Data upon extraction. This currency can then be used to upgrade gear for your next run, as there are no other players to shoot and steal high value loot from.

Marathon launched as a hardcore, competitive extraction shooter. Players quickly discovered that the game and its seasonal nature aren't exactly friendly to ‘casual' players, as they will quickly be wiped out by players who have grinded matches every single day for much more powerful gear. It became pretty clear from the launch sales numbers of Marathon that Bungie has to do more to appeal to a broader audience here, and it looks like PvE is part of the plan to do that.

On top of that, permanent PvE is likely the only way to convince a lot of Destiny players to try out the game, although that may still be an uphill battle anyway, as Destiny fans aren't exactly happy about their game being killed off to give extra resources to Marathon.

KitGuru Says: Hopefully the Vault Breaker mode can be something of a re-launch for Marathon. Permanent PvE can only help their chances of surviving in the long-term, as long as Bungie is capable of supporting both PvE and PvP sides of the game equally. Unfortunately, doing that turned out to be a huge struggle for them during Destiny 2's lifespan. 

Over the past month or so, a couple of different sources have leaked that a Destiny-style Halo MMO may be quietly in development at Halo Studios. The original leak was posted by Reddit user HTD_Blog, who shared the following information based on a friend with knowledge of the project: For about 1-2 years, Microsoft have been tinkering with the idea of a Halo MMO in the vein of Destiny 2. It is very much in the idea stage, although a small amount of development has occurred to get a feel for gameplay. It has yet to be approved as a […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/destiny-like-halo-mmo-leaks-backed-by-pierre-hintze-interview/

PlayStation leadership has reaffirmed its commitment to live‑service development, despite a growing list of project cancellations, studio closures and criticism from fans who have been disappointed with Sony’s single‑player output during the PS5 generation compared to the PS4 era.

As first spotted by wccftech, in a new interview with Famitsu, SIE President Hideaki Nishino said the company still sees live‑service titles as a major global opportunity: “We believe that live service games are content that attracts users on a global level, so we want to continue to revitalize the market through both first‑party and third‑party content.”

When asked directly about PlayStation's continued pursuit of the live-service model, Nishino added: “With live service games, it’s important to continuously provide something. The genre itself is relatively new, and I think many people are trying various things, so we also want to continue to take on challenges within that context.”

These comments arrive just weeks after Bungie ended development on Destiny 2, one of the most successful live‑service IPs in the industry, and just after letting go of the vast majority of the Destiny team rather than reassigning that staff to new projects.

Nishino also reiterated that live‑service titles will continue to launch on both PS5 and PC to ensure the largest possible player base, while single‑player, story‑driven games will be console-exclusive again moving forward. Sony does not seem to seem to anticipate this move potentially turning PC gamers against their future live-service projects.

KitGuru Says: As these comments were made in a Japanese-language interview, some nuance may shift in translation. Still, the message is clear, despite a good number of setbacks, Sony is not backing away from live‑service development.

In the PlayStation 5 generation, Sony Computer Entertainment's software output hasn't been as impressive as it was in the previous console generation. Due to SIE’s aggressive live service push, the Japanese publisher released several games - such as the ill-fated Concord from Firewalk Studios and Marathon from Bungie - that did not meet players' expectations. Despite this, President Hideaki Nishino confirmed they will continue to pursue live-service games, even as he heavily hints at a PlayStation 6 handheld designed to meet the changing playstyles of gamers worldwide. "We believe that live service games are content that attracts users on a […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/playstation-continue-to-push-live-service-games-teases-playstation-6-handheld/

Bungie confirmed layoffs yesterday but didn’t share specific numbers. However, reports now indicate that around 400 employees are being let go, aligning with earlier claims that Bungie was preparing to reduce its headcount by roughly 50%.

According to journalist Paul Tassi, roughly 400 employees were present for the internal meeting announcing the cuts, meaning that close to 50% of the studio is being laid off, which is in line with previous reporting. This follows Bungie’s confirmation yesterday that it is undergoing a major downsizing effort following the end of development on Destiny 2.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has also reported that Justin Truman, Bungie’s studio head, is stepping down in the aftermath of the layoffs. Truman took over leadership in 2025, succeeding former CEO Pete Parsons. Parsons oversaw Bungie’s acquisition by Sony, a deal that has since struggled to deliver results for either side.

Sony has already acknowledged that Bungie is now worth significantly less than the $3.6 billion it paid for the studio, recording an impairment loss of roughly $750 million.

The layoffs impact the vast majority of the Destiny team, as well as some members of the Marathon team, in addition to some Sony staff that worked alongside Bungie. While Destiny 2 is no longer actively being worked on, Bungie will continue to produce new content for Marathon, starting off with an experimental PvE mode, due to roll out soon. Beyond that, Bungie says it has ‘multiple' new projects in incubation, but it is unclear if any of them are Destiny related.

Bungie has not commented on the reported number of affected employees or on Truman’s departure. The company has said it will share more about its future plans at a later date.

KitGuru Says: Bungie is now a much, much smaller studio than it was a year ago, and roughly 75% smaller than it was under Activision during the first year of Destiny 2, which makes a future Destiny 3 all the more unlikely.

The final update for Destiny 2 went live a little more than two weeks ago, on June 9, 2026. Today, in the wake of Bungie putting the game and franchise it had been working on for over a decade down, the studio announced its latest round of layoffs, as a statement shared on its official X (formerly Twitter) account reads "we unfortunately could not continue operating at our previous size." This is, unfortunately, exactly what was expected to happen with Destiny 2's sunsetting. It hadn't even been 24 hours between the announcement that Destiny 2 would stop receiving content updates […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/bungie-layoffs-in-wake-of-destiny-2-final-update/

Bungie has confirmed that it is undergoing a major downsizing effort, marking the end of Destiny 2 development and a significant shift in the studio's future plans. The announcement follows the release of Destiny 2's final content update earlier this month.

As reported by Insider Gaming, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst informed staff in an internal memo that “most of the Destiny team and some people on the Marathon team will be let go”. Earlier reports had suggested that only the Destiny team would be affected, but Sony has now confirmed that layoffs will extend beyond that group. Sony has since published Hulst's memo publicly.

Bungie issued its own statement acknowledging the scale of the restructuring, saying: “With great sadness, we are announcing a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie”. The studio added that Destiny 2 “fell short of expectations these past several years” and that it “could not continue operating at our previous size” with future projects still in early incubation.

This aligns with earlier reporting that Bungie would shift most of its resources toward Marathon following Destiny 2's final update. Prior to today's confirmation, sources had indicated that Bungie was preparing for massive layoffs this summer, though the studio has not disclosed how many employees are affected. Previous rumors suggested the cuts could be as much as 50%, which would be roughly 400 employees.

Bungie says it will share more about its future at a later date, but for now, the studio is focused on supporting those impacted by the restructuring. “We know this decision has a profound impact on the people affected, their families, friends, and teammates,” the studio said. Bungie added that it is extending its gratitude to those impacted and “hopes you will do the same”.

KitGuru Says: Bungie achieved its long-held goal of becoming a multi-game studio when it shipped Marathon, but it didn't last very long and certainly didn't end in the way that anybody expected. 

With Destiny 2 now fully in the rear view, the team at Bungie is full-steam ahead on Marathon, though that hasn't resulted in a sudden uptick in players swarming the extraction shooter. Season 2 is going about as well as Season 1, and despite its critical acclaim and a small dedicated core group of players, Marathon continues to struggle to attract the kinds of numbers multiplayer games are practically required to earn to find commercial success. But if Bungie can keep iterating and tweaking Marathon, it wouldn't be the first time, nor likely the last, that a multiplayer game found […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-season-2-pve-mode-vault-breaker-bungie-season-3-release-date/

While the game saw a relatively solid launch, Bungie’s Marathon has suffered in the months since, with one of its biggest detractors being the fact that the extraction shooter does not offer anything in the way of a PvE experience – making the barrier to entry far higher in some people’s minds. That said, Bungie have promised to bring some level of PvE support to the game, with the first step in this direction set to go live next month in the form of a new ‘Vault Breaker’ mode.

Prior to the launch of Marathon's second Season, the team at Bungie shared their initial plans for the future of the PvP focused extraction shooter, revealing intentions to introduce some form of PvE mode. Taking to their blog, the team at Bungie have now detailed many of the major additions set to be joining Marathon with the launch of Season 2.5 next month.

Going live on the 21st of July, the most notable addition is easily that of their new Vault Breaker mode. Described as an “experimental PVE mode” this upcoming addition will allow players to: “Explore Cryo Archive as a crew, duo, or a solo player, taking on a progressively challenging series of vaults. Grow stronger across multiple matches with progression that’s unique to Vault Breaker, and push towards the final vault and the mysterious entity within.”

Seemingly functioning somewhat as a rogue-like, Bungie explains how “Vault Breaker requires a special Sponsored Kit to queue up, and any gear or items you find stay behind when you exfil.”

That said, players will be able to obtain a currency known as Vault Data which “when extracted, can be exchanged for upgrades to your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kits as well as gear that can be used in other modes.”

Alongside this new mode, Season 2.5 will also bring new updates to Marathon’s Cradle Evolution system – adding a form of prestige while giving players who do so benefits in the form of higher max energy points and some cosmetic rewards.

Last but not least, Bungie confirmed that Season 3 is happening, and will be coming relatively soon, with its 22nd of September launch seeing new additions such as “a revamp of Perimeter”; a new Runner shell; addition weapons, equipment and more.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the current state of Marathon? Does this PvE mode sound enticing? Could Marathon find greater success in the long-run if they continued to embrace PvE? Let us know down below.

Last year's Ghost of Yotei is currently this year's best-selling first-party PlayStation Studios title, according to a new report from Alinea Analytics. The latest from Sucker Punch is closing in on an estimated 5 million copies sold since launch, the report claims, and as we officially transition to the back-half of 2026, it's estimated 1.1 million copies sold within 2026 is carrying the load for PlayStation's first-party portfolio. That's not the biggest shock, considering the only other first-party PlayStation releases so far this year are Marathon and Saros, both games that received heavy critical praise, but neither has been able […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ghost-of-yotei-nears-5m-copies-sold-carrying-the-load-playstation-first-party-2026/

Bungie has now shipped its final content patch for Destiny 2 and will soon begin to shift all of its resources over to Marathon. However, due to mounting financial pressures, Bungie will also reportedly undergo significant downsizing. 

Fans expecting Bungie to secretly be working on new Destiny projects are likely to be disappointed by the most recent news. At its peak Bungie had more than a thousand developers all working on Destiny 2. By 2024, that number had shrunk to around 800, with a good chunk of the studio now working on Marathon while others worked on smaller-scale expansions for Destiny 2.

The smaller scoped expansions idea ultimately didn't work, with both The Edge of Fate and Renegades suffering from low sales throughout 2025. As a result, Bungie has pulled the plug on Destiny entirely and is now transitioning to solely focus on Marathon, its latest live-service multiplayer IP. This all led up to the release of a final content patch for Destiny 2 earlier this month, which has incidentally also revitalised the game a bit, with hundreds of thousands of players on Steam alone returning to say goodbye to the game for good.

However, despite the success of the most recent Destiny patch, Bungie is moving ahead with its plans to downsize and focus on Marathon. According to Sylvain, a French journalist, Bungie is set to undergo “massive layoffs” this summer, potentially starting as soon as July. It has also been claimed that Bungie will look to reduce its headcount by as much as 50%.

While unconfirmed by Bungie or its parent company, Sony, such a downsizing would hamper Bungie's ability to develop multiple AAA games simultaneously, making a future Destiny 3 or a spin-off game more unlikely.

KitGuru Says: I really like a lot about Marathon's world building and visual style. Unfortunately, extraction shooters aren't my thing, so unless there is a pivot towards more PvE content, I don't think I'll be going back to it. Would I have played more Destiny though? Absolutely. 

It's Destiny 2's death day, as Bungie delivers the game's final major update titled Monument of Triumph. The update is now live across all platforms, and Destiny fans are heading to the game in droves to celebrate the long life this game has had and be a part of its final update. Though the game will stay online for the foreseeable future, this is the end of the Destiny franchise for now. On Steam, over 160K players have jumped in to be a part of the game's death day and check out everything that Bungie jammed into this final update. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/destiny-2-final-update-now-live-over-160k-players-on-steam/

With Bungie officially moving on from Destiny 2, and its other projects in very early stages of development, all eyes are now on Marathon; with the PvP extraction shooter needing to gain more traction if it wants to make it past the first year. Alongside some major sweeping changes coming with Season 2 and beyond, the team at Bungie have now announced that the next update will arrive alongside a week-long ‘open play’ session.

A couple weeks ago, Bungie began to share its plans for Marathon moving into Season 2 and beyond, committing to adding “new fun and mind-bending content;” better progression; easier onboarding and more PvE focused experiences.

Sharing their full Season 2 content drop, Bungie have now confirmed that the 2nd of June will see the introduction of:

• Dire Marsh (Night) Zone
• New night-focused equipment
• New ‘Sentinel’ Runner shell
• Two new weapons
• 8 new weapon chips
• New ‘Cradle’ system for progression
• Faction improvements
• QoL enhancements including increased vault space

The full list of additions coming with Season 2 can be found HERE. Alongside all the new content however, Bungie is also making Marathon free-to-play for a period in what they are calling an “Open Play Week” – starting from the launch of Season 2 on the 2nd of June up until the 9th.

Marathon had a lot of baggage on its shoulders prior to launch, and even more so now in the wake of Destiny 2’s sunsetting. That said, if nothing else, Bungie does appear to be trying their hardest to turn the game into a major success.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Marathon so far? Will Season 2 be a big deal? Let us know down below.

With Bungie officially leaving Destiny 2 behind next month, it's full steam ahead on Marathon, which is now days away from entering its Season 2: Nightfall. Ahead of the season kicking off on June 2, 2026, developer Bungie revealed a developer insights video and accompanying blog post that dives into some of the biggest changes in Season 2, like a reworked progression system, the new Sentinel Runner Shell, the Night Marsh map, and more. You can check out the video below for the highlights of what's changing in Season 2, though if you want the nitty-gritty details short of what […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-season-2-new-runner-shell-progression-system-weapons-and-more/

Last week, Bungie dropped a bomb on the video game industry with the announcement that its nearly-decade spanning shooter, Destiny 2, is no longer in active development and would not receive any more major updates past June 9, 2026. To call it the end of an era is an understatement, but fans are already making their voice clear on what they want the studio to do next, as a petition for Destiny 3 has already garnered 180K signatures, which just so happens to be more than double the number of Marathon's peak concurrent player count on Steam. The petition began […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/fan-petition-destiny-3-doubles-marathon-peak-concurrent-player-count-steam/

Last night, Bungie officially announced that it is ending development of Destiny 2. Fans immediately began hoping that this would mean that Destiny 3 is entering development, but that turns out to not be the case.

According to sources speaking with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who has an impeccable track-record with his reporting, Bungie has no plans to begin work on Destiny 3. Instead, Bungie will undergo another round of layoffs, while those remaining will be shifted to Marathon.

The report states that Bungie “doesn't have a new project lined up for Destiny 2's development team”. However, some of those who remain at Bungie after the next round of job cuts will be put into smaller ‘incubation teams' in the hopes of getting a new game greenlit, but these games won't necessarily be tied to the Destiny IP and ultimately, any new projects will need Sony's approval.

As you might imagine, Sony isn't exactly happy with Bungie right now. The company just recorded another $700+ million impairment loss on the acquisition of Bungie, meaning that the company is now worth significantly less than what Sony paid to acquire it several years ago. With that in mind, projects that are deemed ‘too expensive' or risky are unlikely to be greenlit. Destiny 3 likely fits into that category, as such a project would be a colossal undertaking, take 5+ years to complete and requiring the studio to ‘scale up' after multiple years of downsizing.

KitGuru Says: Marathon has been siphoning resources away from Destiny for years, to the detriment of the live game. Now that Destiny is officially dead, I'm not sure how Bungie expects to win those fans back – they certainly won't want to support Marathon after all of this. 

Bungie has just announced that Destiny 2 is receiving its final (and free) content update on June 9, after which there will be no more expansions or additions of any other kind. The developer admitted that, following the underwhelming release of the 2024 expansion, The Final Shape, only an episode in the slow but steady decline of the online first-person shooter game, it became clear that it was time to move forward and look toward new projects, which will now begin "incubation" work. The update, called Monument of Triumph, is designed as a comprehensive celebration of player achievements that integrates […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/bungie-pulls-the-plug-destiny-2-after-decade/

In a shocking announcement today, Bungie has confirmed that it is ending development on Destiny 2. Destiny has been Bungie's most successful game to date, but with player numbers dwindling, Bungie has decided to walk away and explore new projects.

In its statement today, Bungie confirmed that on June 9th, Destiny 2 will get its final live-service content update. While development is coming to an end, the studio says that the game will remain live and playable, just don't expect any new content.

“For almost 12 years, we have had the joy and honor to explore the Destiny universe with you all. Through all the ups and downs, surprises and triumphs, building Destiny alongside our players has been a monumental privilege. While our love for Destiny 2 has not changed, it has become clear that after The Final Shape, we have reached the time for our shared worlds, and Destiny, to live beyond Destiny 2. As our focus turns towards a new beginning for Bungie, we will begin work incubating our next games. To that end, on June 9, 2026, we will release the final live-service content update for Destiny 2 to begin that new journey as a studio.”

“Though active development may be concluding, we will ensure that Destiny 2 remains playable, just as the original Destiny is today. Many changes in this final update will aim to ensure that Destiny 2 is a welcoming place for players to return to.
We’re proud of Destiny 2, the places it took us, and the legacy it has created. Because of you all, our universe is vast, built on years of shared stories, adventures, and victories. From the Cosmodrome to the Pale Heart to the Lawless Frontier, we have forged life-long memories and friendships with you all.”

The announcement does not include any mention of future Destiny games, so for now, Bungie's sole money maker will be Marathon, and smaller teams at the studio will begin ‘incubating' new projects. Whether one of those projects ends up becoming Destiny 3 remains to be seen.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: This is a major change for Bungie, which has been ‘the Destiny studio' ever since it left Microsoft and Halo behind.