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. 

 

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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.

The post Marathon is going free-to-play for one week alongside Season 2 launch first appeared on KitGuru.

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. 

The post Bungie reportedly has ‘no plans’ for Destiny 3, will focus on Marathon instead first appeared on KitGuru.

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/

Bungie's new extraction shooter, Marathon, will start its Season 2 on June 2, 2026, and with that comes a lot of changes to the game. Every player will have their Vaults completely wiped as each new season brings with it a seasonal reset, new content will enter the game, and, just as Bungie did in Season 1, new experimental queues will be introduced. One of which, game director Joe Ziegler has confirmed, will be a PvE-only mode. In an extended reflection about how the launch and first season of Marathon went overall, Ziegler addressed many aspects of the game. Beginning […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-pve-only-mode-season-2/

Following a great deal of controversy, Bungie’s PvP extraction shooter Marathon released earlier this year to less-than-stellar player counts, with one of the core barriers to entry being its relatively hardcore nature. In an effort to entice more players to check out the game, Bungie have announced some pretty big changes coming to Marathon with its second Season – including the introduction of “pure PVP, PVE, and PVP-lite experiences.”

Releasing a lengthy blogpost discussing Marathon’s “launch, learnings, and what’s next” Bungie revealed that a ton of changes are coming to the game with its Second Season. Full details on everything coming can be found HERE, but some of the most notable include:

• Making the game “less grindy” and “more rewarding”
• Improvements across the board (including UX, matchmaking, endgame and more)
• “New fun and mind-bending content”
• More interesting progression
• Better onboarding for new players

Perhaps the biggest change coming however is the fact that Bungie have announced that they will introduce new PvE focussed experiences, claiming that “we want to build more survival experiences for different moods, like if you want to full sweat or lean back and chill”.

Though details are currently light, the team are said to be exploring “more pure PVP, PVE, and PVP-lite experiences.”

PvP focused extraction shooters can be major successes. That said, having a form of PvE does make sense for the game’s long-term health – especially as Bungie are known for being able to meld the two experiences. Full details on Marathon’s Second Season and beyond can be found HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Marathon in its current state? Would you welcome some type of PvE mode? Can Marathon turn things around? Let us know your thoughts down below.

The post Bungie promises major changes coming to Marathon including PvE game modes first appeared on KitGuru.

When Marathon launched back in March, and after the launch of Cryo Archive, outside of dwindling player numbers, the dark cloud hanging over the game has been the question of how players will deal with Bungie's promise of seasonal resets. Of course, we don't know how that'll go until it happens, but we now know when it'll happen, as Bungie reveals that Season 2: Nightfall will start on June 2, 2026, and makes some significant changes for the remainder of Season 1. Beginning with what's changing for the rest of Season 1, arguably the biggest change is that Cryo Archive […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-season-2-release-date-bungie-prepares-for-reset/

We've seen a lot of estimates about Marathon's individual commercial performance, all of which has muddied the waters on whether the game has actually done well. Some charts have been more favourable, while the reality of its daily concurrent player numbers on Steam and its reported development costs tell a more negative story. Well, Sony's latest financial report spelled it out pretty clearly that Marathon and Bungie as a whole have underperformed. But it doesn't look like the company is giving up on the game anytime soon. Sony reported a massive impairment loss of nearly $800 million due to Bungie […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/sony-aims-to-improve-marathon-performance-bets-on-saros-wolverine-first-party-growth/

Bungie's new extraction shooter, Marathon, is still trying to find its footing as the latest triple-A multiplayer shooter on the market. While it's been critically praised by many (myself included), it seemingly hasn't reached the level of commercial success that Bungie or PlayStation Studios hoped it would reach. Despite that, Bungie isn't letting on that it has any concerns about Marathon, and in a recent interview has just re-emphasized how it has long-term plans for the game. As we continue to see multiplayer games launch with plenty of excitement and hullabaloo, only to die within a year for a myriad […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/bungie-emphasizes-long-term-commitment-to-marathon/

As we officially move closer towards 2026 being half-over, global analytics firm Newzoo's latest monthly report provides an insight into which of the biggest releases in March 2026 drove engagement and revenue, and which of this year's releases are at the top of the charts one quarter into the year. Unsurprisingly, it's Crimson Desert, Pokémon Pokopia, and Resident Evil Requiem at the top of the charts. All three games are at the top of the chart for best-selling games by revenue between January and March 2026. Requiem sits at the top, followed by Crimson Desert in second and Pokopia in […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-pokemon-pokopia-dominate-pc-console-revenue-charts-march-2026-newzoo/

Marathon, the new extraction shooter from Bungie and its first non-Destiny release since the first Destiny game launched in 2014, has had a middling start, to say the least. While it is praised by critics (myself included), it seemingly hasn't had the commercial success to match, and constant conversation about its concurrent player count on Steam seems to only fuel negative discourse around the game. But a new report has given us a bit more insight into how it's done on the sales charts. Firstly, it's worth noting that while we've seen estimates about how much Marathon has sold, we […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-reportedly-had-2-2-million-players-in-launch-month/

Circana executive director and video game industry analyst Mat Piscatella has reported the US sales charts for the month of March 2026, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it's MLB The Show 26 that appears at the top of the charts, helping to drive a 12% spending growth compared to March 2025 alongside Crimson Desert and Pokémon Pokopia. While Piscatella cites Crimson Desert as one of the main spending growth drivers, when looking at the full top-20 list of best-selling games by dollar sales, including both physical and digital sales, the new open-world from Pearl Abyss failed to make the top 10. It […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/crimson-desert-missed-top-10-best-selling-games-in-us-march-2026-marathon-made-the-cut/

The winning time is a massive improvement over last year’s race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes.

Bungie has pushed its mid-season refresh update for Marathon, which comes with a lot of balance tweaks to weapons, Runner Shell abilities, equipment, and weapon mods, while also introducing tweaks to progression. There's also yet another experimental queue getting added to the game as the Duos experiment comes to a conclusion. If you want to dig into all of the tweaks and changes, big and small, you can check them out in the patch notes here. As you can imagine, there are several worth highlighting, so let's begin with some of the bigger changes impacting the game overall, before digging […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-mid-season-refresh-bungie-more-ways-for-players-to-work-together/

Following plenty of controversies, Bungie’s Marathon finally launched just over a month ago to solid reviews and a decent playercount. Whether or not the live-service extraction shooter is a success or not remains to be seen, with insiders claiming that the title cost over $200 million to develop – possibly $250 million.

As reported by Bungie insider Paul Tassi via the publication Forbes, a ton of details pertaining to Marathon’s first month on the market have been shared.

Alongside ‘confirmation’ that the live-service extraction shooter managed to sell roughly 1.2 million copies in its first two weeks, Tassi revealed just how much money Sony/Bungie have put into the project so far, stating: “I can confirm Marathon’s budget is over $200 million. Likely more than $250 million.”

While perhaps an unsurprising figure given the inflated costs of developing AAA games in today’s day and age, Tassi also claimed that these costs do not account for ongoing post-launch support, meaning it’ll only increase with time.

In doing some very basic maths, Marathon’s 1.2 million sales represents a revenue of just under $50 million. Of course while the game costs $40 to purchase, a Deluxe Edition is also on offer for $60. Combine this with ancillary sales of various in-game cosmetics and the real figure could be much higher.

Still, it appears as though Marathon has quite the journey to go on if it wants to make its money back and turn a profit. It will be interesting to see whether we get official sales data at some point in the future.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Marathon so far? Could it have long legs? Will PlayStation make back its $250+ million? Let us know your thoughts down below.

The post Marathon reportedly had a budget of over $200 million first appeared on KitGuru.

Last month, Bungie released its first new game in years (which is technically just a reboot of an old series). Marathon, a new extraction shooter for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, takes the first sci-fi world Bungie created and brings it into the modern-day gaming landscape, and according to a new report from Paul Tassi at Forbes, Bungie put aside a fair chunk of change to make it. In a report going over the first month of Marathon being on the market and in players hands, at the end of a list of different metrics about the game, Tassi […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-reportedly-cost-over-250-million-to-make-bungie-sony/

Marathon may still be struggling to bring new players into the fold, but for the 380K average DAUs who can't seem to stop playing Bungie's new extraction shooter each day, part of what is keeping those players engaged is how quickly Bungie is reacting to player feedback, and it's rapid response time is on display once again with the game's latest patch. Marathon's update 1.0.5.3 is now live for players on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and it brings with it a few bug fixes, but the most notable parts of it are the balance tweaks, and the fairly […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/marathon-strongest-weapons-gets-much-needed-nerf-for-more-meaningful-buildcrafting/