Bungie is a studio undergoing structural change: Destiny 2's live service ended in June 2026, most of the Destiny team was laid off, and Marathon, launched in March 2026, is its flagship ongoing title. The studio has committed to restoring vaulted Destiny 2 content and to widening Marathon beyond its PvPvE launch, while co-founder Jason Jones has left to start a new studio, Stone Kite.
Bungie in 2026 is a studio in transition. On June 25, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie announced layoffs that hit most of the Destiny development team, part of the Marathon team, and SIE staff supporting Bungie's operations. The layoffs followed the end of Destiny 2's development on June 9, and Bungie cited the game's underperformance and an unsustainable development structure. The move was the third round of layoffs at the studio in five years.
Marathon, which launched in March 2026, is now the studio's main ongoing project. Bungie delayed a major Marathon update scheduled for September 22, folding its content into the Symbiosis update on December 8, and said it will stop tying major updates to fixed season deadlines. The postponed material included permanent PvE content, a Perimeter map revamp, a new Runner shell, a social space, an experimental TDM mode, and a new player intro. The game also saw personnel changes: in July, game director Joe Ziegler left the studio, with Del Chafe III succeeding him, and creative director Julia Nardin denied a rumor that Marathon and Destiny would merge.
Destiny is not finished. On September 22, studio head Poria Torkan said Bungie will not end Destiny, and the studio began restoring vaulted Destiny 2 content, including campaigns, locations, and raids. The work is slow because the game's underlying systems were rebuilt with the Beyond Light expansion in November 2020. In a separate development, co-founder Jason Jones launched the studio Stone Kite with author Margaret Stohl on October 2, publishing the graphic novel One Zero One.
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Jason Jones, a Bungie co-founder, established the studio Stone Kite with author Margaret Stohl on October 2. Stone Kite's first project, One Zero One, is live as a four-volume graphic novel on the studio's website, with volume 1 free to read. It follows a conflict between humans and AI-equipped robots and draws on Jones's novel An Oral History of Humanity's Final Invention.
Embark Studios has announced a limited-time PvE mode test for ARC Raiders starting October 13, and Bungie has announced a PvE mode for Marathon in its December update, Symbiosis. The two announcements arrived back to back, and both titles are PvPvE extraction shooters. Forbes published a piece framing the pair as a pivot, saying interest in high-difficulty PvPvE elements is fading and that both games took the same strategy to acquire players. The Forbes article says Marathon faces a serious player count decline and described its operation as a big bet on sustainability, while ARC Raiders is only running a test. On the ARC Raiders subreddit, a thread citing the article drew over 1,000 comments debating whether the genre is declining or whether the problem is each game's design.
Bungie published a message titled "The Next Chapter for Bungie" on its official website on September 22, signed by studio head Poria Torkan and Marathon general manager Josh Deane. Torkan said the studio lost sight of players over the past several years and that the new management has to answer for it. He said Destiny is the foundation of Bungie's future and that "we will not end Destiny," so the first step is bringing back campaigns, locations, and raids that players can no longer reach, with all of it playable for every Destiny 2 player. The studio said the work is slow because Destiny 2's underlying systems were rebuilt with the Beyond Light expansion in November 2020, and progress will be shared over the coming months. For Marathon, Bungie said the game needs to evolve, and it will widen play beyond the PvPvE it launched with to offer cooperative PvE and competitive PvP options. Bungie also listed four promises, including more transparency on development priorities and steadier communication when plans change.
Julia Nardin, a creative director on Marathon who has worked on both Marathon and Destiny, said on X that a "leak" claiming the two IPs will be merged is false information. She said the two share much of Bungie's DNA but remain separate. The rumor spread from overseas message boards and Reddit after Destiny 2's development ended in June.
Bungie delayed a major Marathon update planned for September 22 and will fold its content into the Symbiosis update on December 8. The postponed material included permanent PvE content, a Perimeter map revamp, a new Runner shell, a social space, an experimental TDM mode, and a new player intro overhaul. Bungie also said it will stop tying major updates to fixed season deadlines, and an October 6 wipe will address gear gaps left by Season 2.
Joe Ziegler, game director of Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon, announced his departure from the studio on July 17. Del Chafe III will succeed him as game director. Ziegler, a former VALORANT director at Riot Games with a 12-year tenure there, joined Bungie in 2022. He stated he will move to a new role, with details to come. The Marathon development team will continue communication through its X account.
Christopher Barrett, the former director of Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, has settled the defamation and breach-of-contract lawsuit he filed against Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie in December 2024. Barrett had sought over $200 million (approximately 30 billion yen) in damages, alleging that the companies fabricated sexual harassment allegations to avoid paying him share compensation and retention bonuses owed after Sony's acquisition of Bungie in 2022. The lawsuit was initially dismissed by the Delaware Court of Chancery in December 2025 on jurisdictional grounds, and Barrett refiled in the Delaware Superior Court in January 2026. On July 9, 2026, a joint statement from all parties announced the settlement. Terms were not disclosed, but Barrett said he was "very satisfied with the result." As part of the resolution, his name has been added to the credits of Marathon as "Original Game Director." Barrett was fired in March 2024 after an internal investigation found he had made inappropriate comments about female subordinates' appearances and relationships.
Sony Interactive Entertainment and its subsidiary Bungie announced on June 25, 2026, that they are conducting layoffs as part of an organizational restructuring. The reductions target most of the Destiny development team, part of the Marathon team, and SIE staff who support Bungie's operations. In a statement, Bungie said that Destiny 2 has not met expectations in recent years and that the current development structure cannot sustain future plans. The announcement follows the end of Destiny 2's development, which concluded with a final update on June 9, 2026. SIE CEO of the Studio Business Group Hermen Hulst explained in an internal email that the decision came after several months of review with Bungie's management regarding long-term direction, development priorities, and the studio's role in the broader portfolio. He added that multiple alternatives were considered before concluding that reductions were necessary. Marathon, which launched in March 2026, remains an important part of the SIE portfolio and will continue to receive support. Affected employees will receive severance, career transition assistance, and where possible, opportunities within SIE's global studio network. This is the third round of layoffs at Bungie in the past five years.
Former Bungie staff revealed that a dating sim for Destiny 2 was prototyped during internal game jams but rejected by management each year. The sim, styled after Dream Daddy, was pitched annually by developers but never approved. The disclosure comes as the game's live service concludes after a decade.