Bungie Reworks $40 Marathon With PvE Mode After Hundreds of Layoffs, Destiny 2 End
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jun 27
Bungie Reworks $40 Marathon With PvE Mode After Hundreds of Layoffs, Destiny 2 End
3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 27
Summary
Bungie is reshaping Marathon with an experimental self-contained PvE mode and possible PvP-only playlists as the shooter becomes the studio’s main focus after Destiny 2 service ended.
Hundreds of layoffs this week cut Bungie roughly in half, wiping out most of the Destiny 2 team and even some Marathon staff, leaving no other greenlit projects to share the load.
Under 10,000 nightly Steam players now peak on the game barely three weeks into Season 2, despite a 10-day free trial, onboarding changes, boosted XP and lower-risk modes.
The $40 extraction shooter has already struggled through weak launch traction and poor retention, making a full free-to-play pivot or late-added PvE features unlikely to expand the audience by orders of magnitude.
Sony has said Marathon has a 'strong foundation,' but the game now faces pressure to justify years of development and cannot realistically replace the role Destiny once played for Bungie.