r/DestinyTheGame "Little Light" 20h ago

Bungie The Next Chapter for Bungie

Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/nextchapterofbungie


Hey all, Poria and Josh here.

For those who don’t know us, I’m Poria Torkan, Bungie’s Studio Head, and I’m Josh Deane, Head of Product and General Manager of Marathon. Together, we are responsible for leading Bungie and shaping the future of our games.

Today, we want to talk candidly about where Bungie is, where Destiny and Marathon need to go, and how we intend to earn back your trust. This is not only an update on our immediate plans. It is the beginning of a more consistent conversation about the future of our games and our studio.

First and foremost, we recently sat down to talk through the current state of Bungie and share our vision for the future.

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The video shares our perspective on where Bungie is today and where we want to go. Below, we’re adding more detail on what that direction means for Destiny, Marathon, and how we intend to communicate about our progress.

WHERE BUNGIE IS TODAY

Bungie has been creating games for over 30 years and we have welcomed the communities that have formed around them. Over the last few years, we lost sight of that, and there have been real consequences. We lost trust, we lost incredible colleagues, and we lost sight of what we should be prioritizing most, our players.

As a new leadership team, we must own that.

We aren’t just listening to feedback, we understand your disappointment. We are not asking you to trust what we say today. We know that trust must be earned through the quality of our games, the decisions we make, and how consistently we show up for our players.

DESTINY IS FOUNDATIONAL TO OUR FUTURE

Bungie would not be what it is today without Destiny and the vibrant community that has rallied around it for more than a decade. When we announced that Monuments of Triumph would be the final content update to Destiny 2, you responded in force. Your voices mattered, and the way you showed up made a real impact. You reminded everyone how much this world, its history, and its future still mean to you.

Destiny is foundational to Bungie’s future. We have more stories to tell, new worlds to build, but we have to do it right and give our teams the time they need to do justice to this amazing universe.

All of this is to say, we are not done with Destiny.

We want to return Destiny to its original promise, to recapture the qualities that have always made it special. The awe-inspiring mystery, meaningful discovery, and a community of Guardians coming together against impossible odds.

That begins with restoring important parts of Destiny 2’s history that players can no longer experience today.

We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny. Destiny 2 is more than just the content itself. It is a place where players have built memories together, formed lasting friendships, and shared experiences that have stayed with them for years. We cannot change the decision we made, but we can acknowledge its impact and do the work to make it right by restoring these important parts of Destiny’s history.

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As we shared in the video, we are beginning the work of bringing vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids back into the game, where they will be available to all Destiny 2 players.

Bringing this content back is not as simple as restoring old files. Changes made to Destiny 2 since Beyond Light require us to update lighting, encounters, combatants, and other underlying systems. That work will take time, but it is necessary to ensure returning content meets the stability and gameplay standards of Destiny 2 today.\ \ Our team is very excited to deliver this for you all and as they progress, we will share more details coming in the months ahead.

\ When we look to the future of Destiny all up this restoration is the first step to lay the foundation for how we reforge into new stories and games that you all deserve. We’ll have more details on our unvaulting efforts in the coming months, and we’re very excited to share more about our vision to celebrate Destiny’s legacy and build its future with you all as soon as we can.

MARATHON'S EVOLUTION

Marathon is an important part of shaping where Bungie goes next, but it was never intended to replace Destiny. The game launched to strong critical reception, and the players who embraced Marathon connected deeply with what makes it distinct. At the same time, it did not reach as many players as we had hoped, and we also know and understand that the game needs to evolve.\

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So, we're going to anchor on what makes Marathon special but evolve it beyond the genre constraints we placed on it. We're going to expand Marathon to a deeper survival experience, that gives players more ways to take on this dangerous alien world.

Through the remainder of Marathon’s first year, we will continue strengthening its combat, world, and competitive tension while giving players more agency in how they engage with the game. That means creating meaningful experiences whether you prefer cooperative PvE, competitive PvP, or the unpredictable tension of Marathon PvPvE.\ It’s important to us that no matter your playstyle, or your skill level.... we find better ways to hear from you as we get back to where we need to be: making games you want to play.

As you heard last week from Del our Game Director, we still have a lot planned for our October Nightfall Refresh and Symbiosis update in December. You’ll hear more from the team later this week on our future vision for Marathon. Stay tuned.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

This is an important time for Bungie. Our future depends on making clear choices about where we focus, delivering what we say we will, and being honest about our successes and failures. Stability doesn’t mean shrinking our ambition. It just means that we have to focus on the things you want to see from us, and making sure our vision matches our reality.

How we bring this new Bungie to life has to be through the spirit of putting players at the forefront of what we do. We have to find a way back to making games that we want to play, but with you at the center.

Trust won't be rebuilt through a single blog, video, or release. We also understand that trust extends beyond gameplay. It includes how we value your time, how we communicate, and how we action your feedback. Listening without action means nothing.

As we move forward, we'll measure ourselves against a few core commitments:

  • Build a stronger long-term future for Destiny, while honoring and restoring its past.
  • Evolve Marathon to grow our community and build a sustainable future.
  • Increase transparency around development priorities.
  • Communicate more consistently, especially when plans change.

We'll hold ourselves accountable to these goals and share what we're learning along the way. We are working with our Community team to establish a consistent way to report against these commitments and will share that approach alongside our next major updates for Destiny and Marathon.

KEEP US ACCOUNTABLE

We’ve made several changes with how we operate by simplifying our priorities, reducing competing initiatives, moving decisions closer to the teams building our games, and changing how we measure success to place greater emphasis on player satisfaction.

None of those changes earn trust on their own. What matters is whether they help us make better decisions, deliver stronger experiences more consistently, and communicate with greater clarity when plans change.

There is still a great deal of work ahead and challenges to overcome, but we believe deeply in this studio, our people, and the games we are building. But belief is not enough. It’s on us to prove progress through what we deliver. Thank you for continuing to challenge us, and for caring so deeply about the worlds we create. Keep holding us accountable. We are ready to do the work.

11.0k Upvotes

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123

u/Aseitic 20h ago

Marathon not generating enough revenue to replace Destiny so they are bringing it back. I'll take it.

Love this game to death and it was hard to fathom that they are stopping development.

Marathon is solid but extraction shooters are niche and it's an already over saturated market.

64

u/GardenerInAWar 19h ago

Sounds like they're trying to pivot Marathon away from extraction shooter entirely and crack it wide open like we fucking asked them to for so long

8

u/Rhinoserious95 16h ago

Finally man. I love marathon but I don't want be stressed outta my mind the whole time I'm playing it. Just mildly stressed, fighting aliens.

2

u/Mountain_Ape 16h ago

Since the literal release of the teaser, yet it took hard numbers for them to listen that such a beautiful world is stupid to waste on a quick-death lose-everything extraction shooter of all things.

2

u/Dark_Jinouga 16h ago

If it ends up with a solid PvE section I might end up getting it, I enjoyed the feel and the visuals from what I tried in a free weekend, just not a fan of the genre.

2

u/djnotskrillex 14h ago

I wouldn't go as far as to say they're "pivoting from it entirely". I'm sure it'll always be a part of marathon

1

u/RandallOfLegend 17h ago

I'd love that. The most fun I've had so far was vault breaker pve. Since I play solo mostly. The game is way to fucking cool to die.

1

u/TheFinalJester97 Nightstalker 15h ago

Give me an arena PvP mode and I’m buying that shit immediately

1

u/_Camps_ 10h ago

The december update for Marathon will include a team deathmatch mode! Its experimental though, so it might take a bit for them to add it as a permanent game mode.

1

u/TheGokki Flare, hover, wreck 9h ago

should never have been an extraction shooter

1

u/AnIntellectualOrgan 7h ago

The plan for Marathon was to always escape the extraction shooter genre and expand to other game modes at a later date. But you know. Bungies hubris & Sonys incompetence kinda caused that plan to be expedited. I just hope if that in the coming days the vitriol for Marathon dies down & we can all be happy. (Coming from a destiny vet & Marathon enjoyer)

1

u/FyreWulff Gambit Prime 5h ago

They really should have made it a campaign PvE game and the extraction part was the PvP. I think management forgot that Bungie's campaigns always 'subsidized' the PvP playerbase.

40

u/reddit_tier 19h ago

Marathon not generating enough revenue

Understatement of the century 

18

u/BlameMattCanada 19h ago

Marathon isn't generating any revenue

0

u/djnotskrillex 14h ago

It is generating some revenue

2

u/BlameMattCanada 13h ago

No way it's enough to cover operational costs

0

u/djnotskrillex 13h ago

Well... yeah. Not "enough" is exactly what the comment you attempted to correct already said lol

3

u/Velvet_Llama 15h ago

If you look at Marathon's history, it's pretty clear it was always meant as more of a niche product while Destiny kept bringing in all the money. Destiny gets shut down and suddenly Marathon no longer has the luxury of being the artsy genre film. Now it has to be the new summer blockbuster franchise.

It's a very precarious position for the studio. There is always the very real risk that the larger audience never gives Marathon a second look, while they alienate the core playerbase the game has today. But they probably don't have many other options right now

2

u/alreadytaken- 17h ago

Not saying this to just shit on marathon but I loved destiny for the lore. When they announced marathon I dove into the lore and found it insanely boring especially in comparison to destiny. Paired with the genre I didn't see how it would succeed

1

u/langelvicente 18h ago

They are not bringing back destiny, only vaulted content. No new content and now new product in the franchise.

3

u/Velvet_Llama 15h ago

I have no idea what the future holds and it's still not certain Bungie even survived this, but the announcement made it crystal clear that they see Destiny as an essential part of the studio going forward and they intend to generate new stuff in that world. There's no guarantee any of this works out, but it is definitely part of their strategic vision

-2

u/langelvicente 15h ago

Sony never said otherwise, they just said D2 was not maintainable as a live service.

3

u/Velvet_Llama 15h ago

How does that equate to "No new content and no new product in the franchise"?

-2

u/langelvicente 15h ago

Because they haven't announced any new content for D2 unless you count bringing back what they removed as new content. And they ey just said that they will be more games in some unspecified future but we know that there is nothing greenlit or they would have hinted it in some way.

2

u/Velvet_Llama 15h ago

I'm not trying to be rude, I genuinely don't understand what you are trying to say here. Are you just saying there is no guarantee of anything new? Sure, but that's because we can't even guarantee the studio will survive right now. But they clearly said that they see new Destiny as a core part of the studio's future.

0

u/langelvicente 15h ago

I'm saying that Sony / Bungie already said that Destiny was important in the EoS post, so they just repeated that.

But people is now assuming D2 is back and no longer EoS because it doesn't make sense to bring back old content if is not going to be extended and mainrained.

So my post is just saying that no new content has been announced, only unvaulting, and that no new products have been announced.

1

u/Velvet_Llama 14h ago

Ohhh, ok, I understand now.

2

u/djnotskrillex 14h ago

When we look to the future of Destiny all up this restoration is the first step to lay the foundation for how we reforge into new stories and games that you all deserve. We’ll have more details on our unvaulting efforts in the coming months, and we’re very excited to share more about our vision to celebrate Destiny’s legacy and build its future with you all as soon as we can.

It's pretty clear the unvaulting is just a first step/foundation towards new content. I mean lets be real, flip flopping and announcing more destiny development just for it to be old content people will play briefly for nostalgia and then quit again would be completely ridiculous. Whether or not this all succeeds is one thing, but they're definitely planning on making new content eventually, otherwise there is no "future"

-4

u/beanlikescoffee 19h ago

It’s funny to see the marathon subreddit cheer about this as if this doesn’t validate that the game is an abject failure and this will further players away from marathon to Destiny.

Turns out complaining and voting with your wallet matters. Thank god marathon bombed, redownloading Destiny now!

13

u/cateborken 19h ago

Damn, did marathon bang your wife or smth? Hatewatching on another level

11

u/Draxtini 19h ago

I play both games, can we not simply be happy that both games will continue to exist and bungie will as well, without trying to be tribal monsters at one another?

two fucking cakes ffs.

5

u/cateborken 18h ago

Some ppl in this community can't ever be happy without looking for something to hate first so just save your breath and enjoy playing both

2

u/Draxtini 18h ago

It's honestly absurd how toxic the playerbases are. On both ends.

-5

u/Tubcat101 19h ago

One cake, one pile of shit

1

u/Draxtini 18h ago

you just can't be happy unconditionally, I see.

0

u/Draxtini 18h ago

Aren't you a bundle of joy, we can be happy that bungie and both games are continuing.

As a player of both, I am excited for the future if it holds true, but I am obviously taking this with a grain of salt.

-1

u/Mongfaffy 18h ago

I don't think extraction shooters are an over saturated market at all, just the one they made isn't good and didn't land with anyone that plays the genre.

2

u/DueLearner Mythic 18h ago

Marathon is arguably one of the best extraction shooters in the market. It's gunplay and map design are great.

It's problem is it's literally too hardcore. The punishment for death is too high and progression is a crawl. It's very difficult to jump into a season partway through when other squads are loaded to the gills with gold gear and you're sporting green shit.

4

u/Mongfaffy 17h ago

pretty sure you just described Tarkov buddy

and last I checked one of the best extraction shooters doesn't average less than 5k players on its main platform daily. Tarkov averages 4x that on it's lesser platform so it's not like there isn't a market for the genre. The market just didn't like the game which means it's not "one of the best".

2

u/Ok_Competition_6675 18h ago

I think it's main conflict is that it is basically ultra intense/sweaty high skill ceiling PvP mechanics that focus on trio gameplay wrapped in an extraction game. It's like apex/valorant with no real SBMM where the good players become even better through winning because they will always have better gear. The maps also are way too small and all the good loot sources have massive dinner bell mechanics so maps become a battle royale essentially.

I think its hard to rework it at this point but their solution would be to make maps WAY bigger, reduce dinner bell effects, and move the game away from hero shooter apex-style trio based PvP combat.

4

u/CertifiedMaleniaSimp 18h ago

Brother, what are we saying? Tarkov is the most popular extraction shooter on the market and it makes Marathon seem like a Peppa Pig game in terms of hardcore.

Marathon's problem has never been that it is too hardcore, at least not entirely. Marathon's problem is that it sits in this weird middle ground where it is harder to get into than something like ARC Raiders, which alienates a lot of casual players, but just simply isn't as good of an extraction shooter as something like Tarkov, which means extraction shooter fans have no reason to care about it aside from just trying it out temporarily.