Bungie's Community is Divided at the Worst Time

As recently announced by Bungie, Destiny 2 is unfortunately meeting its untimely end on June 9, with a final update that marks a new era for the game with no new content, live-service patches, expansions, or anything of the sort. The final update for Destiny 2 on June 9 seems to be pretty substantial for a non-expansion patch, and Bungie will share more information before launch. For now, players can take a look at the first Dev Insight post, which includes the return of the Director, a revamp of all Destination rewards with unique events for each of them, Sparrow Racing League, and more. This is a small dream update for the game at the worst time possible, and yet, the community stands divided.

Since the announcement of Destiny 2‘s end of support, the discourse that Marathon killed the game has been ever more prevalent online, to the point that community members and content creators Aztecross and Myelin Games ended up in a quarrel over their view of what should happen with Marathon and a hypothetical Destiny 3. Destiny 2‘s demise is a potentially huge cause of grief for fans, especially those who have dedicated years of their life to the game, so it’s particularly heartbreaking to see the game go. On the other hand, Marathon is a “new” game, and some people think it contributed to Destiny 2‘s death, and thus should be boycotted. The result is a lose-lose situation, in which both Bungie games could meet the executioner instead of just one.

Destiny 3 Isn’t Happening, Bungie Expected to Be Hit With Significant Layoffs

Bungie is reportedly facing significant layoffs, and Destiny 3 is said to be off the table as the studio shifts its focus elsewhere.

How The Destiny vs. Marathon Discourse Pitted Aztecross Against Myelin Games

Aztecross is possibly the biggest content creator for Destiny 2, with over one million subscribers to his YouTube channel, and Myelin Games has contributed to Destiny 2‘s lore and lore archive over the years. The issue is that Aztecross has openly stated in a video that he will not support Marathon in any shape or form moving forward, and if it came to burying Marathon in order to get more Destiny 2 or Destiny 3, he would do it.

Put the consoles in the correct order.

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This is a strong stance to have with a platform as big as Aztecross’, and it’s arguably unhealthy for Bungie developers who have worked on either game, and it could be detrimental to Marathon. Even if he didn’t mean this, his platform is big enough that these words could have a huge impact on Marathon if said lightly. In fact, Myelin has been enjoying Marathon lately, after years in the Destiny 2 community, and likely felt this was an attack on the game he loves.

The reaction, after also dealing with a lot of hate towards Marathon in the past few days, to the point that Marathon was review-bombed again due to “killing Destiny 2,” was to flip Aztecross’ statement and make it about wanting more Marathon at the cost of Destiny. On top of that, Myelin Games then proceeded to make his Destiny lore videos on his YouTube channel private.

This “war” between Destiny and Marathon comes at the worst possible time, and yet, it makes sense that it’s happening now. The misconception that Marathon killed Destiny 2 has been fueled by some events, such as Bungie management diverting around $200 million in Destiny 2 earnings to Marathon’s development, or the recent news that most of Bungie’s developers were working on Marathon instead of Destiny 2. However, this is mainly a Bungie management problem combined with Sony’s unwillingness to fund costly projects after its already failing $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie in the first place.

Regardless, the community should not pick sides in a Destiny vs. Marathon war that makes no sense, and could also lead Marathon to the same fate as Destiny 2, in turn leading to more layoffs at Bungie and almost assured destruction of any chance of Destiny 3 happening. Pitting the games against each other is no use now, especially seeing how a recent Paul Tassi report highlights ‘Destiny Infinity‘ plans to keep Destiny 2 going that were never greenlit.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.

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Between a planned server slam on June 9 and an official Destiny 3 petition, fans are trying what they can to make their voices heard, but this same report states that sources at Bungie believe these actions will lead to nothing. For now, it remains to be seen what will happen, but it’s much more likely to have any form of continuation of Destiny as an IP if Marathon succeeds, not if it fails.