Former Destiny 2 Community Lead Reveals Bungie Was Close To Shutting Down Before Sony Acquisition

Destiny 2 was close to shutting down ahead of its Sony acquisition, according to one of the game’s former community managers. Bungie appears to have had a hard time maintaining Destiny 2 for quite some time now, to such an extent that the $3.6 billion corporate buyout essentially allowed the studio to keep trucking on for a fair bit longer, for better or for worse.

As it currently stands, Destiny 3 isn’t happening, with Bungie projected to be hit by significant layoffs sometime in the near future. The company has been struggling to maintain Destiny 2 for years now, according to sources, and virtually none of its smaller-scale incubation projects have panned out outside of one which was scooped up by Sony. The sole exception to that rule so far has been Marathon, and it too is only a meager success compared to Destiny‘s prime-time numbers. This paints a stark picture for the Marathon, Halo, and Destiny studio, with harsh consequences looming.

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Destiny 2 Nearly Shut Down Ahead of Its Acquisition by Sony

“Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition,” said former Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert on Twitter. “If it wasn’t acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny.” Though Destiny 2 exploded in popularity after its final Monuments of Triumph update released, the game had been having issues with player retention and monetization for some time, and Ruppert claims the Sony deal was “an emergency acquisition” in practice, even if it didn’t look like it from an outside point of view.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Ruppert also said it’s worth remembering how “everything caught [the community by surprise], it’s a humble reminder that the public really does have no idea what’s going on” in the context of the broader state of the industry. Setting aside this more general context, though, it’s clear by now that a new live-service Destiny project isn’t on the cusp of being greenlit, even though the Destiny 3 petition has been blowing up. The current state of things is highly uncertain, and only Sony knows what its plans for Bungie at large may be.

The reason why there’s been a massive resurgence in Destiny 2‘s popularity is simple. Destiny 2 got its final live-service update on June 9, bringing back audiences that might’ve fallen off over the past couple of years. As Bungie will no longer support the game with live, potentially FOMO-heavy content, players feel like they can return to the game without fear of content leaving the roster or becoming irrelevant. The final update also brought with it a complete refresh of all activities and loot, making virtually everything in the game rewarding and relevant in one go. Whether this kind of renewed popularity sticks remains to be seen, of course.

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.

EasyMediumHardPermadeath

It’s not for a lack of trying that there’s no Destiny 3 on the horizon, either. Bungie had plans to turn Destiny 2 into Destiny Infinity to tide the franchise over until a proper sequel could be produced, but that wasn’t greenlit by Sony, either. Infinity would’ve seen the game revert to a single yearly DLC release schedule with revised live-service elements, but that doesn’t seem to have satisfied the Sony executives. Destiny 3 was also considered alongside Infinity, but neither of these options worked out in the end. The conclusion right now is that Marathon is the only officially supported Bungie project at this time, and only time will tell what the next step for the tenured FPS studio may be.