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Destiny sealed.
As we collectively observe the end of Destiny 2 following its last update, some fans have attributed the game's downfall to Sony, claiming the company was unwilling to keep funding the sci-fi loot shooter. However, according to former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert, the actual situation is more nuanced, and developer Bungie was reportedly facing difficulties well before Sony took control.
Ruppert made the assertion on X, reacting to the idea that Sony is solely to blame for Destiny 2's end.
"Wasn’t Sony though, this fight was pre-Sony," Ruppert wrote, later adding, "Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition. If it wasn’t acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny. It was an emergency acquisition."
The notion that Bungie has been fighting to keep Destiny 2 alive is certainly not fresh, even after Sony's $3.6bn purchase of Bungie in 2022, which some viewed as the rescue that would sustain it. One only has to look at the numerous staff layoffs and various studio choices regarding monetization and expansion release timing over the years to deduce that something about its approach was not functioning properly.
The extent of Bungie's problems was exposed earlier this year when Sony disclosed it had taken a $765m impairment loss in its most recent fiscal year, which it attributed to the extraction shooter Marathon underperforming, along with Destiny 2's own performance issues.
Since then, Bungie has restated its dedication to Marathon, irritating Destiny 2 players who think support for the older game should persist. Some have pointed to player counts for both titles as sufficient justification for Sony and Bungie to continue funding Destiny 2, particularly after the launch of Destiny 2's Monument of Triumph update, which drove player numbers up to levels not seen in years—just as Marathon was hitting new lows.
But numbers don't reveal the full picture, and only Bungie and Sony understand the true reason behind their recent choices. Whatever the reality, we may never learn the complete story.