All articles tagged with #bungie
Frank O'Connor, former franchise director of Halo, has publicly advised Activision on how to approach the next entry in the series. He suggests three distinct development paths: a classic shooter, a modern reinvention, or a Call of Duty-style service model. He also urges Activision to hire staff laid off from Bungie and Halo Studios, warning against tying the game to hardware launch cycles.
Bungie is overhauling its struggling extraction shooter Marathon to include lower-pressure modes and broader accessibility features, while simultaneously restoring vaulted content in Destiny 2 to rebuild trust with fans after significant layoffs and leadership changes.
Bungie is restoring vaulted Destiny 2 content for free but confirms no regular live-service updates will resume. The studio is shifting focus to evolving Marathon into a broader survival experience while acknowledging past failures in player retention.
Bungie will bring back vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids but will require updates to fit the current game, including lighting and encounters. It also plans to evolve Marathon into a deeper, more flexible survival-style experience with broader PvE/PvPvE options, and will share updates on Nightfall and Symbiosis content as it develops.
Fans celebrate Bungie’s move to bring vaulted Destiny 2 content back into the game, reversing plans to sunset the title after layoffs, but the studio warns there’s no concrete roadmap yet and any new content will take months to arrive while questions about Destiny 3 linger.
Bungie will unvault older Destiny 2 campaigns, locations and raids and tweak returning content to meet modern standards as Marathon underperforms; the studio says it will evolve both titles, including a permanent PvE mode and a social space planned for December to broaden appeal and rebuild trust.
Bungie acknowledges Marathon didn’t reach as many players as hoped and says the game needs to evolve. The studio plans to end the current seasonal model and roll out a December update called Symbiosis that adds a new PvE mode, aiming to deepen Marathon beyond its extraction-shooter roots while still offering PvP and PvPvE experiences. Bungie stresses that Marathon isn’t meant to replace Destiny, but could play a larger role in its future through expanded narrative and world-building. More details are expected later this week.
Bungie says it will reverse the Destiny Content Vault by restoring vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids, acknowledging the removal damaged player trust. The process will require reworking lighting, encounters, and other systems after the Beyond Light era, and the work will take time to meet current Destiny 2 standards; Bungie also indicates Marathon will shift toward a deeper survival experience, with no Destiny 3 announced.
Bungie announced it will restore vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids—starting with the Red War campaign—to all players as part of a broader effort to honor Destiny’s past while building its future; the work requires updating lighting, encounters, and systems since Beyond Light, so no timetable is set for when returning content will be live.
Bungie has dismissed a wide-ranging leak claiming Marathon would merge with Destiny, stressing that the two IPs share Bungie DNA but remain independent. The leak, traced to 4Chan and Reddit, also suggested Destiny veterans would join Marathon and a free-to-play launch with a new PvE mode, but Bungie says nothing is confirmed and Destiny 3 is not in development; Marathon and Destiny will stay separate despite the rumors.
Bungie has announced Marathon will abandon its seasonal cadence in favor of a more flexible update schedule. The forthcoming Symbiosis update, arriving December 8, adds a permanent PvE mode, a social space and firing range, an experimental PvP Deathmatch, and a refreshed Perimeter zone, while content originally planned for September will now ship as part of this update. An October 6 patch will reset the game’s economy and introduce a new battle pass. The changes aim to refresh Marathon and broaden its playstyles, though fan reception is guarded given the game’s mixed performance and Bungie’s broader business context.
Bungie will add a permanent PvE mode called Symbiosis to Marathon later this year as part of a broader shift away from the original PvPvE extraction-shooter vision; the September update is pushed back to December 8, and the studio is moving to a more flexible development cadence while continuing to refine future plans through a forthcoming blog, all amid recent Bungie layoffs and organizational changes.
Marathon's long-awaited permanent PvE mode and accompanying updates have been pushed from September to December 8 as part of the Symbiosis update, which will also bring a new Runner shell, a social space for weapon testing, onboarding improvements, a refreshed Perimeter zone, and an experimental team deathmatch mode. In the meantime, October 6 will deliver a smaller update that resets progression and the economy, adds a Rewards Pass, and includes QoL improvements, while Vault Breaker returns for a limited time. Bungie also confirms a shift away from a strict seasonal release cadence to give the team more time to build and test features, amid ongoing staffing challenges and industry-wide changes.
Marathon’s September update has been delayed to December as Bungie abandons its seasonal model in favor of a flexible, experimentation-driven release plan. The December Symbiosis update will introduce a new Runner shell, permanent PvE, a refreshed Perimeter, a social space with a firing range, an experimental Team Deathmatch mode, and improved onboarding, with a smaller October patch to reset progression and economy. Between October and December, Bungie will run gameplay experiments as it seeks to deliver deeper progression and variety, though the firm faces declining player counts and prior layoffs that have cast doubt on the project’s revival.
Bungie, the Sony-owned studio behind Destiny 2, is exploring subleasing portions of its 210,984 sq ft Bellevue, WA campus after cutting more than 600 employees over three years, signaling a shift to a digital-first, remote-friendly workplace. The expansive HQ expansion, intended to support Destiny 2 and new IPs, now sits alongside a much smaller team and a portfolio pared back since Sony’s $3.6B acquisition, with Marathon remaining as the studio’s major project.