Bungie confirmed it is ending development on Destiny 2 after nearly a decade, with the studio planning one final update before putting the game into maintenance mode indefinitely.
This announcement feels like a watershed moment for live-service gaming, as if it’s saying that if a franchise that typically draws hundreds of thousands of players at expansion launch still can’t take off, the entire space is moving toward a calculation of which titles can actually stick around after pouring money into it long-term.
Meanwhile, the studio being bought by Sony for “a few billion dollars” in 2022 is quietly pivoting away from everything else and putting more emphasis on Marathon, an extraction shooter that’s still under development.
Thus, the change leaves Destiny 2’s future forever in limbo, as there is no official Destiny 3 currently in development, despite all indications from Bungie that there is not one on the horizon after a decade.
Anthem joins the ranks of other failed live services, including Marvel Avengers, Concord, and Highguard, which garnered much praise at launch but were ultimately abandoned or frozen.
Despite the fact that there was still significant play, the numbers for each content drop were reaching hundreds of thousands.
It seems clear that players have reached the point where they are tired of paying for the Season Pass and Battle Pass.
