Destiny 2 Ended Over Money, Not Sony Revenge

After a week of reports claiming Sony was “punishing” Bungie over its live-service failures, Forbes reporter Paul Tassi — one of the most connected Destiny journalists in the industry — pushed back. Speaking with sources inside Bungie, Tassi says the decision to end active development on Destiny 2 comes down to one thing: the game was losing more money than it was making.

In a thread on X, Tassi put it plainly: “This is almost entirely financial — Destiny 2 cost more than it made. Math. Cruel math, but math. No one at Bungie has any belief this is some ‘revenge’ idea.”

Where the “Revenge” Story Came From

The narrative Tassi was responding to originated with Sylvain Trinel, a French journalist who covers the games industry and has reported on Bungie extensively. Following the end-of-support announcement, Trinel posted on X citing sources inside PlayStation who described a feeling of “desire for revenge” from Sony leadership — with some at the company reportedly blaming Bungie for PlayStation’s broader live-service failures this generation.

When asked directly whether it was Sony or Bungie leadership driving that sentiment, Trinel replied simply: “Sony exec.”

That’s a serious claim. Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, partly on the promise that the studio — creators of Halo and the architects of a decade-long live-service ecosystem — would act as an internal consultant for PlayStation’s own GaaS ambitions. By most measures, that ambition never materialized. Concord launched and shut down in two weeks, reportedly losing Sony over $200 million. Projects like The Last of Us Online and a God of War multiplayer spin-off were developed and then quietly cancelled. Marathon, Bungie’s new extraction shooter, launched in March 2026 to a mixed early reception and has yet to find the kind of stable audience that would make it financially self-sustaining.

Trinel also reported that up to 50% of Bungie’s workforce — permanent staff and contractors alike — could face layoffs this summer. Given that Bungie employed roughly 800 people at the time of reporting, that figure would represent around 400 job losses.

What Tassi’s Sources Actually Say

Tassi’s rebuttal, sourced from people inside Bungie speaking anonymously, takes direct aim at the “revenge” framing. According to his report:

“The impression from my source was that this information from the Sony side was probably gathered from PlayStation employees who would not be in the know about leadership’s motivation and mindset. There are employees who have said out loud — through internal communications — that they are confused about Destiny 2’s cancellation, but this is a company with 12,000 employees. This decision was almost entirely about math: profit and loss. Destiny 2 has been losing more money than it’s been making, and it has always been a very expensive game to maintain.”

In short: the PlayStation employees Trinel’s sources spoke to may be genuinely confused by the decision — but confusion at the employee level doesn’t mean the decision was arbitrary or punitive. It means those employees weren’t in the room where it was made.

Tassi was equally direct about the broader “blame” narrative. As reported by Destructoid, he stated: “Sony isn’t doing this to ‘punish’ Bungie for some transgression via its live service plans or game underperformance. Bungie is also not being blamed for the failure of games like Concord, or the large-scale problems with Sony’s recent live-service strategy.”

He did, however, stop short of painting a clean picture for the studio. Tassi acknowledged plainly that “Bungie did not live up to what Sony wanted” — he just considers the leap from that acknowledgement to “Sony is taking revenge” an oversimplification of the business reality involved.

On the layoff question, Tassi declined to put a percentage on it, but described the expected cuts as “significant”. With Destiny 2 winding down and no other approved projects in the pipeline beyond Marathon, the math on headcount becomes brutal: a studio of 800 maintaining a single game in maintenance mode and supporting another in early live-service doesn’t need the same workforce it did at peak Destiny 2 development.

Destiny 3 Isn’t Happening — At Least Not Yet

One of the most dispiriting details in Tassi’s wider reporting is the status of any franchise continuation. Destiny 3 is neither in production nor greenlit. No other projects beyond Marathon have reportedly been approved. Internal pitches using the Destiny IP were made; none moved forward.

The cost estimate circulating internally — first reported by Jason Schreier and confirmed as roughly accurate by Tassi after speaking with multiple industry sources — puts building a Destiny 3 at somewhere around $500 million before marketing and post-launch support. That figure, in a post-Concord PlayStation environment where every live-service bet is being scrutinised, effectively ends the conversation before it starts.

Tassi’s report also revealed that, before the nuclear option was chosen, Bungie considered alternatives. One was effectively relaunching Destiny 2 under a new name — internally discussed as “Destiny Infinity”. That idea, along with Destiny 3, was discussed and shelved. Sometime in early 2026, the decision to end active development entirely was made.

What Happened to Destiny 2: The Final Update

The practical endpoint arrived on June 9, 2026, when Bungie released Update 9.7.0 — Monument of Triumph. It was the game’s last major content drop after nearly nine years of continuous live-service development, and Bungie went out swinging: the patch ran to over 17,000 words of notes and added a significant slate of content.

Monument of Triumph included:

• Pantheon — a rotating boss-rush gauntlet built around encounters from past raids, including vaulted content players haven’t touched in years.
• Sparrow Racing League — the fan-favourite racing mode, returned as a permanent fixture rather than a seasonal event.
• Distortions — new anomaly events that reshape patrol zones and add structured gameplay loops to previously underused destinations.
• Legendary Marks — a new currency earned through Triumphs that can be spent on a catalogue of armor ornaments, accessories, and weapon engrams spanning the game’s history.
• A new Exotic mission, new title, new armor set, and vault expansion from 1,000 to 1,300 slots.

Monument of Triumph is free for all players and remains in the game indefinitely. Bungie framed the update as a celebration of everything Guardians accomplished during Destiny 2’s active life — a love letter rather than a final maintenance patch.

Crucially: Destiny 2 is not shutting down. Servers stay online. Raids, dungeons, Crucible, Gambit — everything currently in the game remains playable. Bungie has committed to releasing emergency hotfixes if stability issues arise, as noted in their official support documentation. What ends is the live-service cycle: no new expansions, no new seasons, no balance updates, no narrative roadmaps. The version of the game that existed before June 9 is essentially what the game will be, permanently.

Even the success of Monument of Triumph itself — which drew a significant surge of returning players — didn’t change the calculus. Tassi confirmed after asking his sources directly: the player numbers from the final update’s reception moved nothing behind the scenes.

What Comes Next for Bungie

The studio’s survival now runs through Marathon. According to Tassi’s reporting, Sony is giving the extraction shooter time to find its audience — but the implicit pressure is clear. A Marathon that builds a sustainable playerbase is the only realistic scenario in which Sony has a financial reason to keep investing in Bungie at scale. A Marathon that continues to underperform accelerates the downsizing timeline.

For longtime Destiny players, the outlook is bleak. The franchise has no confirmed future. The sequel nobody wanted to need is too expensive to build. And the studio that made Halo and then remade live-service gaming with Destiny is heading into its most uncertain chapter since it went independent.

Tassi’s framing isn’t comforting, but it’s clear-eyed: this isn’t a story about corporate grudges. It’s a story about a very expensive game that stopped making enough money, at a studio that’s now entirely dependent on its next bet landing.

Two Conflicting Accounts — Where Things Stand

Both Bungie and Sony have declined to comment on either report. Until one or both parties speak on the record, the full picture remains incomplete — and both accounts should be weighed accordingly.

Sources: Paul Tassi – Forbes · Sylvain Trinel – X · Destructoid · Destructoid (layoffs) · The Game Post · The Game Post (revenge report) · Twisted Voxel · Wolf’s Gaming Blog · Gameranx · Bungie Help (official) · GamingProMax (Destiny Infinity)