Bungie Cuts 292 Jobs as Destiny 2 Ends and Marathon Carries On
Weeks after Destiny 2's final content update, Bungie laid off most of the Destiny team. Sony says Marathon still matters. How the studio behind Halo and Destiny got here, by the numbers.
On June 9, 2026, Destiny 2 received its final content update. Sixteen days later, most of the people who made it were told they no longer had jobs.
On June 25, 2026, Bungie announced "a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie." A notice filed by Sony with Washington state showed 292 jobs cut at Bungie's headquarters in Bellevue. PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst told staff the cuts affected most of the Destiny team, some Marathon developers and Sony Interactive Entertainment employees who supported Bungie. Studio head Justin Truman is stepping down, according to Bloomberg.
The end of an era for Destiny
Destiny has been Bungie's life since its first game launched in 2014. Destiny 2 followed in 2017 and became one of the defining live-service games of its generation, with expansions, seasons and raids that kept millions of players coming back for years.
That engagement faded. In 2025 Sony said the game's "sales and user engagement have not reached the expectations" it had when it bought Bungie. With the final content update now out, there is no longer a large Destiny team to support.
Marathon carries on
The studio's other live game is Marathon, an extraction shooter released on March 5, 2026. It is a paid game, priced at $39.99 for the standard edition on Steam, rather than free to play.
Sony has not shared sales figures. But Hulst was clear that it is staying: Marathon "remains an important part of our portfolio," he told staff, and new content is planned through at least the end of 2026. The remaining team will split its time between Marathon and "incubation efforts for future projects," which Bungie says are in early development. "Today is not that day," the studio said of announcing them.
The money behind the cuts
Sony bought Bungie in 2022 for about $3.6 billion. The deal has not gone to plan:
- Sony has written down Bungie's value to about $2.8 billion, a loss of more than $700 million.
- In the July-September quarter of 2025, Sony booked a ¥31.5 billion impairment related to Bungie's intangible assets.
- Bungie had already cut staff in earlier rounds before this year.
At the same time, PlayStation is doing very well. Its game profit rose 83% in the July-September quarter of 2026, helped by Marvel's Wolverine. Bungie's cuts are not about Sony needing to save money; they are about Sony deciding that a large Destiny team no longer fits its plans. (See our Sony results story.)
Why it matters
Bungie's story is the story of live service in miniature. Destiny 2 showed how a single game could run for most of a decade and earn enormous sums. Its decline shows how expensive it is to keep such a game alive once players drift away.
Marathon is now the test. It is a premium game in a genre crowded with free rivals. If it can hold an audience, Bungie has a future built around it. If not, Sony's patience may run out. Our 2026 layoffs round-up shows how many studios faced similar choices this year.
What to watch
- Marathon's content plans for late 2026 and beyond.
- Bungie's new projects, still in incubation.
- Destiny's future, now that the main team has gone.