Exploring the Future of Bungie: Destiny 2: Frontiers, Marathon, and Beyond

Marathon | Bungie.net

Three weeks ago saw the long awaited gameplay reveal of Bungie's 'new' IP, Marathon. A PvP extraction shooter, the game has already made its mark with its amazing art style, interesting world and its impressive story trailer, giving a peek into the characters and feel of the world. With a competitive September 25th release date, finding a rival in looter shooter juggernaut Borderlands 4, Bungie seems very confident in their revival of their 30 year old series, especially with their 'premium' price tag included. Being Bungie's first non-destiny title in over a decade means that the company has a lot riding on it, looking to reward Sony for their 3.7 billion dollar purchase of the company years ago.

Speaking of Destiny, many fans (myself included, originally) were disappointed that Destiny's already decreasing development force was being split to develop another game, one which seems to share hardly any similarities between the two. However, given the new look into the new game, and a promise that Destiny's development will be unaffected by Marathon's arrival, many are coming around to the prospect of both existing together, and potentially helping out each other as time goes on.

"Destiny 2 will continue. Marathon will begin" - @Destiny2Team on Twitter. April 12, 2025

Destiny 2's recent track record, at least in sales, has reportedly left some to be desired. Layoffs shortly after the critical praise of the Final Shape expansion were attributed to 'disappointing' sales numbers, lacking behind even the previous expansions. According to the same source, Bungie 'oversold' themselves during their Sony buyout, making many promises it seems to be failing to deliver. What these promises are are unclear, but it stands to reason that sales and playerbase has something to do with it. In the initial announcement of the 220 layoffs to the studio, it was confirmed that developers indeed were spread too thin, being moved to Marathon and rumored 'Gummy Bears' title, a supposed MOBA title. The unfortunate reveal that many developers were desperate to deliver fan requested features to Destiny 2 while consistently being told no from upper management especially hurt the playerbase, who found it upon themselves to apologize to the undeserving developers for their years of torment.

The Final Shape, while being one of the best reviews Destiny expansions, is now known to be, for now, the last 'major' yearly expansion coming to the game. The new way forward for the game lies in Destiny 2: Frontiers, a plan to release two medium size additions to the game over the course of 2025-2026. Promising new ways to enjoy the game, embarking into uncharted territories and expanding the already 10-year long story. If the strategy proves successful, it seems evident that this will be the release schedule going forward, allowing more dynamic and consistent content to the company's main money maker.

Destiny 2: Frontiers

Make or Break: for real this time

It's a common joke amongst the Destiny community that each expansion was a 'make or break' for the franchise, with its entire life dependent on the success of each release. However, unjokingly this time, the fate of Marathon, Destiny and Bungie as a whole seems to be riding on Marathon being a smash hit. For a studio that has released several commercial disappointments in a row, somehow, a brand new big budget game seems quite a gamble. While Marathon is a well established series from three decades ago, the revival is taking a new approach, hoping to draw in an entirely new playerbase. What Bungie and/or their shareholders qualify as a 'success' in terms of sales numbers is unknown at the time, but it would make sense for these numbers to be a necessity to the future of the company. The studio will now have to massively online experiences to produce content for and maintain in ways that keep players returning and hopefully take advantage of the online stores. What the post release content pipeline looks like for Marathon is unknown at the time, but the usual seasons/expansion releases is all but expected. Hopefully with the Closed Alpha, beginning on April 25th, we can get some new insight into how the game plans to evolve past its initial release.

Whatever the case, if Marathon doesn't at least somewhat meet expectations, it seems to be only a matter of time before more layoffs will follow, and where that will leave the company in the long run is frankly worrying. Destiny 2 is already a very expensive game to develop for and upkeep, and with the addition of another always online title, and a potential third game developed at the same time, budgets may be eaten up faster than expected.

Working in tandem

Destiny 2's new expansion, Edge of Fate, will be the introduction to the new plan of content delivery for the game. One big expansions a year was proving to be too limiting for the studio, and such they decided to spread the content into medium sized packages with additional small deliveries in between. This sounds more in line with the original year of Destiny 1 and 2. With Destiny 1, the two expansions released during year one were well enough acclaimed to be looked back on fondly. Although the same can't be said for Destiny 2's year one, it is a point that can be easily improved on, and will be, as stated by the studio themselves. Bringing back the 'mystery' and non linearity of the original Destiny experience will potentially bring back a lot of the people who are yearning for the old feel of the series. If this schedule is well received, this will potentially remain the style for the rest of Destiny 2's lifespan, which relies solely on the success of it and Marathon.

Of course Marathon, an extraction game, has a smaller budget than an MMORPG, but with an already stagnant staff, the budgets would reasonably be reliant on each other. In order to be purchased by Sony, there must have been a show of success and returns of investments, which is of course where Destiny comes in. But surely it can't remain the only source of income from the company. Marathon, and the still unknown 'Gummy Bears' title would definitely make up for whatever 'disappointing' numbers come from Destiny and its expansions. If Marathon doesn't live up to expectations, what happens?

'Gummy Bears'

Worst Case Scenario(s)

If Marathon doesn't live up to expectations for any reasons, be it the price tag, general interest, or unreachable expectations, the company would be in severe trouble. The rounds of layoffs is already a bad sign of the state of the company, so a flop of their 'newest' IP would further dig them into an unclimbable hole. Unfortunately, with no more new large expansions and the conclusion of their decade long story, general interest in Destiny may never reach its previous heights. Hopefully I am wrong in this assessment, and we won't know until the Summer launch of Edge of Fate. But will the interest be enough to make up for a Marathon sized failure? The reasonable answer would be No. Destiny itself wasn't enough to save hundreds of staff from being let go, and having a product fail would only make the hit even worse.  Though, Destiny's budget is obviously being downsized, so the profit margin is far smaller than what was needed for things such as The Final Shape. As long as the expansions are able to keep players in the game for longer, even more money can come in from eververse, merch, and things along those lines.

If Marathon even remotely hits around the expectations, it will certainly be enough to keep the company afloat for the time being. Impressions of Marathon seem to be liked enough, though initial impressions forced the company to completely change their DMCA policy on the alpha. It all comes down to if the niche-ish genre and $40 price tag will bring in the amount of players they are hoping for. Post release plans are already being talked about, with a new 'raid like' map being released shortly after launch. If the store contains a microtransaction store (almost certainly does), what is included in it would certainly weight the amount of the money coming in from that source.

In the case of a monumental flop on behalf of Marathon, several things may or may not happen:

Marathon shut down

Depending on just how bad the game launches, the servers may immediately end up costing too much to handle, and would result in a game shut down shortly after launch

Back to Basics

Sony integration

Studio Closure

Destiny 2: Red War

Remaining Hopeful

Even have said all this, I am hoping to be wrong on every front. I hope that Marathon is a smash hit, that Frontiers is a successful experiment and breathes new life in Destiny 2, and the studio as a whole continues to provide great content for years to come. Bungie has delivered some of my favorite games and experiences of all time. Not even just from their days in Halo, but in Destiny 1 and 2 as well. Would I be saying the same if I had access to the Marathon alpha? I hope so. This article was not written from a place of malice or pessimism. I wrote this from a place of hope. Taking everything into account, from layoffs to the acclaimed quality of their recent releases.

Marathon seems to be a chance at capturing a new audience. Bringing back old Marathon/Halo/Destiny fans, and bringing entirely new players into their products. No matter how the public feels about the studio and their recent headlines (DCV, the CEO, lawsuits, etc), many gamers would agree that at one point in time, Bungie had a hand in delivering some of the best quality games on the market. I am entirely hopeful that this will continue. In a perfect world, Marathon is THE new extraction shooter, Edge of Fate brings Destiny 2 back to the acclaimed status it deserves, and even Gummy Bears shakes up the MOBA market as well. Will any of this come to fruition? Only time will tell.