Bungie to Reportedly Fire 400 Staff Members

Trinel has been a major source of information about the industry-wide layoffs occurring recently. His X post pointed toward Bungie’s leading IPs.

Marathon is still struggling to maintain a high player count. Following Destiny 2’s final live-service content update, most of its resources and talent were shifted to support the extraction shooter.

This has not helped the game perform better. Between June 2 and June 11, 2026, the developer conducted a free-play period, during which the player count peaked at slightly over 40,000 players. It then declined rapidly, dipping below 20,000 in its final days.

On the other hand, when Destiny 2’s final content update was released, over 160,000 players logged into the game. Days later, the player count was still well above 100,000 during peak hours.

However, a high player count driven by a new update may not bring resources back to Destiny 2. Marathon’s poor retention has clearly affected the studio, and Bungie’s situation may be dire if Trinel’s report is true.

Sony’s Losses and Bungie’s Path Going Forward

Sony has publicly mentioned that Bungie’s acquisition cost it approximately $765 million in losses. Marathon’s development budget alone was reportedly over $200 million.

With Destiny 2 no longer receiving new content, Bungie has few options for Marathon. Player retention remains critical, but recent free-play data suggests players are not staying.

This is the only game Bungie is set to actively support for the foreseeable future, and poor returns could lead to further layoffs. The studio has also promised a PvE-only mode, though it was not tested during the free-play period.

If this mode gets released, those playing it will likely be the ones who have been playing the game since its release, unless the company kicks off another free-play week just for this feature, which seems unlikely.

Another option is to make Marathon free-to-play, similar to Rainbow Six Siege’s transition into Siege X, while keeping the Cryo Archive’s ranked experience behind a paywall.

This could be one of the few options the game could explore to help alleviate the studio’s troubles.