Destiny 2: The Final Shape, Marathon Reportedly Delayed As Bungie Lays Off Staff

Following earlier reports, Bungie has confirmed that it has laid off an unspecified number of staff members. It has also reportedlydelayed the upcoming Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion and its new Marathon game.

As first reported by Bloomberg, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons confirmed the layoffs on Twitter. "Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio," he wrote. "What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future. These are truly talented people. If you have openings, I would highly recommend each and every one of them."

Parsons did not address the reported delays. According to Bloomberg, Destiny 2's upcoming expansion, The Final Shape, has been delayed from February to June. Bungie's next game, Marathon, has also reportedly been delayed to 2025.

Several now-former Bungie employees have confirmed they were laid off. The cuts seem to impact departments such as editorial, recruiting, and quality assurance. These include former social media lead Griffin Bennett and franchise editor Jason Guisao.

Sony acquired Bungie in 2022 with the purpose of understanding how community and live-service games operate, due to Destiny 2's enormous success. Unfortunately, layoffs are becoming increasingly common in the video game industry, and Bungie isn't the only PlayStation studio cutting jobs. Last week, Little Big Planet developer Media Molecule laid off developers.

Independent studios join larger first-party ones in the hopes of gaining stability, so it's disheartening to see layoffs happen. Last month, Epic Games laid off around 900 employees, including those at Bandcamp and Fall Guys developers Mediatonic after acquiring them.