Bungie Reportedly Considered Relaunching Destiny as 'Destiny Infinity' Before Deciding to Pull the Plug on Destiny 2

Bungie's Destiny 2: A Franchise on the Brink

Bungie's long-standing sci-fi shooter, Destiny 2, has been facing significant challenges for some time, with the underperformance of its last summer's Edge of Fate expansion marking a turning point. According to Forbes, the decision to discontinue active development on the game was reportedly made earlier this year after discussions about its future. This followed the release of Renegades, a Star Wars-themed crossover expansion in December, which reportedly performed even worse than Edge of Fate and failed to improve sales or player retention.

The studio, which is now owned by Sony, had reportedly considered a relaunch of the franchise under the name Destiny Infinity, which would have included a return to the traditional one big expansion model. However, this idea was ultimately abandoned due to the high costs and risks involved, particularly in the context of supporting Marathon, the studio's recent extraction shooter. While Destiny 3 was discussed internally, it was never pursued, and there have been no official hints of a third game in the series.

The End of an Era for Destiny 2

Bungie confirmed that content updates for Destiny 2 will end on June 9, nearly nine years after the game's launch. Despite this, the studio has stated that Destiny 2 will remain playable for fans, even as active development ceases. This marks the end of a long and complicated journey for the franchise, which has seen its share of highs and lows since its debut.

Destiny 1 launched on September 9, 2014, for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It was a commercial success, but critics were divided in their opinions. As part of a high-profile publishing deal with Activision, the game received regular expansions and updates. However, tensions between Bungie and Activision grew over time, and the two companies officially parted ways in January 2019, ending their 10-year publishing deal five years early.

After gaining full control of the franchise, Bungie self-published Destiny 2, which launched on September 6, 2017, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a PC version following shortly after. Despite this, the game's expansions failed to meet expectations, leading to financial difficulties and layoffs. In early 2022, Sony acquired Bungie in a $3.6 billion deal, but the acquisition has yet to yield the expected returns. Recently, Sony reported a $765 million impairment loss, specifically linked to Bungie's underperformance.

Marathon's Struggles and Fan Reactions

Marathon, Bungie's latest extraction shooter, launched in early March with a reported budget of over $250 million. However, it has also failed to meet sales expectations, according to analysts. This has only added to the growing concerns about Bungie's direction as a studio, with many fans questioning whether the company is making the right decisions.

Fans of Destiny 2 are reportedly upset about the decision to end support for the franchise and are planning to "crash the servers" on June 9 to demonstrate that the game still has a large and dedicated player base. In a lengthy Reddit thread, fan w1nds0r issued a call to action for all Destiny players to return on that day when the game's final content update arrives.

"We need to at least smash Marathon's all-time high to show them they made the wrong decision," w1nds0r wrote, suggesting that this would be a way to send a message to Sony that the Destiny franchise is still valuable. Marathon launched in March with a Steam peak of 77,358 players, but its daily peak is now around 10,000 players.