/
Bungie: 'In no way is the Destiny plan contingent upon Marathon'; fans told not to buy it as a donation
Bungie's Head of Product, Josh Deane, said on 30 October that Destiny's plans do not depend on Marathon and told players not to buy Marathon as a donation, after a 29 October update was read as tying the two. Marathon: Symbiosis is due in December and the next big Destiny update in February.
A
2 min
Bungie's Head of Product, Josh Deane, has clarified that the future of Destiny does not depend on the success of Marathon, the studio's extraction shooter. 'In no way is the Destiny plan contingent upon Marathon,' he wrote on X on 30 October, a day after Bungie's community update appeared to suggest otherwise. He also told players: 'Don't buy Marathon as a donation or offer anything else. It's our job to show up for you.'
Bungie published a community update on 29 October that covered work on both Destiny 2 and Marathon. In it, Deane urged the Destiny and Marathon communities to support each other and called Marathon's sustainability important to Bungie's future. Some players read that as meaning Destiny's comeback depended on Marathon, and they began to worry that its fate hung on another game's recovery.
The update included Marathon: Symbiosis, which is due in December, and a Destiny 2 content unvaulting project. Bungie is targeting February for its next major Destiny communication.
In his posts, Deane acknowledged that his earlier wording had caused confusion, and he encouraged players to spend time on the games they enjoy. One report says that he later said he may have worded things clumsily and blamed a mistranslation, and that Destiny's plans would move forward regardless of how Marathon does.
Bungie has previously admitted that Marathon did not reach as many players as it had hoped. One report says that the game peaked at 88,000 concurrent players on Steam and that its daily average is now around 2,000 to 3,000, which is a third-party figure that Bungie has not confirmed. Bungie has said that it will make another revival attempt for Marathon with Symbiosis in December.
The clarification does not change the dates in the update: the Destiny 2 content unvaulting work continues, and the next major Destiny communication is expected in February. Players who wanted to support Destiny by buying Marathon have been told that this is not needed.
The reports found do not say what Symbiosis will contain, or the date in December on which it will arrive. They do not give the details of the unvaulting project. They do not say how many people work on each game, or whether Bungie has made any changes to the teams. The player numbers for Marathon come from one report and have not been verified.
A
2 min
What did you think?
