Destiny 3 isn't in production. Bungie is heading for significant layoffs after Destiny 2 wraps in June.

Jason Schreier reported at Bloomberg on May 21 that Bungie is preparing for a significant round of layoffs once content support for Destiny 2 wraps next month. The studio has no next project lined up for the Destiny 2 development team. Destiny 3, the obvious follow-up, is not in active production.

Schreier also flagged the structural shift behind the cuts. Sony Interactive Entertainment has taken tighter management control of Bungie in recent months, particularly after the departure of studio chief Pete Parsons, and the new posture frames the studio as a Sony-managed asset rather than the semi-autonomous unit it was at acquisition.

What Schreier reported

The Bloomberg piece is the source of the news; everything downstream traces to it. The reason this matters beyond Destiny fans: Bungie was Sony’s biggest live-service bet at $3.6 billion, and the studio missing on Destiny 3 and underperforming on Marathon is the first public signal that the PlayStation live-service strategy isn’t working at scale. Three concrete points from the report:

• Destiny 2 content support ends in June 2026, after nine years of live service.
• Destiny 3 is not in production. Bungie staff are pitching the company’s next project, including more work inside the Destiny universe, but nothing has been greenlit. The studio is in an idea-phase, not an execution-phase, for what comes next.
• Layoffs follow. The number isn’t public yet. Schreier described the cuts as “significant” without an exact figure.

On the “why no Destiny 3 already” question, Schreier wrote: “A lot of people have wondered why Bungie didn’t immediately start working on Destiny 3 after The Final Shape two years ago. The answer (as it usually is) is how much money it would take.” The unstated subtext is that Sony, post-acquisition, isn’t extending the credit line.

Marathon is the bet that has to land

Bungie’s near-term hope is Marathon, the extraction shooter that some Destiny 2 developers have already transferred to. The launch hasn’t gone well: sales and player counts have undershot the targets Sony built the project around. More Destiny 2 staff are expected to follow the first wave onto Marathon once Destiny 2 closes out, which means Marathon picks up headcount even as the company is cutting.

Push Square framed the situation directly: Bungie is in the position of needing Marathon to become a long-term live-service success while the studio itself contracts. That’s a hard ask. Helldivers 2, from Arrowhead, remains the only clear live-service hit Sony has produced since the PlayStation 5 generation began. Concord shipped and got pulled. Foamstars shipped and went free-to-play to chase players that never showed.

Sony’s grip tightens

The Parsons-departure context is the most consequential part of the story. Bungie sold to Sony for $3.6 billion in 2022 with a public commitment to “operational independence.” That commitment has been quietly drained over the last 18 months: a 2024 layoff round, a 2025 layoff round, and now a 2026 round, each accompanied by tighter integration with the PlayStation Studios management chain. Bungie’s CFO and COO roles have already moved under Sony reporting lines, per prior Schreier reporting.

The pattern is familiar from other Sony acquisitions. Naughty Dog and Insomniac began as quasi-independent studios and ended as PlayStation Studios cost centers. Bungie kept its independence promise longer than most because it had the Destiny revenue line to defend it; with that line running out, Sony’s posture changes.

What’s still unknown

• The actual layoff number. Bloomberg didn’t have it. “Significant” at Bungie has historically meant double-digit percent of headcount.
• Whether the next Bungie project stays in the Destiny universe. Multiple internal pitches are reportedly Destiny-flavored, but nothing has been greenlit.
• What Marathon’s targets are now. Sony has not publicly reset expectations after the disappointing launch.
• The timeline for the layoffs. Schreier’s piece said “planning”; affected staff have not been notified as of reporting.

Bungie did not comment on the Bloomberg story directly. Sony Interactive Entertainment declined to provide a statement to Schreier.

What this means for you

If you play Destiny 2, June is your deadline for the current content cycle. The game itself stays online after content support ends, but new seasons, expansions, and dungeons stop. Anything you’ve been meaning to finish in the Light/Dark saga is a now-or-never call.

If you’re a developer at a Sony-owned studio, the Bungie pattern is the cautionary tale: the bigger the acquisition’s autonomy guarantee, the faster it erodes once the revenue justifying it ends. And if you’ve been waiting for Destiny 3, brace for a multi-year gap. The studio is in pitch mode, not production mode, which means the earliest realistic ship date is 2028 even if a Destiny-shaped follow-up gets greenlit in the next six months.