Should fans of Destiny be rooting for Marathon to succeed to or fail? This topic has been hotly debated after the announcement that Destiny 2 is receiving its final update on June 9th, 2026, causing a civil war between the two communities as they debate the future of the two franchises and Bungie as a whole. In this rhetorical battle you have two camps, Marathon fans excited about the future of the highly-rated extraction shooter now that Bungie can focus the bulk of their development resources solely Marathon, and Destiny fans who are bitter that those new features are coming at the expense of a long-running successful franchise in Destiny.

Over the course of the week since the end of Destiny announcement, some popular Destiny 2 content creators have sworn off Marathon as a concept, declaring that they will not play the game that they feel killed Destiny. Meanwhile, some insist that Destiny fans should flock to Marathon, and commit to buying seasons and microtransactions with the argument being threefold:

1. Argument 1: Marathon’s Success is Bungie’s success, and if Marathon fails, Sony may shutter Bungie’s door killing the chance of any Destiny revival
2. Argument 2: In order to incentivize Sony to approve the development of more Destiny (be that Destiny 3 or the revival of Destiny 2), and for Bungie to fund that development, Marathon needs to thrive and not just survive the next few years
3. Argument 3: Destiny has had 12 years of support, quit being a baby and maybe Destiny will return some day but enjoy other games in the meantime(/s)

After purchasing Bungie for $3.6 billion with not much to show for it, Sony has a confidence problem that can only be solved with huge piles of cash, and with Marathon being Bungie’s only live game, it is Destiny fans only hope to deliver Bungie’s salvation, and hopefully Destiny 3.

With that background out of the way, here’s my take.

There are three end cases for Marathon.

1. The player base fails to grow, and the game ceases development later in 2026 or early 2027.
2. The player base grows moderately, and the game continues support for a few years before ceasing development.
3. The player base grows massively, is a hit, and support continues for many years to come.

According to the logic above, option 3 is the best case for Destiny’s future as Bungie is flush with cash, is on Sony’s nice list, and can expand to a size where they can adequately support Marathon and develop the future of Destiny in parallel, but I think this view is dead wrong. In the world where Marathon thrives and is printing money, I don’t think we see more Destiny, I think we see more Marathon. Every dollar of that success will be proof that killing Destiny was the correct call and be funneled into Marathon’s development. The classic comparison case is Titanfall and Apex Legends. Apex Legends massive success, no matter how much is waxes and wanes, has never encouraged the development of a Titanfall 3 and why would it? Moving on from the Titanfall games is the thing that brought that success, logic doesnt say you go back to the thing you moved on from, it dictates that you double down on the thing that brought you success.

If option 2 occurs and Marathon crawls along for a few years with middling player counts and relative obscurity in the gaming world, it could show that ending Destiny was a mistake and encourage the return to the franchise. But it could also give the world the chance to move on from Destiny, and with more time having passed since the acquisition Sony could take the view that the whole acquisition was a mistake, that Bungie doesn’t have it in them to make a hit anymore, and it’s better to cut their losses after many years of disappointment. At that point I don’t know if anyone could blame them for shuttering the studio or merging them into another Sony studio to support some other project.

Based on the title of this article, it’s no surprise that I think option number 1 is Destiny’s Best chance at survival. Up to this point Marathon has been a relative disappointment, at least when put up against the shockingly high $200 million plus budget that game reportedly needed. While critically well-received and beloved by a small dedicated player base that loves it dearly, the game has failed to acquire a large enough player base to justify such a massive budget. If those numbers don’t improve significantly between the upcoming season 2 launching on June 2nd and the following two seasons that are already reportedly committed too, I can see a world where Sony decides to move on from the game.

This is the case where we see the highest chance of a return to Destiny. While you can make the argument they may still shutter the studio, I can see a world where the recency of the end of Destiny, combined with the embarrassment of such a rapid debacle encourages Sony to take a long shot that Destiny can save Bungie and repair the reputation of the entire acquisition. While Destiny 2 had many missteps over the past two years and had become stale and a shell of its former glory, the franchise is beloved by many, and a fresh start would welcome many, many players back into the fold. What would that number of players be and would a new Destiny game bring those numbers? I cannot say, but in a sunk cost Hail Mary situation I think it would be the most obvious bet.

The feelings of the sunk cost fallacy can only go so far, eventually the inability to accept failure and cut your losses fades away, and you wise up to what must be done. If Marathon struggled for years before ceasing development, there may be more layoffs, morale deterioration, and staff churn that makes it prohibitively difficult to build a Destiny 3. Sony’s pent-up exasperation may have reached a level where they simply cannot see a world in which Destiny can save the studio with the franchise being years in the rearview mirror. But a swift end for Marathon later this year may preserve the soul of Bungie, allowing for a great reallocation to a new destiny project with many of Bungie’s most talented staff. And at that point, the anticipated resurgence of the game from the incredible looking June 9th Monuments of Triumph update will be fresh in the minds of Sony, Bungie staff, and the Destiny community.

If this were to occur, there would be the argument over whether the best course would be a full-blown Destiny 3, or a pivot back to Destiny 2 with the Shattered Cycle expansion almost certainly being far along in development. I’m going to explore that in another article because I think there are pros and cons to both options in regard to Destiny 2’s technical debt, the development time and cost of each, and the community sentiment.

Admittedly, as a Destiny fan, I am kind of rooting for this. But I must say it makes me sad that I see this as the best chance at seeing more Destiny in our future. Every indication is that Marathon is a great game with unique art style that while not for everybody I personally find gorgeous and unique gameplay systems that challenge players and give you that sense of danger that is hard to find. In the few matches I have played I found it gave me similar sweaty palms that I felt at the end of Fortnite or Warzone matches years ago, it’s a feeling of excitement that keeps you coming back for more. But the extraction shooter genre is an acquired taste that is not particularly friendly to casual players, and unfortunately Destiny is a cautionary tale for a game not being accessible to new players and what that does to your player base over time.

I wish Bungie had the ability to fully support both of these games without them eating into each other’s resources, but as people were already discussing before the end of Destiny announcement, they clearly were stretched to thin. For now, Destiny is put on a shelf, and we will see if Marathon has the chops to survive after a rocky start, but if I’m right and Marathon doesn’t survive much past the end of this year, it might just be Destiny’s best chance at resurrection.

Notes; maybe link pauls article regarding supporting both games images? reddit link to the consultant saying marathon is already dead and destiny is more of a sure thing