Bungie is reassuring Destiny 2 players by stating they're not abandoning the game in favor of Marathon. With the promise of two expansions per year starting in 2025 and efforts poured into making their latest extraction shooter a success, can they make it happen, or will we see another infamous Destiny 2 DLC delay?
In recent years, the company has developed a reputation for consistently missing expansion release dates. Some delays were due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control, while others were more likely a consequence of the internal turmoil Bungie has faced over the past few years.
The first delay came with Beyond Light in 2020. Understandably, the sudden pivot to work-from-home setups in the middle of a global pandemic prompted the team to push the DLC from September to November of that same year.
That would be the first of many issues that were yet to come. 2021 would receive no Destiny 2 expansion as The Witch Queen was moved from late in the year to early 2022. The studio's initial plans to deliver three major expansions to complete the Light and Darkness Saga (Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, and Lightfall) had to be scrapped as they adjusted to a new work-from-home setup.
As a result, Lightfall became a pointless side adventure that fell short tonally. Its only reason for existing, besides not having a massive gap with no DLC between The Witch Queen and Final Shape, was to introduce the Strand subclass.
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+ 2There was even a rumor that suggested The Witch Queen was the DLC where Bungie originally planned to introduce Strand into the game. The developers debunked that, but it's clear the expansion suffered from feeling shoehorned into the content cycle.
Ironically, Lightfall would be the one DLC not getting delayed, launching in its intended early 2023 window. The same could not be said for Destiny 2's own Avengers Endgame, The Final Shape.
Scheduled for February 2024, TFS was delayed until June of that same year. This time, internal issues that led to massive layoffs in mid-2023 were the cause, with Bungie letting go of 8% of its workforce.
By this point in the timeline, Bungie was already part of Sony Interactive Entertainment, which had acquired the then-independent studio for upwards of $3.6 billion in 2022. Marathon was also recently revealed with a teaser trailer in May 2023.
Marathon was also allegedly delayed alongside The Final Shape. Bungie never revealed the studio's intended release date, but insiders stated that the developers wanted to ship the game in 2024.
While the extraction shooter faced its own issues, switching game directors amid development, with former Riot Games Valorant lead Joe Ziegler taking over the role in 2023, Destiny 2 fans were going through a tough period.
The initial goodwill earned back by Bungie with the stellar Final Shape release was quickly fading away as the new Episodic format didn't seem to hit the mark. It failed to the point where Bungie once again decided to pivot: as murmurs surfaced that Destiny 2 would be put to rest with no expansions planned, Bungie confirmed DLC would still be coming, but with a twist. Fans can now expect two smaller expansions each year, starting in 2025, with the launch of Codename: Frontiers.
And so, we found ourselves pondering that initial question: can Bungie actually deliver everything they set out to do this year? The answer is... who knows? But hopefully, they don't. Hear me out.
click to enlarge+ 2I want Marathon and Destiny 2 to succeed. Codename: Frontiers is yet another significant landmark for D2. The first expansion, now titled The Edge of Fate, will have a massive reveal on April 19. It's set to come out at some point during the summer.
The next one, Behemoth, is scheduled to launch in winter 2025. It would make complete sense to slightly push back its release to 2026 and let Marathon breathe in an already crowded market.
Whether Bungie likes it or not, even if Marathon is an entirely different genre from Destiny 2, there will be a considerable overlap in players who will likely try both out. Not to mention, Borderlands 4 is also coming out on September 23.
Oddly enough, if there was ever a time for a strategic delay of content, 2025 might be the year where Bungie would benefit from pushing back Destiny 2 DLCs to 2026. Fans might not like it initially, but it would allow Marathon to potentially thrive and help the studio get back on its feet after a rocky few years.