Valve Veteran Doesn't Think Sony Is Interested In Bungie After Destiny 2 Shuts Down

Live games are inherently risky. It is expected to maintain a “forever” player base that will continue to bring money into the developer's pocket or, more realistically, the publisher's pocket, while steadily growing that base every year. Even those that have succeeded, like Fortnite, are not infallible, as we saw with the recent Epic Games layoffs.

So, when a studio builds itself almost exclusively on the live services game, what happens when it crashes? That's the question hanging over Bungie's head this week as Destiny 2 finally settles in and reports suggest Destiny 3 won't happen after all. Everything now depends on Marathon, the studio's new live-service shooter.

As GamesRadar+ reports, Valve veteran Chet Faliszek, one of the writers behind Left 4 Dead and Portal, is one of many to express concern about the future of the studio. “Are we witnessing the end of Bungie?” he asked in the new video. “I say not to celebrate and scream 'dead game' or anything, but just super messed up. Because Destiny 2 shutting down on June 9th means they don't need a lot of people to keep Destiny 2 going and they're not doing Destiny 3.”

Indeed, reports suggest that Bungie is now gearing up for layoffs.

“The marathon was a big bet and it didn't hit,” he continued. “Sony bought Bungie for their multiplayer games… I guess Sony doesn't care anymore huh?”

Studios Want Forever Games and Destiny 2 just proved that the series is not indestructible

PlayStation announced its intention to enter the live services space in 2022, shortly after buying Bungie for $3.6 billion, with plans to launch ten live service games by 2026. Most of them did not make it. Concord suffered such a humiliating launch that it was pulled from sale two weeks later, while Factions' standalone game The Last of Us, new live service Twisted Metal, an unannounced triple fantasy game for PlayStation London and Spider-Man: The Great Web were outright cancelled, to name a few.

Marathon is vital not only to Bungie's future, but also to PlayStation's live services. But with Sony reportedly considering Destiny 3 too expensive to greenlit, it's clear that faith is wavering. As Faliszek explained, publishers want to invest in games with live services that never die, like Counter-Strike, which continues to dominate the Steam charts after decades on the market. “Counter-Strike has been around since 1997,” he said. “These games, once they find an audience, can live forever, and that's what these publishers are after.”

Destiny 2 proved that IP is not indestructible, which is probably why Sony is so reluctant to pursue sequels or other spin-off projects. That leaves Bungie with Marathon, which is no longer meeting expectations. So much so, Sony spent billions acquiring the studio that made the Xbox with Halo to help with its live service, and now all that's left is a dedicated shooter. Hard to blame Faliszek for having concerns.