Let’s be honest with ourselves. Destiny 2 is over. On June 9, 2026, it gets its final update, a send-off called Monument of Triumph, and that’s it. No new expansions. No new seasons.
And Bungie? The studio is bracing for significant layoffs. Again. This would be the third round of major cuts since Sony bought them for $3.6 billion in 2022. Sony has written off nearly $800 million in Bungie-related losses in just the past year alone.
That’s a painful amount of money for a studio that can’t seem to find solid ground.
But here’s the thing. The Destiny universe, that vast, mysterious, beautiful sci-fi world, is still worth something. A lot, actually. And Sony owns all of it.
So what happens next?
The Bungie brand is tired
Let’s separate two things that have been tangled together for years: the studio called Bungie, and the universe they built. They’re not the same thing.
The name “Bungie” used to mean something special. Halo. Early Destiny. The feeling of dropping into a world that felt alive. That excitement was real.
Unfortunately, that excitement is mostly gone now.
Years of broken promises, content being deleted from a game people paid for, layoffs that kept coming… it all adds up. The Bungie brand is carrying a lot of baggage. Starting something new under that name would mean starting with a deficit. Why do that when you don’t have to?
Sony owns the IP. They don’t have to call the next chapter “Bungie.” They don’t even have to call it “Destiny.”
The universe has value. The brand, right now, does not.
Think Marvel, not sequels
Here’s one way to think about the opportunity in front of Sony: the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Marvel doesn’t just make one movie at a time and hope for the best. They build a universe. Different characters. Different eras. Different genres and themes. But it’s all connected. And fans keep coming back because there’s always something new to discover while the things they love stay intact.
The Destiny universe has this potential. It has been sitting there for over a decade, bursting with unexplored stories.
- There’s the Dark Age, a brutal, chaotic period after the Collapse, where civilization was basically rebuilding from ash.
- There are legendary figures like Saint-14 (a beloved Guardian hero) and Shin Malphur whose full stories have never been told on screen.
- There’s the Collapse itself, the apocalyptic event that nearly ended humanity, which we’ve only ever heard about in lore fragments.
Imagine a single-player game set right there. No grind. No season pass. Just a story.
Then another game, same universe, different era, different characters. Maybe co-op this time. Maybe something darker. Maybe something hopeful. The possibilities are genuinely endless. Each release doesn’t need to be a live-service behemoth. It just needs to be great.
Sony already knows how to do this
Sony’s PlayStation studios are some of the best in the world at making the kind of games I’m describing.
God of War. The Last of Us. Horizon Zero Dawn. Ghost of Tsushima. These are cinematic, story-driven, single-player experiences that people remember and talk about years later. More importantly: these games sell PlayStation consoles.
A game set in the Destiny universe, built by a Sony studio with that same care and ambition, could be that kind of release. Free from the constraints of balancing PvP weapons or designing endless seasonal content, developers could finally let the world breathe. Big, atmospheric environments. A real story with a beginning, middle, and end. Abilities that actually make you feel powerful because there’s no multiplayer balance to worry about.
Don’t throw away the people. Just the institution
Now, this part matters a lot. Saying “move on from Bungie” doesn’t mean abandoning the talented people who built this world.
The engineers who made gunplay feel incredible. The artists who designed the visual language of the Traveler and the Ghosts and the alien landscapes. The writers who filled thousands of Grimoire cards with rich, layered lore. Those people are valuable. Their knowledge of this universe is irreplaceable.
But, and this is important, they shouldn’t be leading the next chapter under broken institutional structures. The mismanagement that led to stolen concept art (yes, Bungie was caught closely referencing an independent artist’s work, with employees apparently following that artist’s social media), the layoff cycles, the financial chaos, etc. That’s a leadership and culture problem, not a talent problem.
Keep the people. Fix the structure.
Sony could establish a new studio, potentially not even based in the United States. This matters more than it might seem. Countries like Canada offer significant tax incentives for game development. South Korea has world-class development talent and deep gaming infrastructure. Japan is Sony’s home front, which would naturally make oversight tighter and more integrated. A fresh studio, in a fresh location, built around a clear creative mandate and strict oversight from Sony, sidesteps all the cultural baggage Bungie carries while keeping the institutional knowledge that matters.
The timing actually makes sense
Here’s some broader context that makes this idea feel less like wishful thinking and more like a strategic necessity.
PC gaming hardware has become extremely expensive. Nvidia has shifted its focus toward AI enterprise chips, and building a high-end gaming PC in 2026 costs more than most people are willing to spend. At the same time, Microsoft has said its next Xbox console will essentially function like a PC, blurring the line between console and computer in ways that could confuse consumers.
Sony, meanwhile, has just confirmed they’re pulling single-player exclusive games back from PC entirely. No more PC ports for their first-party narrative titles. Ghost of Yōtei won’t come to PC. Saros won’t. This isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate bet that Sony will market that PlayStation hardware is the place to play the best single-player games.
A prestige Destiny universe game fits perfectly into that strategy.
It’s a system seller. A reason to own a PlayStation. Something you can’t get anywhere else. And unlike a struggling live-service game, it has a defined cost, a defined scope, and a clear finish line.
A great single-player game is a reason to buy a console. A troubled live-service game is a reason to walk away.
What this could potentially look like
Because it’s fun to imagine, picture a game with a new name, new branding, set in the Dark Age. You’re a newly awakened Risen: someone brought back to life by the Traveler’s Light, but in a world with no rules, no Tower, no Guardians yet. Just chaos, warlords, alien threats, and the slow, painful process of figuring out what you are.
The tone is dark. Almost western. The abilities feel godlike because there’s nothing to balance them against. The story is self-contained and cinematic. Something you finish, feel satisfied by, and then eagerly wait for the next one.
DLC could expand the story. A second game could jump forward or backward in the timeline. A third could follow entirely different characters in an entirely different corner of the solar system.
That’s a universe worth building.
One last thought
Sony may already be thinking about this. It would be surprising to me if they weren’t. The situation has been developing for a long time, and smart companies plan ahead. Especially when $3.6 billion is on the line.
The Destiny universe deserves better than what it’s been through. The players who fell in love with it deserve better. And honestly, the developers who poured years of creativity into it deserve to see their work treated with the respect it earned.
The path forward isn’t another live-service sequel. It’s something simpler, and built to last.
The universe, talent and strategy is there.
Sony has to be brave enough to take the first step.
