Destiny 2 is over

A few days ago on May 21, 2026 Bungie released a blog post detailing the final content update for Destiny 2. June 6, 2026 would mark the last update for content in a game that started back in 2017.

I hadn't really played Destiny 2 since 2024, but this was a sad post to read. I put over 2,000 hours on the original Destiny and met a ton of good friends that I remain in contact with as of now. The excellent first game led me to bridging away from Xbox gaming to building a gaming computer in preparation for the 2nd game.

Destiny 2 launched and it wasn't that great with most of our clan becoming fractured in different games, because a lot of what made Destiny wonderful was changed for the worse in Destiny 2. Though every year or so a new major update came out and either massively improved the game or made changes that made myself wonder why I still played the game.

When we look at every content update - this game was the new Bungie style of game with live-service and changes throughout the life of it.

• Original Release - September 6, 2017
• Curse of Osiris - December 5, 2017
• Warmind - May 8, 2018
• Forsaken - September 4, 2018
• Shadowkeep - October 1, 2019
• Beyond Light - November 10, 2020
• The Witch Queen - February 20, 2022
• Lightfall - February 28, 2023
• The Final Shape - June 4, 2024
• Edge of Fate - July 5, 2025
• Monument of Triumph - June 6, 2026

While each DLC and update hit differently I still put 921 hours into Destiny 2 since 2017. As I left college and got older the repetitive nature of each DLC basically making all my previous guns worthless and forcing another grind took a toll on me towards the end of the game. It just didn't feel as fun that we had to grind a lot to obtain a light level worthy of competing in the end game content.

So I just stopped playing and moved onward to other games. Each time I returned even as a player totaling over 3,000 hours across both titles I was lost on the home screen and unaware how to progress as I returned. The game was great, but not without its own flaws.

Not all games can replicate the Fortnite level of player counts (~1 million a day) and content updates which is probably why Bungie started working on Marathon.

Now it doesn't take a scientist to realize that a studio previously making one game is now making two games has an effect. That probably has the downside of taking talent that was previously working on the Destiny franchise.

Now Marathon has had a rocky start which started during the alpha testing. As testing completed Bungie announced the release date delayed indefinitely so folks were left to wonder how far away from the original September 23, 2025 release would the game fall.

At that point the game was in an interesting place - it wasn't the hardcore iteration of the extraction shooter that we've become to know from Tarkov. It wasn't Destiny 2 in terms of unlock once - own forever. It was an extraction shooter that you could play for an hour, lose everything and make no progression towards anything in the game. The population would tell you "get good" and the guy playing for a bit after work felt sad with no progression and quit.

Around that time the testing was going on - it was learned that a bit of the art style and design was lifted from an artist without their knowledge. This just further stabbed a wound deeper that Bungie's next major IP was delayed and taking designs.

This was an odd time as it seems folks were actively cheering for a game to be cancelled and more focus to be put back on Destiny. I didn't really understand cheering for the same studio that produces Destiny to fail on one of their other titles. It would obviously be detrimental to the studio regardless of the game at that point.

We are in such a weird point of time for video games that people literally pick games based on player counts. It seems odd to me because I still play Halo Infinite even though there is under 10,000 players because I like the game. Outside of that we can see a large influx of Destiny players leaving bad reviews on Marathon as "payback" for Destiny 2 being over.

I don't get it - Destiny 2 came out in 2017. They established this massive story and introduced dark alongside light. They built up this massive villain (The Witness) and lead gamers on a 7 year journey to defeat them. Once we did, what could happen next? The game felt over at that point, but there is only so much content updates (that includes content removals) you can do before the game's lifespan is over.

The last time I played Destiny 2 was during the "The Final Shape" DLC which was in June of 2024. The attraction of a new campaign, a new raid and the saga ending was a good enough reason to return back to complete the vision they had intended. It was fun to quickly complete the campaign and grind to a high enough light to compete in the raid, but after that the glow of the game had evaporated.

Now it wouldn't be fair to say Bungie ended Destiny because of Marathon, but I think its fair to say Bungie ended Destiny earlier because of Marathon. We knew another set of content was coming for Destiny, but all of that has appeared to end with this blog post.

I'll never cheer for a game to die as a chunk of my video game history ends with the end of Destiny 2. Hopefully Bungie lives on through Marathon and future games as they are the famous creators of Halo.