Bungie announced on September 21 that it will bring vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations and raids back into the game, three months after the shooter received what the studio had called its final content update. The plans were set out in a video and a blog post from studio head Poria Torkan and Josh Deane, Bungie's head of product and general manager of Marathon.
Destiny 2's Monument of Triumph update, released on June 9, had been announced in May as the game's last major content drop. Weeks later Sony confirmed significant cuts at the studio, later reported to total 292 roles, which it said would affect most of the Destiny team and some Marathon staff, Video Games Chronicle reported.
We have more stories to tell, new worlds to build, but we have to do it right and give our teams the time they need to do justice to this amazing universe. All of this is to say, we are not done with Destiny.
Vaulted content returns
Bungie said it is beginning the work of returning vaulted campaigns, destinations and raids to the game, where they will be available to all Destiny 2 players. The studio cautioned that the job is not as simple as restoring old files: changes made since the Beyond Light expansion mean lighting, encounters, combatants and other underlying systems have to be updated so the returning content meets the game's current stability and gameplay standards. It gave no timetable and said more details would follow in the coming months.
In the video, Deane said Bungie would commit to unvaulting content that "never should have been ripped away to begin with," and described that restoration as the foundation for new Destiny stories and games. Bungie did not announce a new Destiny game or expansion. Its blog post acknowledged that removing the content "had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny."
Marathon to evolve
Bungie also addressed Marathon, the extraction shooter it launched in March. The studio said the game "was never intended to replace Destiny" and "did not reach as many players as we had hoped." Deane said Bungie plans to expand it into a deeper survival experience, giving players more options across PvE, PvP and its existing PvPvE mode through the rest of its first year. IGN, citing SteamCharts, reported that Marathon had around 1,390 active players at the time of the announcement, with a 24-hour peak of 2,630.
According to Destructoid, that work starts with a Nightfall Refresh in October, followed by a larger Symbiosis update in December. Eurogamer noted that the previously announced permanent PvE mode and social space are also scheduled for December.
Torkan said in the video that Bungie had simplified its priorities and reduced competing initiatives, and that the studio intends to rebuild trust "through the games that we make and how we show up for our players."
