As Destiny 2 fans mourn the game's final update, Bungie's former community manager has criticized players fixated on comparing its player count with the fledgling extraction shooter Marathon. She stated that the company's current issues began long before Marathon's arrival and Sony's acquisition.
Since Marathon debuted in March, and especially after Bungie announced it was ending development of new Destiny 2 content, fans have consistently compared player numbers between the two games, scrutinizing Marathon's lower player count. Many believe that every time Destiny 2 spiked in popularity, it proved Bungie (and Sony) acted too soon in ending support. Meanwhile, each dip in Marathon's numbers was seen as evidence that the extraction shooter was a fruitless distraction from Destiny development—which many think was sacrificed to get Marathon out the door.
However, former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert has insisted that the company's problems predate Sony ownership, to the extent that the $3.7 billion buyout was an "emergency acquisition." Responding to a fan who suggested Sony should have given Destiny 2 more of a chance, Ruppert wrote: "This fight was pre-Sony. Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition. If it wasn't acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny. It was an emergency acquisition."
With Destiny 2's final update now live, most of Bungie is solely focused on supporting Marathon, though fears of fresh layoffs loom. Players have begun vocally calling on Sony to greenlight Destiny 3, something that seems unlikely given the current development climate and still years away even if work started today. Gaming fans have spammed live chats of recent showcases, including Sony's State of Play, demanding Destiny 3 development.
Instead of calling for a new game, Ruppert suggested the best way to ensure Bungie survives to make Destiny 3 someday is to support Marathon now. She said Marathon was never designed to rival Destiny 2's larger playerbase and is simpler to develop and maintain. "Half the community is going to hate me for saying this, but the only way to keep Bungie alive right now is to support Marathon," Ruppert continued. "People keep comparing Marathon numbers to Destiny and frankly, that's ignorant. Marathon was never designed to do [Destiny 2] numbers. The conversations about that were very upfront early. It's more aligned with [fellow extraction shooter Escape from] Tarkov than Destiny. Completely different target markets that just so happen to have a wide intersection with Destiny target markets since it uniquely has so many."
Destiny 2's final update saw a peak of 167,000 concurrent players on Steam, with slightly smaller spikes over 100,000 in the following days—still triple its recent numbers. Marathon's all-time Steam peak is 77,358 at launch, with a 24-hour peak under 16,000, typically a fraction of Destiny 2's. However, these numbers only reflect Steam; many players use PlayStation and Xbox, which keep concurrents private.
Ruppert claimed Marathon was "actually performing within expected perimeters. At least from the convos I was there for. Marathon scratches a small but VERY loyal niche. And it's doing a good job at it. Marathon has a beyond killer team."
What the future holds for Destiny and Bungie remains unknown. Despite fan outcry, there's no indication the decision to end Destiny 2 development, made quietly months ago, will be revisited. For now, Bungie remains the developer of Marathon—and maybe one day that will change to include another project. What happens next may rest in fans' hands.
