According to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, Bungie hasn’t greenlit any game for the Destiny 2 team to pivot to after content updates for the long-running shooter end, never mind Destiny 3. The studio is reportedly hearing pitches for new projects, which may or may not take place in the Destiny universe.
So it was wildly wishful thinking to imagine that Sony would surprise us all with a Destiny 3 announcement at its State of Play showcase today, and as expected, it did not do that. That didn’t stop fans from shouting “#WeWantDestiny3” in chat for the duration of the stream.
Speculation was somewhat fueled by posts from Destiny 2 principal comms manager Dylan “dmg04” Gafner, whose messages of support for the Destiny playerbase could be interpreted as teases, particularly “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Guardians make their own fate.”
“Surely this harmless quote won’t be taken out of context and turned into straight liquid hopium to the veins of every destiny fan who is currently holding out hope for a miracle,” one X user responded to that latter post. Surely!
The reality is that there’s not much hope for an imminent announcement of Destiny 3 or any new Bungie game. The studio has projects in “incubation,” but given how many Bungie games in “incubation” have never manifested, that doesn’t mean much, and development times being what they are, any new game is many years away (unless it was made in perfect secrecy—not likely!).
There is a lot of energy behind the push for a Destiny 3—over 300,000 people have signed a petition asking Sony to greenlight the game—but some longtime fans say that they are in fact not hyped about the prospect of Destiny 3, or any new Bungie game. One popular post on the Destiny subreddit reads: “Honestly, Destiny being shelved has soured my taste for Bungie to the point that I have no interest in their future games.”
For now, Bungie is focused on Marathon. We like the extraction shooter a lot, but it hasn’t matched the popularity of Arc Raiders. The studio hopes to change its fortunes this week with Marathon’s second season, which introduces a new map and a “PvP-lite” mode that may appeal to a broader playerbase.
Marathon is also free to play from today through June 9 to give prospective players a chance to try it.