Destiny 2's final content update marks end of live-service era

The makers of Destiny 2 will stop releasing content updates for the game, effectively drawing to a close one of the industry's longest-running live-service eras.

Bungie said the influential online shooter - which has attracted millions of players - will be getting its final update on 9 June, though it will "remain playable" beyond that.

It follows months of fan speculation on the game's future following delays, falling player numbers and the release of Bungie's new shooter, Marathon.

UK-based Destiny content creator My name is Byf posted: "Saying goodbye like this is more painful than I can fathom," adding: "I can only hope the road doesn't end here for good."

For fans, the announcement may not have come as a complete surprise, but it was still met with shock and sadness.

"It's been my entire adult life," said Destiny YouTuber Datto in an emotional video update after the news was released.

"I'm just kind of at a loss for words... 99% of my friends have come from this experience... It's only been this. It's been nothing else."

The studio said while its "love for Destiny 2 has not changed" following the release of the expansion The Final Shape in 2024, it had "reached the time for our shared worlds, and Destiny, to live beyond Destiny 2".

The studio did not confirm whether it would produce a sequel, only adding: "Once we have more news to share on Destiny, you'll be the first to know."

Bungie, which also created the popular Halo series and was acquired by Sony in 2022 in a deal worth $3.6bn (£2.7bn), said work "incubating our next games" would now begin.

It is expected to continue working on Marathon, which launched in March to strong early sales but has since struggled to retain players on the online PC platform Steam.

"From the deepest part of our hearts, thank you, and we'll see you in the stars," the team signed off, before listing the content fans can expect from the final update, Monument of Triumph.

Destiny 2 was released in 2017 and over its near nine years of raids, loot drops and weekly resets, Bungie has undergone some difficult changes.

The company has faced problems similar to those seen across much of the wider industry, cutting 8% of its workforce in 2023 and then laying off a further 17% of staff in 2024.

In May, Sony reduced the value of the studio, recording hundreds of millions of dollars in impairment losses after its games failed to meet expectations.

Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Game Business, told the BBC he believed live-service games - online games which are regularly updated with new, sometimes paid-for, content after release - were still "the dominant business model in games".

The market was also "hyper-competitive," he added, and that "for a new live-service game to work, another often has to suffer".