New Report Explains Why Bungie Never Started Working on Destiny 3 After The Final Shape

A new report explains why Bungie never started work on Destiny 3 after The Final Shape, as Destiny 2 heads toward its final live-service update.

Bungie’s decision to end active development on Destiny 2 has left a lot of players asking the same question: why was Destiny 3 never ready to take its place?

Earlier this week, Bungie confirmed that Destiny 2’s final live-service content update, Monument of Triumph, will launch on June 9, 2026. The studio said the game will remain playable after that, similar to the original Destiny, but active development is coming to an end. For many longtime players, the natural next thought was: surely Destiny 3 must be next.

That does not appear to be the case.

On Friday, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that Destiny 3 is not in development, has not been greenlit, and there are no other Destiny projects greenlit at Bungie right now. That includes smaller pitches using the Destiny IP that would not have been full sequels. So, for now, there is no confirmed next step for Destiny as a game series, even as Bungie moves toward Destiny 2’s final major content update in June.

Why Bungie Never Moved Straight Into Destiny 3

Schreier also posted on Bluesky about one of the biggest questions fans have had since Bungie’s announcement, which is why the company never started working on Destiny 3. And the issue comes down to money. A full Destiny 3 would be a massive and expensive project, and in the current market, that kind of bet is not easy to get approved.

Schreier wrote, “A lot of people have wondered why Bungie didn’t immediately start working on Destiny 3 after The Final Shape two years ago. The answer (as it usually is) is how much money it would take.“

That lines up with what many people in the industry have said for years. Games like Destiny are huge, costly, and hard to maintain. They need years of work, large teams, expensive technology, constant content, and a player base big enough to support all of it.

Earlier today, a new report from Paul Tassi at Forbes added more context. According to Tassi, the bigger picture is that Sony is reportedly cautious about funding something as expensive as Destiny 3 right now. “Destiny 3 is neither in production nor greenlit. Sony has been wary of committing to such an expensive undertaking in a market that is in flux and more challenging than ever,” the report reads.

Instead, Bungie’s focus is shifting toward Marathon, which is now the studio’s only active game. Sony is said to be giving Marathon more resources, including some developers who previously worked on Destiny.

The decision to end Destiny 2 support and move at least some resources over to Marathon was made earlier this year. However, work reportedly continued on future Destiny 2 content, including expansions like Shattered Cycle, because most of Bungie did not know Destiny 2 support was being dropped until the public announcement.

The report says some teams did know what was coming. Some were working on the final Destiny content for the June update, while others had already moved over to Marathon. Those teams reportedly “begged” leadership to tell more people, as keeping so many employees in the dark created division inside the studio and left those teams feeling isolated.

At the same time, Destiny fans are not staying quiet. A petition calling for Destiny 3 has been making rounds, which currently has nearly 70,000 signatures on Change.org in under a day.

For now, though, Destiny 3 remains unannounced and unapproved. Do you think we’ll ever see a Destiny 3, or even another Desitny project from Bungie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!