After Destiny 2's final update, Bungie may cut 50% of staff pending confirmation

According to BFMTV journalist Sylvain Trinel and Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, Bungie is facing fresh layoff rumors tied to the period after Destiny 2’s final update, with summer - especially July - repeatedly cited as the key window. Trinel goes further, claiming at least 50% of the studio could be affected, including full-time staff and contractors, while the broader leak also claims Xbox plans to close multiple studios and that other major publishers are heading toward similarly large cuts. Bungie has not responded, and for now all of it remains unconfirmed.

How seriously you take this comes down to the sourcing. Trinel’s version is the more explicit one: he says the cuts could hit no less than 50% of Bungie’s workforce, and that they would not stop with permanent staff. Contractors would be caught up in it too. Schreier’s earlier report is lighter on detail but points to the same basic moment, saying Bungie would face major layoffs after Destiny 2 receives its final update. The details differ, but both point in the same direction.

The bigger question is not just whether layoffs happen, but why Bungie looks exposed in the first place. If the leak is accurate, the studio is stuck between an older project nearing the end of its development cycle and a new one that has not yet inspired much confidence. Destiny 2 is close to wrapping up on the development side, while Marathon - referred to in the original report as Lost Starship: Marathon - has yet to convince anyone outside the company that it is on solid ground. That is the uncomfortable gap: the old work is winding down, the new work is not fully ready to carry the studio yet, and that kind of transition rarely feels secure inside a large team.

The claim also stretches well beyond Bungie. The same round of leaks says Xbox is planning to close multiple first-party studios, and that teams under other major publishers are also heading toward what the report describes as a large-scale bloodbath. In that framing, Bungie’s situation looks less like one project struggling and more like part of a broader industry correction. The backdrop is familiar: game development is expensive, the bigger the project, the faster money disappears, and once a new release fails to establish itself in the market, downsizing tends to follow quickly.

Player reaction has been blunt. Some are worried that post-Destiny 2 support could shrink further, especially in areas like content updates, event cadence, and community management. Others are focused squarely on Marathon, assuming that if Bungie really is preparing cuts on this scale, that project is unlikely to escape the fallout. What makes people uneasy is not one rumor in isolation, but the fact that two separate sources are pointing to roughly the same timeframe and the same overall outcome.

That still does not make any of it confirmed. At this stage, these are leaks, not settled facts, and they should be treated with caution. Even so, if Bungie remains silent as July approaches, the rumor will only gain traction across the industry.