A man who helped negotiate Bungie's $3.6 billion sale to Sony is now watching his worst fears play out in real time.
Destiny 2 is heading for its final update on June 9, active development is done, and layoffs are reportedly on the way for staff who don't transition to Marathon. That's the backdrop against which Don McGowan, Bungie's former General Counsel, posted a blunt and candid message on LinkedIn this week.
Destiny 2's Tower social hub
What the man who ran the acquisition deal actually thinks
"It's now becoming what I feared after the Sony acquisition: a publishing imprint that may also make a game every now and then, but not a builder of worlds," McGowan wrote in his LinkedIn post. That's a pointed description from someone who was in the room when the deal was signed.
Here's the thing: McGowan isn't some outside critic lobbing opinions from a distance. He was Bungie's General Counsel. He was directly involved in structuring the deal that handed the studio to Sony. When he says the outcome is what he feared, that carries real weight.
His post didn't stop at corporate criticism. "I'm not happy to see what has become of one of the most famous studios in gaming, and I wish I could have done more to keep it alive," he wrote, adding that Destiny 2 "helped a lot of people get through COVID lockdowns" and "changed the games industry in hundreds of ways that echo today and on into the future."
McGowan also noted he hopes the situation doesn't result in "a few thousand people" losing their jobs, a concern that feels increasingly relevant given the Bloomberg report published this week detailing expected layoffs at the studio.
The numbers behind Bungie's decline under Sony
The timeline here tells a grim story. Sony acquired Bungie in 2022 for $3.6 billion. In 2023, the studio laid off around 200 staff members. Sony then recorded a $765 million impairment loss on Bungie for its most recent financial year. That's a significant writedown on a studio purchased less than four years ago.
Destiny 2 itself has been struggling. The Renegades expansion pulled in series-low Steam player numbers, and the broader community has been vocal about feeling the game was mismanaged at the leadership level. A former Destiny 2 writer recently pointed the finger directly at CEO Pete Parsons as a root cause of the game's decline.
With active development ending and no greenlit Bungie projects beyond Marathon confirmed, the picture McGowan painted in his post feels less like pessimism and more like an accurate read.
Final update drops June 9
What this means for players still in the game
Bungie has confirmed Destiny 2 will remain playable after the June 9 update, so the servers aren't going dark. What most players miss in that reassurance is that "playable" and "supported" are very different things. No new content, no seasonal updates, no balance patches. The game becomes a preserved version of itself.
For the dedicated player base that has logged thousands of hours, the Destiny 2 guides collection remains a useful reference for squeezing value out of what's still available. If you're eyeing the Edge of Fate content before the lights dim on new development, the Edge of Fate power leveling guide for the fastest route to 450 is worth bookmarking now.
The attention from Sony and Bungie is shifting entirely to Marathon. Whether that game can carry the weight of the studio's legacy, and whether Bungie can function as a "builder of worlds" again rather than a publishing imprint, is the question that will define the next chapter. McGowan clearly isn't holding his breath.
