Bungie has been in the headlines once again as of late for a whole slate of differing and mostly not positive reasons. On top of a Destiny YouTuber called Aztecross sharing an anonymous email with his audience that stated that Sony has not been impressed with Bungie ever since it acquired the developer, mostly with this frustration aimed at the executives running the ship, it was also mentioned that Destiny 2 is set to undergo monetisation changes in a bid to make it more profitable. This latter point is said to include changes proposed by Sony's Japanese leadership, which could see many of the development teams at Bungie being ripped apart as part of a reformation effort.
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This information is of course not confirmed, meaning you have to take this as a very hefty amount of caution, but it does come as IGN also published a report discussing fears of layoffs and changes to the Marathon team.
Specifically, it is said that the Marathon development team recently underwent a leadership change, seeing game director Christopher Barrett removed from the role and replaced by former Valorant game director Joe Ziegler.
On top of this, it's noted that Bungie is putting a lot of resources into getting Marathon ready to release, and that the game has seen a few changes, including removing the custom player element in favour of a roster of selectable heroes.
It should be said that Destiny 2: The Final Shape is still the number one priority at Bungie, but due to a budget that allegedly doesn't add up, fears of layoffs are affecting the developer, with one unnamed source going as far as to state "something will need to happen to curb costs unless The Final Shape does so well to cover the gap and people can move to Marathon."
As a final note, it was also said that there is expected to be a leadership exodus at the developer in the summer of 2026, when the final payout for the Sony acquisition of the developer comes through, further suggesting that turmoil at the studio is on the horizon. All this while Destiny 2 was said to have "significantly underperformed" last year.
Of course, Bungie underwent layoffs relatively recently, around the same time that The Final Shape and Marathon were both delayed.