Former Bungie developer says leadership greed hurt Destiny 2 more than Marathon

Destiny 2 is approaching its final major update, and the debate around what went wrong at Bungie is getting louder. The long running live service shooter will receive its Monument of Triumph update on June 9, after which active development is set to end while the servers remain online. For many players, that feels like a sudden and painful end to one of gaming’s most important online worlds.

Some fans have blamed Marathon, Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, for pulling resources away from Destiny 2. That frustration is understandable because Destiny players watched the game struggle through disappointing releases, delays, content issues, and uncertainty while Bungie worked on another major project. But former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert says the real problem was not Marathon. According to her, the blame belongs with leadership.

Ruppert responded to players asking how a company as large as Bungie could struggle to properly fund Destiny 2. Her answer was blunt: a lot of money did not go into Destiny. She also said former developers have been calling out leadership greed and that they would not risk their careers for nothing.

Her comments went further. Ruppert said players should be angry, but should keep the blame in the right place. She claimed the money went into leadership pockets and said Marathon had far less impact than many fans think.

These comments matter because they line up with previous criticism from former Bungie workers. After layoffs in 2023 and 2024, several ex employees accused leadership of mismanagement and called for former CEO Pete Parsons to resign. Parsons is no longer leading the studio, with Justin Truman now serving as studio head, but Ruppert suggested that old leadership influence may take time to fully remove.

The situation has left Destiny fans frustrated and uncertain. Destiny has been around since 2014, and Destiny 2 has been active since 2017. Over that time, the series built a loyal community through raids, seasonal stories, expansions, PvP, loot chasing, and years of shared memories. Even players who stepped away often still care about the universe and want it to have a future.

That is why the reaction to Destiny 2’s ending has been so strong. Fans are not only disappointed that development is ending. They are worried that the franchise itself may disappear without a proper successor. A petition calling for Destiny 3 has gained major attention, and players are planning to return on June 9 to flood the servers during the final update.

The community’s anger at Marathon also shows how difficult Bungie’s position has become. Marathon may be its own project with its own team and goals, but fans see it arriving while Destiny 2 is being wound down. That makes the new game an easy target, even if former developers say the bigger issue was internal leadership and resource allocation.

Sony also faces a difficult road. It acquired Bungie with hopes of strengthening its live service strategy, but the studio has since faced layoffs, public criticism, and a major impairment loss. If Destiny 2 is ending and Marathon is under pressure before release, Sony will need to decide how much more it wants to invest in Bungie’s future.

The saddest part is that Destiny still has value. The universe, art direction, gunplay, music, lore, and raid design remain special to many players. A properly supported Destiny 3 could give Bungie a chance to rebuild trust, fix long term structural problems, and start fresh without carrying every burden from Destiny 2.

For now, Monument of Triumph will be the final moment for active Destiny 2 development. Players may log in one last time to celebrate what the game meant to them, but the larger question remains unanswered. Destiny did not end because fans stopped caring. If anything, the current backlash proves the opposite. The community still cares deeply, and that is exactly why so many people are angry about how Bungie got here.