'We Gettin' Fired Anyway': Destiny 2 Devs Dump Free Loot

On July 7, Bungie quietly posted a redemption code on X for a free emblem called Gloriabundus, a clean design featuring the Destiny logo over what looks like the Last City skyline. A small parting gift for a decade-long community. Then, the next day, the team came back and dumped a whole pile more codes for additional free items, with one dev reportedly summing up the mood: "we gettin' fired anyway."

That line hits different when you know the context. Bungie confirmed on June 25 that it had laid off most of the Destiny 2 team, weeks after the game's final content update, Monument of Triumph, landed on June 9. The studio said Destiny 2 had "fell short of expectations." So these giveaways weren't just a farewell to players; they were a farewell from people who knew their jobs were already gone. I've covered a lot of live-service sunsets, and I can't remember one where the devs went out swinging like this.

Alongside the freebies, Bungie rolled out Patch 9.7.0.3, which is almost certainly the game's last. It's a short list: bug fixes, increased reputation gains from Vanguard and Crucible Ops completions, and a reversion to the Consecrated Mind boss fight after a prior fix accidentally made it far harder than intended. Community lead Dylan Gafner said on X that players shouldn't expect further patches, though the team might "break glass for highest priority issues" like game crashes.

Destiny 2 isn't shutting down; it'll remain playable in a frozen state. A petition asking Sony to greenlight Destiny 3 has nearly 400,000 signatures, but with the team gutted, nobody should hold their breath. What the remaining players do have is a final update that was well-received and a mountain of content to chew through. The devs made sure the last thing they did was give stuff away, not sell it. That deserves to be remembered.