Destiny 3 Petition Cracks 120,000 Signatures as Fans Beg Sony to Save the Franchise

120,000 signatures. And rising fast.

Bungie's looter shooter fanbase is making noise. Following this week's bombshell news of Destiny 2's final live-service update landing on June 9, a Change.org petition begging Sony to greenlight Destiny 3 has crossed the 120,000 mark and shows no signs of slowing down. Some trackers put the figure closer to 125,000, with thousands more piling on every hour.

The petition's creator, Harley Casto, isn't pulling punches. "The desire for new adventures, fresh storylines, and innovative gameplay features is palpable among players everywhere" Casto wrote, before urging fans to "Sign the petition to show your support for Destiny 3 and help us bring our love for this series to the next level."

Here's the rub, though. Despite the swell of community pressure, Destiny 3 isn't in active development, according to a recent Bloomberg report from Jason Schreier. Worse, Bungie is bracing for "significant" layoffs once Destiny 2's content tap finally shuts off. The studio is reportedly still pitching ideas set within the Destiny universe to Sony brass, but a full sequel doesn't seem to be among them.

So why didn't Bungie greenlight a third instalment two years ago, after The Final Shape wrapped up the Light and Darkness saga in June 2024? Fans assumed Destiny 3 was the obvious next step. Schreier reckons the answer comes down to one thing, as he explained on Bluesky: "how much money it would take."

The budget problem nobody wants to talk about

Triple-A development has spiralled into eye-watering territory. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars for a single shooter, and the receipts back this up.

Take Marathon, Bungie's freshly released extraction shooter. The game reportedly carried a budget north of $250 million, and player numbers have stalled around 10,000 concurrents on Steam. Hardly the runaway hit Sony was hoping for after picking up the studio in 2022.

Then there's Concord. Sony's doomed live-service shooter had an initial development deal worth around $200 million, according to Kotaku, and the game survived less than two weeks before being pulled entirely. Brutal stuff.

Court filings have laid bare the staggering costs elsewhere. Back in 2023, documents submitted as part of the Xbox FTC case accidentally revealed The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost more than $200 million to develop. Last year, fresh court paperwork showed Activision pumped a frankly absurd $700 million into Black Ops Cold War alone, albeit spread across the shooter's full life cycle.

So picture Sony greenlighting Destiny 3 right now. The company would be wagering hundreds of millions on a sequel to a franchise whose player base has been steadily shrinking, all while hiking PS5 prices, slashing internal budgets, and watching the live-service graveyard grow each quarter. Not a good look.

Fans aren't going quietly

Despite the grim outlook, the Destiny community is rallying. Beyond the petition, fans have organised a mass log-in for June 9, the day of the final update, as a sort of farewell party. Reddit threads are filling up with players sharing screenshots, raid memories, and quiet goodbyes to Guardians they've spent thousands of hours building.

Meanwhile, Sony is doubling down on Marathon. Bungie has confirmed a new PvE-only mode is on the way in the next season, alongside fresh maps, modes, and quality-of-life changes. Whether any of those changes drag Marathon out of its current slump is another question entirely.

As for Destiny 3? Don't hold your breath. With over 120,000 fans signing their names to a digital plea, the message is loud and clear. Whether Sony chooses to listen is another matter altogether.

For now, the Light is fading.