Bungie Denies Marathon-Destiny Franchise Merger Leak

Bungie's Marathon creative director, Julia Nardin, has officially denied a widely circulated online leak that claimed the studio was planning to merge its Marathon and Destiny franchises. The denial addresses the most prominent claim from a lengthy post that appeared on 4chan and was subsequently shared on Reddit. In a post on X, Nardin stated, "As someone who's worked on both Destiny and Marathon, I can confirm that the leak about us merging the two IPs is fake. They share a lot of the same Bungie DNA, but like siblings they're also their own independent entities. Please don't believe everything you read online." Her message was also reposted by Bungie communications lead Dylan Gafner. The leak, which originated on 4chan, contained numerous other unverified claims about Marathon's future. It alleged that Bungie was "testing the waters" to combine the two series, with Marathon representing humanity's Golden Age to set up future Destiny projects. The post also claimed the studio was making Marathon free-to-play in December and that the recent delay of its next major content update was related to this transition.