In addition to an unspecified number of job cuts, Destiny 2 maker Bungie has also been racked by delays. Bloomberg reports that the sci-fi MMO shooter’s The Final Shape expansion has slipped from February to June, with upcoming extraction shooter Marathon getting delayed to 2025.

While The Final Shape won’t end Destiny 2, it will conclude the storyline it’s been building up for almost a decade now with a final showdown between players and a force, called The Witness, bent on the universe’s destruction. Originally set to add a new campaign and lots of other content on February 27 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, the massive expansion will now arrive in June instead, Bloomberg reports.

Meanwhile, Marathon, a sci-fi extraction shooter that will revolve around session-based matches with a story that evolves as players complete various objectives and milestones, has apparently been delayed until 2025. The live-service game made a splashy debut at Sony’s big PlayStation gaming showcase last May, and appeared set to help drive the platform’s new games-as-a-service strategy following Sony’s acquisition of Bungie last year.

The specific reasons for the delays haven’t yet come to light, but news of them comes as Bungie CEO Pete Parsons informed staff today that there would be a meeting to “discuss today’s events,” including layoffs impacting recruiters, support staff, and some developers. While neither Bungie nor Sony has confirmed the exact number of cuts, they even include community managers for Destiny 2, the face of the game for millions of the loot shooter’s most devoted players.

The delays and layoffs come during a rough year for Destiny 2 overall, with 2023’s Lightfall being one of its worst-recieved expansions, and seasonal updates undercut by an unusual spike in server outages and other issues. The game’s director, Joe Blackburn, had promised a shift to an episodic model in 2024, with fewer, bigger updates to help address player burnout. It’s unclear how today’s big shakeup might impact those plans.

Today, during Blizzcon 2023, Blizzard gave us an early look at Diablo IV’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. The upcoming expansion will feature a new class and will be out next year.

Blizzard’s annual fan event, Blizzcon, is currently happening over the weekend and it kicked off on November 3 with a live opening ceremony presentation. During this showcase, Blizzard announced plans for its popular games like Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and of course, Diablo IV. The biggest news was the reveal of the action RPG’s first major expansion.

Vessel of Hatred will take players back to the jungle-covered world of Nahantu, a region first seen in Diablo II. According to Blizzard, the story of this expansion will focus on the fate of Prime Evil baddie Mephisto and the demon’s plans for Sanctuary after the events of Diablo IV.

Blizzard didn’t have many other details to share about the expansion but did provide a short teaser for fans to get hyped over.

Blizzard also teased that Vessel of Hatred will add a new class to Diablo IV that hasn’t been seen in any previous Diablo game. While the company didn’t share any other details about this new class, a recent datamine might provide us with more information.

October’s Diablo IV datamine seems accurate

Last month, players dug into a test build of Diablo IV and discovered data pointing to a new expansion named “Lord of Hatred.” In Diablo lore, that title belongs to Mephisto and the datamine implied that this demon would be the big villain of this new story.

So while the upcoming expansion seems to have had a tiny name change, the data players discovered still lines up with what Blizzard has so far revealed.

That same datamine indicated that the new class will be called the Spiritborn and will be a nature-based warrior that cleaves through enemies with a glaive. Fans think this class might play like a druid-barbarian hybrid, which sounds interesting. Of course, datamines aren’t always accurate and it’s possible this isn’t the first new class Blizzard has planned for Diablo IV. We’ll have to wait for Blizzard to reveal more about Vessel of Hatred which is planned to launch in “late 2024.”

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