BELLEVUE, Wash. — As Destiny 2 support ends and their largest revenue source dries up, Sony live service studio Bungie has begun celebrating their continuation of the ancient Greek tradition of dying after a marathon.

Justin Truman, current Bungie Studio Head, recently performed a ceremonial funeral for the company after the release of the latest patch for Marathon. 3D-printed, hand-painted gold coins were put on the eyes of Cayde-6 and The Drifter plushes before being burned in a massive funeral pyre at the HQ parking lot.

“I know we’re technically still alive, but in practice, it feels like we’re in the fields of Asphodel,” he said, all the while resisting the temptation to turn around and face the Sony executives looming over him. “But that’s a good thing! It’s an exciting time to be a part of the Sony Entertainment family. Who’s to say we won’t crawl out of hell like Kratos and deliver retribution to our enemies?,” He chuckled.

Truman went on to explain why he was so optimistic.

“Marathon is an incredible game and it’s slowly but surely picking up steam. We also just announced the Destiny Collection. People are really excited about Bungie products right now!” When asked about how the current interest in Destiny completely overshadowed Marathon’s player numbers, he just stood there and nervously looked at his overlords through reflective surfaces, like Perseus before him.

Former Bungie CEO, Pete Parsons, also expressed optimism and even nostalgia for his former place of employment the following morning, right after doing some donuts around the place where the ceremony took place.

“Bungie is the most amazing place,” he reminisced while revving up the flat-six engine of his 1971 Porsche 911. “We pretty much perfected the live service formula back in the day, and for a while, we were legendary. Mythical, even. It’s like you couldn’t live up to the hype, but Sony certainly didn’t mind. We felt like gods. I used to love driving up to my reserved parking spot in a new classic car right after a big corporate restructure,” he said as he pointed at where the funeral was held the night before. “It was right there by the entrance, behind the charcoal and ashes.”

At press time, Parsons promised he would be honoring Pheidippides’ tale by driving his newly acquired 1965 Plymouth Barracuda from Athens to Sparti when Marathon’s final update was announced.