The game is gonna be just fine. I think.
The game IS fine. The player count is not fine, but time heals all wounds. (Or provides a long, drawn out death by 1,000 papercuts.)
Sony bought a company for a ridiculous amount of money. A company that, at the time, had ONE game for Sony to cash in on (D2) and one still being developed. So they wanted the potential the company offered.
That they charged $40 meant they knew it wasn't gonna be a cornerstone IP. They charge $69.99 or more for those nowadays.
Unless they have an absolutely incredible next (and what I assume will be final) act for D2, Marathon is the sole future of Bungie for the time being, and a AAA game dev they spent a ridiculous amount of money on. They only get that money back if Bungie generates it for them. They (Sony) need to give the game and the company time to do that. Killing it now, or in the next year, is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Plus what else does Bungie have to do? As far as we know, it's only Destiny 2 Expansion and Marathon in the current slate of games being developed.
Maybe we'll see a return to the Myth series next, or a FPS campaign-only "Pathways Into Darkness". (prob not though).
I'm super excited for (eventually) adding the SPNK-R rocket launcher and the Juggernauts somehow to these levels. And Cryo Archive is pinnacle content for now, but they'll add an even-more-pinnacle endgame to the next season, and I predict Cryo will become a lower-loot-tier map with similar mechanics and no minimum gear ante. They do this already with different levels of Raids/Strikes/Dungeons in D2 based on power level. I see no reason they couldn't implement something similar for map conditions, including gear antes even for the lower-tier maps if they wanted. Keep it approachable, but never far away from challenging for the Level 100 crowd.
I'd love to see the Phfor added, but they are SO similar to the Illixni (sp?) in D2, Bungie definitely lifted those staff weapons from M1-3 and put them right into Destiny. And that one compiler certainly got big, I'd love to see smaller ones running all over some of the maps, each one defending a vault or whatever.
What sucks is all the haters out there scaring away people who might check it out. And the soundtrack is a total banger, and creeps out my co-workers when I'm listening to it. Perfect.
Some people's favorite online game is "Yuck Other People's Yum." Those people kinda suck, imho.