Bungie Delays Marathon’s Major Update Until December Amid Ongoing Player Count Concerns

Bungie delays Marathon’s next major update until December as the struggling extraction shooter continues fighting declining player numbers.

Bungie has delayed the next major update for Marathon from September 22 to December 8, which means there’s a long wait between significant content drops for the live-service extraction shooter. The delay is especially problematic for a product that needs regular updates to keep the hype alive and draw players back, especially since the game continues to struggle to attract concurrent players.

The upgrade coming in December is going to bring a lot of critical additions. This includes a new Runner Shell, a permanent PvE experience, a rebuilt Perimeter zone, an experimental team deathmatch mode, and modifications to help onboard new players.

However, the direction of these additions has raised questions about the intended identity of Marathon. The game was billed initially as an extraction shooter, its identity being built around more difficult and competitive gameplay. The addition of persistent PvE and team deathmatch could push the game even further away from its original idea.

Bungie will also be making a smaller update on October 6 that will reset advancement and the in-game economy, among other enhancements. That upgrade will be followed by another major content release for the game, although that won’t happen until December.

Marathon’s delayed upgrade has kept the ailing live-service game waiting for months.

The delay could be especially damaging because live-service games rely on players to stay engaged. If there’s a protracted dry spell, with nothing new coming out, it can be harder to pull back players who are leaving, especially for a game that’s already trying to keep a huge audience.

And it gets worse: Bungie’s commitment to Marathon complicates things further. According to rumors, Bungie and Sony already have a significant fanbase, with the game selling between 1.5 and 2 million copies. But there are apparently hundreds of workers on the game, which shows a strong commitment to ongoing development.

If it was a smaller project with a few thousand members, it might be easier to justify a small development group. It’s a big gamble by Bungie and Sony, rather, and ups the ante on it to pay off. Issues with the game have also sparked bigger issues about why Sony has chosen to focus on Marathon while stepping back from putting more emphasis on Destiny 2.

Destiny fans are still angry with Bungie for focusing on Marathon.

Some Destiny players are especially annoyed with the issues with Marathon because Destiny 2 still has a far bigger fanbase. Supposedly, the gap between the number of concurrent players has remained vast, with Destiny 2 reaching around 15 times the quantity of people seen in Marathon.

This discrepancy has certainly made the criticism of Bungie’s decision to burn so many resources on its newer project all the more sharp. Some fans feel that the company could pay a bit more attention to Destiny, especially when dislike for Marathon increases, from the outside.

Destiny fans are still angry with Bungie for focusing on Marathon. But it may not be practical to leave Marathon right away. With allegedly millions of copies sold and an enormous development staff behind the project, Bungie may feel it is obliged to support the game much longer before deciding if it has a viable future.

That makes the December upgrade a crucial test. Adding PvE, team deathmatch, better onboarding, and a redesigned setting could draw new audiences but also give existing players reasons to come back. But these tweaks can worsen concerns that Bungie is drifting from Marathon's core focus on extraction-shooter gameplay.

Marathon’s toughest hurdle in rebuilding its player base may come in December.

If the December push doesn’t provide any real momentum, Bungie could decide to cut back on Marathon. The corporation may very well continue to run the servers while it reallocates resources to another project, but no such decision has been made. If a return to Destiny is to occur, Bungie announcing a new major project within the franchise may also be more understandable to the fans.

Marathon’s urgent challenge is far more fundamental: restoring its audience. The December update is the next big opportunity to do so, though the several-month delay means Bungie will have to wait to see if its new direction makes a substantial difference.

There is no such thing as Destiny 3, and no release date has been revealed. With player numbers already climbing and the game’s identity seemingly shifting with new modes and experiences, Marathon’s December update might be one of the game’s most crucial moments.