Concerns about Bungie potentially leaving the extraction shooter behind first came up with the studio’s emphasis on the permanent PvE mode coming to the game with the Symbiosis update in December.

“Last week we had a great time talking about the upcoming PvE and experimental PvP modes for Symbiosis in December. We want to be clear, Extraction is still a major part of Marathon, and we’re also going to continue updating it as we look to the future of the game.”

Chafe went on to ask fans of Marathon for feedback about “what you’re enjoying about Extraction today, what you think needs work, and what you wish was there.”

It is worth noting that, as part of announcing the future roadmap for Marathon, Bungie has said that it is aiming to create “connected PvE, PvP, and PvEvP experiences” that are bolstered by deeper methods of progression, expansions to the story, and other new content like zones and shells.

“Some players want a quick, lower-pressure run after work,” explained the studio at the time. “Some want to spend an entire night with their crew. Others want to test a build, compete directly against other players, chase a difficult challenge, or follow a strange clue deeper into the ruins of Tau Ceti IV. Marathon needs to support all of them.”

The Symbiosis update is also going to bring in other forms of content to the game, including an expanded version of Perimeter, a new shell, and general improvements to the onboarding experience to ensure that new players have an easier time getting into the extraction shooter.

“We know that rebuilding trust requires more than talking about the future. We need to share our work and clearly communicate what’s changing so the Marathon community has an accurate understanding of what each update will and won’t deliver.

“While we build toward December and March, we’ll continue making meaningful quality-of-life improvements and running focused experiments that allow players to participate without reorganizing their lives around limited windows.”

This move to focusing on larger updates is part of Bungie’s decision to move away from the seasonal content model that it was aiming for with Marathon. The studio announced in mid-September that this had also led to the Symbiosis update – originally slated for September 22nd – being delayed to December.

More details about the PvE mode haven’t yet been revealed, with Bungie noting that it still has to finalize some of its more minute details. However, the studio has promised that it will give us a look at the game mode before it comes out later this year.

In the meantime, Marathon is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

This will be followed up with a major update in December – Symbiosis – that will bring in the shooter’s first permanent PvE game mode along with other content like an expanded version of Perimeter, a new shell, improvements to the onboarding experience, and a new social space where players can hang out together. March will see further expansion of these concepts through what the studio has described as “connected PvE, PvP, and PvEvP experiences” along with deeper progression, a refactored version of Cradle, expansions to the story, and new enemies, along with an entirely new zone.

While the core PvEvP experience is meant to be an important part of Marathon, Bungie has said that it wants to offer players more options when it comes to the survival experience they want. More details about the PvE mode are slated to be revealed as we get closer to the release of the Symbiosis update, as parts of the experience are still being finalized.

“Some players want a quick, lower-pressure run after work. Some want to spend an entire night with their crew. Others want to test a build, compete directly against other players, chase a difficult challenge, or follow a strange clue deeper into the ruins of Tau Ceti IV. Marathon needs to support all of them.”

Bungie has also revealed more details about how it plans to overhaul its onboarding experience since, in its current state, the extraction shooter “asks new players to learn too much, too quickly.” To deal with this, a smoother onramp is being designed that will allow players to easily learn the core fundamentals for Marathon. The social space will play into this, since it will also include a firing range where players can test out their weapons and shell abilities.

“We know that rebuilding trust requires more than talking about the future. We need to share our work and clearly communicate what’s changing so the Marathon community has an accurate understanding of what each update will and won’t deliver.

“While we build toward December and March, we’ll continue making meaningful quality-of-life improvements and running focused experiments that allow players to participate without reorganizing their lives around limited windows.”

Bungie had confirmed earlier this month that Marathon would be moving away from its seasonal content model. This involved pushing back the release of the shooter’s major new update from its originally planned September 22nd date.

At the same time, Bungie has also confirmed that it is working on improving Destiny 2 by bringing back content that was vaulted with the release of its Beyond Light expansion. This means that players will finally get to re-experience the campaigns from Red War up to Forsaken.

Reportedly led by Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, it ended up canceled in Summer 2024. While details about Payback are sparse, the report indicates that it was going to essentially be the “future” of Destiny. Despite sharing the same universe, however, it may not have shared the franchise’s name. Its gameplay structure was also described as being quite different from what Destiny players might be used to.

Bringing up Genshin Impact for comparison, Schreier said that Payback was being designed as being more hero-centric, with gameplay revolving around open-world exploration and puzzle-solving.

“There were a lot of things that were different about Payback, but one of the ideas was to try to appeal to younger audiences, to new audiences, the audiences that weren’t already in the thick of the Destiny universe, because the average demographic of Destiny players kept getting older and older.”

Further discussing how Destiny 2 had become quite bad at bringing in new players due to poor onboarding and even Bungie’s content vaulting decisions, Schreier went on to say that Payback was a way for the studio to figure out how it can further grow its audience.

Since Bungie recently announced that it is “not done with Destiny” after confirming that it is bringing back Destiny 2’s vaulted content like the Red War and Forsaken campaigns, we might end up seeing Payback get further development. The studio made its announcement earlier this week, promising more stories and worlds for the shooter.

“We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny,” said the studio on its content vaulting decisions. “Destiny 2 is more than just the content itself. It is a place where players have built memories together, formed lasting friendships, and shared experiences that have stayed with them for years. We cannot change the decision we made, but we can acknowledge its impact and do the work to make it right by restoring these important parts of Destiny’s history.”

However, the studio has said that it will need some time to bring back this content, largely due to the fact that the Destiny 2 engine has seen many changes since the content was vaulted with the release of Beyond Light. As a result, a lot of work has to be done to bring the older zones’ lighting, encounters, combatants, and gameplay systems up to modern Destiny 2 standards.

In the meantime, Bungie is also continuing its work on Marathon with the aim of creating a “deeper survival experience” that can evolve “beyond the genre constraints placed on it”. The next major update for the PvPvE extraction shooter will arrive in December, which will bring with it a team deathmatch mode, a social space, and a dedicated PvE mode.

“We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny. Destiny 2 is more than just the content itself. It is a place where players have built memories together, formed lasting friendships, and shared experiences that have stayed with them for years. We cannot change the decision we made, but we can acknowledge its impact and do the work to make it right by restoring these important parts of Destiny’s history.”

While this is a positive step, there’s a reason Bungie hasn’t attempted this before: It’s far from easy. “Bringing this content back is not as simple as restoring old files. Changes made to Destiny 2 since Beyond Light require us to update lighting, encounters, combatants, and other underlying systems. That work will take time, but it is necessary to ensure returning content meets the stability and gameplay standards of Destiny 2 today.”

Of course, the other big question is: Why? Monuments of Triumph was the last major content update for the looter shooter and was followed by mass layoffs that impacted the entire team. According to Bungie, “When we announced that Monuments of Triumph would be the final content update to Destiny 2, you responded in force. Your voices mattered, and the way you showed up made a real impact. You reminded everyone how much this world, its history, and its future still mean to you.”

“Destiny is foundational to Bungie’s future. We have more stories to tell, new worlds to build, but we have to do it right and give our teams the time they need to do justice to this amazing universe.

“All of this is to say, we are not done with Destiny.”

More details will be revealed in the coming months, including how exactly Bungie will begin the unvaulting process. Based on its wording, it certainly seems like the developer wants to continue supporting Destiny 2, though how that manifests (and whether it’s new content) remains to be seen. It’s also possible that it could opt to create a spin-off or something else set in the same universe, thus fulfilling the promise of “new stories” and “worlds.”

As for Marathon, the team is looking to create a “deeper survival experience” and evolve “beyond the genre constraints placed on it.” Of course, we already know about some of those plans, coming in December’s Symbiosis update, including an experimental Team Deathmatch mode, social space/firing range, and a dedicated PvE experience.

There will be more later this week on the shooter “future vision,” and if nothing else, it should tell us more about what to expect in October when Nightfall Refresh lands.

“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.”

The rumor, which can be seen in the Marathon subreddit, makes several improbable claims, like Marathon getting a new PvE mode dubbed Investigations that would feature boss fights in the vein of Destiny’s raids, and that the extraction shooter would be going free-to-play in December.

The gameplay loop of the Investigations mode would involve 1 to 5 players taking on missions that were seemingly based on the gameplay loop of Monster Hunter and the Salmon Run mode from Splatoon, and would also include an element of extraction, culminating in epic boss battles.

Tying Marathon into Destiny would have been especially difficult. The rumor claimed that the former would be retooled into being a depiction of humanity’s Golden Age, as has been written about throughout lore entries in Destiny. However, anyone with a passing knowledge of either of the two franchises’ stories would have pointed out how difficult this is, since Marathon has its own lore that spans the course of several years, with 1996’s Marathon Infinity stretching the timeline out into Eternity.

Similarly, Destiny has quite a bit of established lore already set up before and after humanity’s Golden Age, and as such, no mention of the Marathon universe is made aside from a few Easter eggs like the presence of the MIDA weapons.

The fact that “most of” Destiny’s team faced layoffs earlier this year, with all content plans for the online loot-based shooter having been canceled, would also make the prospect of Bungie going back to the franchise at such short notice less probable.

In the meantime, Bungie has announced that it has pushed back Marathon’s next major content update from its previously planned September 22nd release date to December 8th. The decision comes as part of a larger plan to move the extraction shooter away from the seasonal content model. The studio also said that it delayed the update so that it could give the team “more flexibility to build, test, and improve features before they are released.”

The update, dubbed Symbiosis, will feature a refreshed version of Perimeter, a new Runner Shell, a Team Deathmatch game mode, and improvements in other areas of the game, like onboarding for new players. Interestingly, the update will also introduce a major new addition to the game in the form of a social hub area where players can hang out and even test out their weapons together at a firing range.

Marathon is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

So when can you expect new content for the extraction shooter, which, if you’ve seen the Steam numbers, is looking absolutely dire? December 8th with the Symbiosis update. It includes a refreshed version of Perimeter, a new Runner Shell, an experimental Team Deathmatch mode, onboarding improvements, and perhaps most surprising, a social space that also doubles as a firing range.

This also marks the first permanent PvE experience, and while Bungie didn’t share many details, it will provide “a new way to explore, progress, and engage with the world beyond traditional PvPvE extraction gameplay.” Symbiosis is considered an “important milestone” and “the beginning of a broader evolution through March and beyond, shaped by what we learn from players along the way.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean the game is going dark until December. October 6th features a progression and economy reset, a new Rewards Pass, balance updates and even the return of Vault Breaker. Bungie will also continue with its “gameplay experiments,” so expect more details on that front.

As for the game’s future, a blog post will go live later this month where the development team outlines how it will evolve Marathon “into a more alien and dynamic survival experience.” At the very least, this isn’t an end-of-service announcement, so that’s one reason to celebrate.

Still, despite adding PvE modes and making it far more forgiving, Marathon hasn’t really caught on since launching last March for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. With Destiny 2 not receiving any more content and mass layoffs, it remains to be seen how Bungie can salvage it going forward.

“As part of that acquisition, Bungie also had a whole bunch of other live service games in the works that Sony wanted to see come out in the subsequent years in addition to, of course, Destiny 2, which is Bungie’s big ongoing project,” he explained before going on to discuss how “most of those projects fell apart” over the course of time “for a variety of reasons”.

It is worth noting that, currently, Bungie is in quite a dire state, having been hit by layoffs back in June that involved 292 job cuts. Many of these developers had been working on Destiny 2 at the time, according to Sony’s Herman Hulst. Reports at the time had also indicated that studio head Justice Truman was stepping down.

In July, this would then be followed by the departure of Marathon’s game director, Joe Ziegler. The role has since been taken on by Del Chafe III, and Julia Nardin has been made the creative director on the title.

“Both of them have been operating in a strong leadership capacity for the team and are ready to guide Marathon into the next chapter with an even better and brighter future. As for me, I’ll be heading to something new, somewhere else, and will update you on where and what soon.”

As recently as last month, Bungie had continued to experiment with Marathon by bringing in the game’s first true PvE mode – Vault Breaker. The mode tasked players with heading into the Cryo Archive, where they would face UESC enemies. No other players are present for this game mode aside from the player’s own team. There are also options for Duos and Trios matchmaking, as well as a solo mode.

The studio is also currently working on Season 3 content for Marathon. Slated for launch on September 22nd, the season will bring revamps to Perimeter as well as a brand-new Runner Shell.

Marathon is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our thoughts on its PvE game mode, as well as our review from when the extraction shooter first came out.

As for Destiny 2, Bungie had announced that it was ending support for the shooter back in May. It got its final content update in June, and there are currently no confirmed plans for the franchise moving forward. Rumors had also indicated that, contrary to popular belief, there was no Destiny 3 in development at Bungie. In the meantime, however, Destiny and Destiny 2 are both still playable, and there don’t seem to be any plans to shut down the servers, at least for now.

In a turn of events that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone paying attention to the games industry, Fortnite has taken the number one spot across PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. On the PlayStation side of things, the top 5 aside from Fortnite include NBA 2K26, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Roblox, and Grand Theft Auto 5 Remastered. Xbox, on the other hand, features Roblox, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5 Remastered, and Minecraft in its top 5.

“Each list had exactly one new game reach the top 20. The rest were mostly long-running live service or annualized sports titles,” acknowledged Piscatella. “This is just the PS/XBX market right now.” In another post, he noted that the current market leads to “thousands of other games that come out every year fighting for the attention of a relatively small enthusiast portion of the total player base.”

As we get deeper in both lists, we continue to see the trend of older live-service titles, like Apex Legends and Rocket League. There are a few exceptions to be seen, however. Palworld’s recent 1.0 release likely played a large role in letting it breach the top 20 list, for instance. Similarly, on Xbox, Destiny 2 has managed to climb up to number 19. Curiously, the Xbox list also included Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which is entirely missing from the PS5 side. Shift at Midnight’s absence from PlayStation’s list, on the other hand, is more understandable due to it simply not getting released on the platform.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls‘ presence on the PS5 list also represents an interesting data point, since the game hasn’t yet been released, and was only available for a single weekend.

It looks like Steam is the only one of the three platforms to offer a more diverse list of the most-played games. Palworld currently sits at the top of the list, followed by Counter-Strike 2, Battlefield 6, Slay the Spire 2, and Marvel Rivals rounding up the top 5. Further in, we also get to see titles like the indie hit Meccha Chameleon before more live-service games like Helldivers 2, Destiny 2, and Rocket League come in. The presence of Valve’s Deadlock is also noteworthy, since it is still an invite-only game that hasn’t yet been officially released to the public.

Seeing lists like this that are broadly dominated by live-service games goes a long way in explaining the reasoning behind companies chasing similar trends, even if they happen to fail. We last saw this with Sony’s push towards live-service games, which ultimately culminated in a lack of new game releases, the cancelation of several projects, and even some studios being shuttered.

"Surely expanding the list to 20 would show plenty of new games"Well. Sure. Each list had exactly one new game reach the top 20. The rest were mostly long running live service or annualized sports titles.This is just the PS/XBX market right now.

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-08-03T15:44:17.812Z

Circana Player Engagement Tracker – US Top 10 Titles by Weekly Active Users (Not Concurrent) – W/E Jul 25, 2026- Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls debuted 17th on PlayStation- Shift at Midnight ranked 17th on Xbox in launch week- Path of Exile jumped to 19th on Steam from 119th a week ago

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-08-03T14:30:28.614Z

"W"

It’s something I called out in my review, way back when. Those who sought a hardcore extraction shooter experience with exceptional polish and excellent gunplay would be best served. As punishing as matches could feel due to the UESC bots and the smaller map size, which made it easier for players to collide; as non-social as playing solo felt, instead likened to a survival horror experience (especially if you’re Rook); and as awful as the menus felt, it occupied a niche between ARC Raiders and Escape From Tarkov. It felt as focused and confident with its gameplay as its setting did with all the moths and fonts. There was depth to build on – new directions that it could go in.

And none of it has meant a damn thing for the game’s actual player numbers.

Over four months later, we’ve arrived at the middle of Season 2: NIGHTFALL. You’ll probably recall our post-mortem report, two weeks into the season – how it reached 40,686 concurrent players during its free week, and quickly plummeted right back down…is what I want to say. In reality, it fell even further, dropping below 7,000 concurrent players on Steam.

However, the new PvE mode is here: Vault Breaker. In a way, this is Bungie addressing multiple criticisms at once. It gives solo players and teams who don’t want to deal with others rocking end-game loot a chance to immerse themselves in the genuinely great Cryo Archive. Progression is bespoke and relies on a roguelike formula. You enter the map with a special Sponsored Kit, pick up a Vault Key Card, locate said vault, find the terminal with the corresponding symbol, and voila. All the while, you’re dealing with UESC troops, who can quickly overwhelm you.

Once you’ve gone inside and gathered Vault Indexes, you can choose to exfil or proceed to the next Vault, repeating the process. The catch is that things get even tougher as you go along. Meanwhile, the timer is still in effect, and if you don’t leave before it runs out, you get nothing.

Any loot found can be used in that run alone. So while it may be an uphill climb to gain a foothold against the UESC, it follows the roguelike pattern of becoming stronger as the run progresses. This works especially well in Marathon’s case, not just because of different weapon rarities but due to how attachments work. Find enough higher rarity barrels, scopes, and mods, and you can turn a Common weapon into something more potent.

As soon as you leave, say goodbye to that precious loot because it’s not going with you. Instead, any Indexes collected can be converted into Tier 1 Vault Data. This is used to upgrade your Sponsored Kit and make that starting loadout decidedly less terrible. Henceforth, you stand a better chance at the start, wiping out the UESC in quicker fashion, and gaining access to superior items. The fact that you can start with an Enhanced Shield, and not be at the mercy of RNG when it comes to something better, is a huge advantage unto itself.

Maybe you’ll be able to push deeper into the Archive and eventually go up against the Compiler, the toughest threat in the game. Maybe you’ll retreat and attempt it with better odds. And maybe you’ll play just enough of Vault Breaker to purchase weapons that can be used in other modes. All we need now is for it to be offline and – what’s that? PlayStation says no? Well, if it was worth a try.

So with all this glowing praise for this mode, limited-time as it may be – and leaving aside all the PvP balance changes – there’s just one problem: Player numbers remain pitiful. Presently on Steam, Marathon peaked at 14,809 concurrent players in the past 24 hours. Less than half of Season 2’s start. In fact, these are pretty similar Destiny 2 numbers, which led to its end of support, and the irony of it offering a much bigger PvE experience by comparison is not lost on anyone.

But hey, surely Destiny 2 isn’t doing fantastic numbers either, especially since it’s been over a month since its final content update…aaannddd it’s currently peaked at 55,602 players on Steam. Don’t get me wrong – the peaks are becoming lower, and enthusiasm is definitely starting to wane, but this is also a game that’s been on Steam since October 2019. Marathon is fresher, and even if it’s not going to convert all those veteran Guardians into would-be Runners, you would think a larger number of people would want to check out this new PvE mode.

Heck, with this lull in ARC Raiders’ player base, thanks to Embark changing its plans to two major content updates every year, you would think that now would be a great time to try Marathon, especially since the former lacks a dedicated PvE mode. The latter is even discounted, costing $28 instead of the usual $40. At this stage, what else could Bungie possibly do?

More importantly, what does PlayStation expect at this point? Is laying off over half the studio and focusing only on this singular project meant to prove less of a loss over time? Sure, it’s not incurring as many expenses from keeping the lights on in Bellevue, but has Marathon broken even in terms of costs, assuming reports of its $200 to $250 million budget are true? Is it able to sustain current costs?

To top all of this off, just days before the mid-season update went live, game director Joe Ziegler announced that he’s leaving Bungie. Such departures in the middle of a live-service title’s life cycle aren’t unheard of – see Joe Blackburn leaving months before the launch of Destiny 2: The Final Shape. But even if Ziegler has been on Marathon for years and is pursuing greener pastures (hopefully), losing your director mere months after launch isn’t the best look, no matter how you slice it.

Others were already in place to take over, and the ship will likely keep running as usual, but right now, it feels like we’ve already seen the best that Bungie could offer in this space. Even leaving aside the top five most-played games in the world, or how crowded the genre is already, its direct competition has secured some runway for the future. Can the same be said for Marathon? Should fans be concerned that its current roadmap is only up to Season 3, which begins on September 22nd?

Does the development team have anything else beyond a reworked Perimeter, a new Runner Shell, and some new loot to chase? Or some new gimmick that could put an interesting spin on the current gameplay? What about new maps or an expansion to Cryo Archive?

Hardcore players may stick around to see how this years-long story plays out, but as Destiny has proven multiple times, Bungie is capable of driving them off, sometimes permanently. It’s almost like the mistakes made with its biggest franchise, and perhaps the most important live-service game of all time, have continued to haunt the studio, except with even fewer avenues to bring new players into the fold, and much less room for failure.

There’s another famous saying about history, and how those who don’t learn it are doomed to repeat it. Bungie could very well break the cycle and kill its troubling past, opening up new horizons of success, but I fear, more tragically, that regardless of what it does, Marathon is ultimately doomed. And all that’s left for everyone left in this rapidly evaporating puddle is to enjoy its depths while it lasts.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

At the start, players will pick up Cryo Key 01 or 02 and battle past the UESC hordes to find a Vault. Once opened, pay attention to the weird symbols on the walls and find the corresponding terminal. Once inside the Vault, you can loot different items, including Tier 1 Indexes. From there, you can opt to extract or continue looting more Vaults.

Running out of time renders everything null and void, but even if you exfil, none of the loot goes with you. Instead, the Indexes (now converted to Data) must be spent to improve your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kit. Those upgrades – including starting with an Enhanced Shield Implant and Vault Credentials – persist between runs. Delve far enough, and you may have a face-to-face with The Compiler.

Of course, you can also spend Vault Data to purchase gear and weapons to use in other modes. Even for those who don’t care about PvE, there’s some incentive to care about Vault Breaker. Head here for more details.