A major reset appears to be on the horizon for Marathon as Bungie announces a major delay to season 3 as the studio brings an end to seasonal content amid other massive overhauls. 2026 has been a rollercoaster for Bungie as the studio delivered a huge fan favorite update to Destiny 2, but also revealed support would be coming to an end. With Marathon now the sole focus of the studio, big changes are coming to the live service game.
After launching earlier in 2026, the momentum of Marathon seemingly dried up faster than anticipated, with Bungie attempting to fix issues and respond to player feedback. Even after launching its final live-service update for Destiny 2, the player count for both games continued to be wildly different. Based on Steam, Destiny 2‘s player count continued to overshadow Marathon, coming in about 10x as much back in August, convincing many fans that Sony may have given up too soon on Bungie’s more popular IP. Either way, Bungie is attempting to revive Marathon‘s future by making some major changes along with a sizable delay to Season 3.
Marathon Announces Major Change For Future Updates
Marathon’s next major update was originally scheduled to launch on September 22, but Bungie announced that plans have significantly changed. The originally planned content set to arrive in Season 3 is being moved into the Symbiosis update for December 8, which includes the previously announced permanent PvE game mode. In addition, there will be a new runner shell, social space with firing range, an experimental TDM game mode, an improved onboarding experience, as well as a refreshed version of Marathon‘s Perimeter map.
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However, that isn’t the end of the news, as Bungie also announced some major changes going forward, including the end of seasonal content updates. SImilar to what Embark did with ARC Raiders content delivery, Bungie is giving the development team more time and flexibility to “build, test, and improve features before they are released.” Part of the decision comes from player feedback, asking Bungie for more depth, stronger progression, and better reasons to keep playing over the long term.
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Image via Bungie -
Image via Bungie -
Image via Bungie
However, to ease the wait somewhat, Bungie is planning a smaller update in October, essentially resetting progression and the in-game economy to give everyone a fresh starting point. As an attempt to address Marathon‘s Season 2 progression issues and player frustrations, October’s update will also add a new reward pass, add more quality of life improvements as well as further tuning and balance updates. Marathon‘s experimental PvE mode known as Vault Breaker also returns for a limited time and will be followed by even more experiments and updates from the studio before the big December launch.
Bungie is already calling the December 8 Symbiosis update as Marathon‘s next chapter with its first PvE experience that aims to add a new way to explore, progress, and engage beyond traditional PvPvE extraction mechanics. However, it is just a starting point, as Bungie’s blog on the announcement teased further refinements and changes down the road. Players won’t have to wait too long as the blog post confirmed that the studio’s future plans for Marathon will be arriving later this month, sharing how the game will be evolving into “a more alien and dynamic survival experience.”
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
