Bungie delays next Marathon update and ends ‘strict seasonal schedule’ as it goes all-in on Destiny-like features

Bungie is changing how it updates Marathon going forward, saying it is “moving away from a strict seasonal schedule to give the team more flexibility to build, test, and improve features before release.” As a result, the content planned to launch as part of this month’s seasonal refresh has been delayed into December, and will be preceded by a small update in October “that resets progression and the in-game economy, refreshes rewards, and improves the live game.”

The Nightfall refresh, launching on October 6, will give all Marathon players “a fresh starting point,” something Bungie said was necessary after issues with the season “accelerated some players into the endgame while leaving others behind.”

We’re making changes to Marathon’s update plans and how we deliver new content.We’re moving away from a strict seasonal schedule to give the team more flexibility to build, test, and improve features before release. (1/2)

— @marathonteam.bungie.net (@marathonteam.bungie.net.bsky.social) 2026-09-14T18:19:57.929Z

“This made Extraction more difficult to engage with and prevented the reset from working as intended,” Bungie wrote. “October gives us an opportunity to apply what we learned and establish a healthier progression experience.”

The October refresh will also see the Vault Breaker PvE mode brought back for a limited time, and there will be other “gameplay experiments” between the October refresh and Symbiosis update in December as well. That’s the big one: PvE will finally be made a permanent mode, and there will be a new Runner shell, a “social space with a firing range,” an experimental Team Deathmatch mode, and various other improvements.

“[Symbiosis] is only the beginning of what we’re working toward. As players spend time with these updates and share their feedback, we’ll continue refining and expanding Marathon,” Bungie wrote.

“We’ll share more about that future through Dev Insights videos and regular development updates. Our first blog about Marathon’s future plans is scheduled for later this month where we will share how we will be evolving Marathon into a more alien and dynamic survival experience.”

That sounds promising—I’ve said before and I’ll probably say again that Marathon looks like a game that could really pull me in with a singleplayer mode that allows me to explore and play at my own pace—but some players aren’t too happy about the considerably longer-than-expected wait for new content.

Memories of Destiny 2, which scrapped its own seasonal model in favor of “episodes” a few years ago—a move which did not save it—likely also loom large, particularly given that Marathon’s concurrent player numbers on Steam continue to sag: A shakeup like this, especially for a game so relatively new, has a certain ‘last ditch effort’ vibe to it.

Still, there is some excitement about the prospect of a more well-rounded Marathon emerging from all of all, with a properly fleshed-out singleplayer mode and more social interactivity—which could, ironically, make Marathon much more Destiny-like. Bungie comms boss Dylan Gafner, aka dmg04, said on X that players can “expect more comms from the team over the next few weeks (and months).” We’ll see how it goes.