Bungie Officially Announces The Future Of Marathon

Published Sep 24, 2026, 3:02 PM EDT Chris is a Gaming Editor at ScreenRant. He has been a professional writer since 2009, and has written for top TV, comics, movie, and video game outlets like Engadget, Polygon, Destructoid, and more. He brings with him an expertise in every game genre, no matter how niche or mainstream. You may know him as the former Managing/Reviews Editor of Destructoid, where he published hundreds of game reviews across every genre, including MMOs, sports games, and Metroidvanias. Find Chris on Twitter @_SRChris. Earlier this week, Bungie announced major changes to both Destiny and Marathon. The announcement sent shockwaves through the Destiny community, as Bungie revealed they're aiming to add back contentpreviously cut from the game, with new visual bells and whistles. But the future of Marathon was much briefer, leaving fans wondering what's next for Bungie's latest extraction shooter. It seems like they needed a bit more time to explain themselves, as we've just gotten a full rundown of what's next. Based on a comprehensive update on X, we know what the future of Marathon looks like, both through the end of the year and beyond. So here's what's happening with Marathon. In October, we're getting a "refresh to progression," plus more rewards, to make the game more desirable to play in the short term. Once December hits, that's when the real test begins. The long-awaited, long-requested PVE portion of the game is coming to fruition as the first "permanent PVE experience" in Marathon. The perimeter will expand, we'll get a new shell, and onboarding will improve, which should interest newer players. March is the culmination of all these efforts. A "connected" PVE, PVP, and PVEVP experience will be added to Marathon's core framework, including "deeper progression," more narrative, new enemies, and a brand-new zone: "March represents something meaningfully larger than Symbiosis, but it also isn’t the end of Marathon’s evolution. The greatest joy of working on a live service game is developing it alongside you, our players." Perhaps one of the biggest changes is moving away from "strict seasonal releases," meaning updates will arrive "based on what the team is building," to allow for "responsible support." So, like many other live service games, some patches will be small, and others will be more sweeping. The team mentions wanting to plan "beyond 2027," which is great news (in theory) for folks who are already playing Marathon regularly. While the vision for Marathon was originally a "cutthroat, winner-takes-all PVEVP experience, the team wants to offer up different experiences: "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. As we build from Symbiosis toward March and beyond, we’re focused on three areas." Different options for solo and crew players are teased, along with a more "alien and hostile" Tau Ceti IV to roam. All of these Marathon changes seem great on paper, but we'll see if they're enough to keep the game going when they arrive. Systems Released March 5, 2026 ESRB Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) Bungie Publisher(s) Bungie Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Genre(s) Extraction Shooter, FPS, Multiplayer