Marathon pushes its major September update into December and ends its seasonal

Considering major update timing changes to Bungie’s other shooter seemed to portend worrisome things for that game, we’re going to go ahead and wring our hands over Marathon and its recently announced content cadence shifts, which will see an update scheduled for next week get pushed back all the way into the end of the year.

“We previously shared plans for Marathon’s next major update to launch on September 22. […] The content originally planned for September will now arrive as part of our Symbiosis update on December 8,” the studio confirms. “Since launch, you’ve told us Marathon needs more depth, more variety, stronger progression, and better reasons to keep playing over the long term. We agree. Addressing that feedback requires us to change both what we’re building and how we deliver it.”

This September 22nd update had a lot of things on tap, including a permanent PvE mode, a new character, and a refreshed Perimeter zone. Now those features will arrive in December alongside a social space, improvements to the shooter’s tutorial, and an experimental team deathmatch mode.

In addition to this multi-month delay in its next major content drop, Bungie has also confirmed that Marathon is ending seasonal updates entirely. “Instead of tying major updates to fixed seasonal deadlines, we’re giving the team more flexibility to build, test, and improve features before they are released,” the studio explained.

In between now and December, the game will receive a refresh of its Nightfall season on Tuesday, October 6th, which will reset character progression and the in-game economy to give “all players a fresh starting point” while also promising a new rewards pass, balance updates, and quality-of-life improvements. Players can also expect the Vault Breaker PvE mode to make periodic returns, while additional experiments will release across the eight weeks’ worth of general new content drought between October and December.

“We know you’ll have questions, and we’ll answer them as clearly and quickly as we can,” the post closes. “We’ll continue showing our work and providing regular updates as we move toward Symbiosis and the future beyond it.”

source: official site, thanks to Dantos for the tip!