Marathon Season 3 delay has fans despairing about the game's future

Bungie has confirmed the latest big content update for Marathon, called Symbiosis which was previously labelled Season 3, has been delayed by two-and-a-half months and fans are despairing about the game's future.

In an update on Bungie's website, the studio confirmed the initial plan was for the next update to land on 22 September but this has now been pushed back to 8 December.

"Alongside the new Runner shell, permanent PvE experience and refreshed Perimeter zone, the update will also include a social space / firing range, an experimental TDM mode and improvements to new player onboarding," the update added.

"Before then, we’ll release a smaller, focused update on October 6 that resets progression and the in-game economy, refreshes rewards and improves the live game, while giving the team the time needed to deliver the larger experiences planned for December and March.

"We're also moving away from a strict seasonal schedule. 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.

"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 has been posted in the Marathon Subreddit and the OP (original poster) said: "What more is there to say at this point? Insane how hard Bungie has consistently dropped the ball with such an amazing framework for a game. Here's hoping for a FFXIV comeback story!"

It's led to a lot more worry among gamers than encouragement.

One said: "Damn. I guess they figure that player counts are this low, so they might as well just take their time and try for a big comeback all at once. Like what's it gonna do, go lower? Peaking at 2.4k is already terrible, what's a few more months going to do? The hardcore that refuse to stop playing aren't going to stop and that's all they have left."

A second commented: "Oh, I actually have seen this before."

"As a live service game developer, what this really reveals is that they did not have much content produced in advance," declared a third. "Generally you make a ton of content year(s) in advance so that you can release the new content while having your developers working on new mechanics, new features, etc..."

A fourth exclaimed: "Wowza. 8 December is when Season 3 should have been ending. What on earth is happening at Bungie internal?"

But a fifth countered: "I mean delays are generally a good thing for the actual product. Reputation takes a hit but it's complete dogs*** anyway. Might as well give the team the time it takes to get the release right then actually kill your game with a 'saviour season' release falling short. And I'm not saying 'now it will save the game' I'm just saying that releasing a s****y version of it on time would probably hurt more than this delay."

Marathon is out now on PS5, XBOX Series X/S and PC.

Elsewhere from Indy100:

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