Marathon Reflects on the Future, Between Season 2 and PvE

Marathon continues its evolution: its author, the American studio Bungie, for various reasons at launch presented a game still far from what it wanted to achieve, but began to correct course very quickly, releasing crucial updates within a few weeks, such as the Ranked mode and the endgame area Cryo Archive. There is still a long way to go and the developer has spoken about the direction it intends to follow in a message.

Marathon Season 2

The first news about Marathon concerns the Cryo Archive: Bungie wants more players to have the opportunity to experience this area, so it will make it accessible daily from May 21 to June 2 (it is currently only available on weekends). June 2 will mark the beginning of Season 2: Nightfall, which will bring with it a new area, Night Marsh, a new Runner shell, more weapons, a progression system called The Cradle, and various improvements to the gameplay experience. Season 2 will be officially unveiled on May 25.

The Future of Marathon

However, the most important news of Season 2 will be another: Bungie will begin experimenting with a PvE mode, in addition to a lighter PvP mode. The developer shared a long message, explaining that they have created a core community and sharing some thoughts on the future of the title. Bungie recognizes that new Marathon players face a very competitive environment, which requires an investment in terms of time and attention to master.

It goes without saying that those who do not have this time to dedicate, or who simply prefer a less competitive environment, will be discouraged. For this reason, PvE and lighter PvP experiences will be tested starting from Season 2. Bungie has planned other changes, including reducing grinding in Marathon, making rewards faster to obtain: therefore, progression will be revised and streamlined.

Obviously, over time, quality of life improvements will also arrive, related to various aspects including the interface, matchmaking, meta, etc... plus additional content, including zones, Shells, weapons, loot, etc... Bungie also hinted at what will be the main objectives of the next four seasons: we report them as they are written in the message, translated into English.

• Season 2 is just around the corner, and we’ll be laying the groundwork for many of our future plans through new content like Sentinel and Night Marsh, new systems, and experiments with new game modes that may become permanent in the future.
• Season 3 we plan to introduce many (and I mean many) revisions to our early experience, including big updates to Perimeter, along with a new Runner shell and additional content (no spoilers).
• Season 4 we will focus on deepening the existing extraction loop.
• Season 5 we will seek to bring the entire game ecosystem (PV(P)VE) together and evolve our bizarre sci-fi world in new ways.