Destiny 2's Shadow and Order Update Delayed for Marathon Release

On Monday, Bungie pushed the reveal of Marathon’s release date and opened up preorders even on MLK Day, thanks to the fact that it all leaked the previous day anyway. It was supposed to be today, I was told, but here we are. Marathon will arrive on March 5. Welllll, there’s a bit of a problem. Destiny 2’s Shadow and Order post-Renegades major update is supposed to launch on March 3, which will inject at least some level of new activities and loot into the game after many, many weeks of little to do. But two days before Marathon’s launch will be too uncomfortable for Bungie and many players. My sources tell me that yes, Bungie will delay the Shadow and Order update because it’s too close to Marathon’s release. I don’t know how far it might be delayed; I'd imagine more than a week, nor do I know when this will be officially announced, but it will probably be announced soon. But it’s happening. This has not thrilled a number of Destiny players who were not planning on playing Marathon, a wildly different genre, and just wanted that new content. Here’s a sampling of comments I got when reporting on this yesterday: “Oh great love being second classed again.” “F#$k! I hate them sacrificing their current money-making child for the new kid who hasn't even learned to walk yet.” “I say allow Concord 2.0 to release and fail. Then the Bungie team can get together and focus on working on Destiny 2.” It should be noted that Marathon struck a pretty big blow against the “Concord 2” narrative yesterday when it peaked at #4 on Steam’s best-sellers chart for its pre-orders, being only monsters like CSGO and, of course, ARC Raiders. Concord did not make it inside Steam’s top 100 best-sellers at launch. While I get why Destiny 2 players are annoyed, I mean, this was sort of how it had to go. It is hard to overstate just how important Marathon is to Bungie, and they want all eyes on that launch rather than blending it with Shadow and Order promotion. And you have to admit that Shadow and Order is not a terribly substantive Destiny release. At best, it’s a few new activities, events and some loot. It’s not even one of the new, smaller expansions in the post-Final Shape era. And it’s not The Final Shape. Despite the difference in genres, a large chunk of who Bungie hopes will play Marathon are Destiny players, at least to try it out, with many of them loyal to Bungie for years or a decade or almost three decades if you go all the way back to Halo. It’s the third new Bungie shooter IP in about thirty years. So, annoying? Maybe. Understandable? Yes. I’ll report more on the exact timing of the delay when I figure it out. I don’t think the timing is even set yet.