Bungie's Marathon Preorders Accidentally Force Steam Users to Download Destiny 2
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Bungie's recent launch of Marathon preorders on Steam accidentally forced players to download Destiny 2, adding another rocky moment to the shooter's troubled development history.
Bungie finally locked down a firm March release date for its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, opening up digital preorders for the community. However, the rollout hit a bizarre snag on PC. Players who attempted to preorder Marathon on Steam found their systems inexplicably queuing up a download for Destiny 2 instead. Because Destiny 2 sits at a massive 170 GB on solid-state drives, the accidental installation provided a rude awakening for players with limited storage space, even if no unexpected charges were processed since the base game is free-to-play. Bungie quickly addressed the glitch on social media, confirming via X that the backend issue has been resolved alongside a separate bug that prevented Collector's Edition owners from activating their game codes.
The mix-up naturally sent the community into a spiral of jokes and memes across social media platforms, with users poking fun at the studio's communication and the sheer size of the unintended download. Preordering the game was also supposed to net players immediate in-game cosmetic rewards for their ships and Ghosts within Destiny 2, though those items failed to show up at launch. Bungie patched out those missing reward issues by Monday evening, but the rollout hiccup adds yet another chapter to a notoriously rocky development cycle for the studio.
Marathon has faced an uphill battle since its initial reveal, weathering mixed preview reactions, leadership changes, and an indefinite delay from its original 2025 launch window. Despite the historic stumbles and the recent Steam download blunder, current sales data shows the extraction shooter sitting firmly in the top tier of Steam bestseller lists as March approaches. As players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC gear up for the March 5 release, the community remains cautiously optimistic that the final product will rise above the chaotic marketing rollout. Original reporting by Ari Notis over at Polygon offers a full breakdown of the launch day confusion.
Tags: Bungie, Marathon, Destiny 2, Steam, PC Gaming
Original article: Polygon