Marathon has a reputation for being a rather hardcore, mostly PvP extraction shooter with a high skill ceiling and some of the most complex maps in the genre. But it wants, and needs, to expand beyond that to attract and retain a playerbase, anchored in at least some base of casual players . There have been some shifts in that direction, but this week’s update furthers that idea.

Its most recent experiment was “Sponsored Dire Marsh,” a new gametype that forces everyone to load in with free, sponsored kits full of baseline white gear and duke it out from there, only able to use what they find on the map. The point is still extraction, and getting out gear to fill your vault to take into the “real” modes, but the overall goal is creating a more even playing field, meaning no one in the map is at a huge gear disadvantage.

Now, the next experiment is…more of that, this time on Perimeter, the baseline “starter” map in the game. Same deal, free kit, everyone even, find what you can, fight and extract with that.

However, Marathon is going a step further this time. Director Joe Ziegler said that for this event, the “floor” on free kits is going up, with new ones being “enhanced” with a green weapon and shield and better health consumables. That does not just apply to this map, as that improved free kit can be used in other maps and modes. Again, it’s about gap closing. Taking on someone with say, blue or purple gear, will have you at least a little better off if you’re starting with this new kit. Compared to the grey one, which effectively has trash, it certainly is an improvement.

This new kit will be around until the end of the season, some undated point in June, supposedly, but you have to wonder about what permanence these “experiments” will lead to. It seems pretty clear that a Sponsored mode for the game will be made permanent in some capacity, perhaps on a map rotation, essentially what we’re seeing now. We don’t know the data, but I am willing to bet a huge portion of the population is playing this mode. The majority? I’m not even sure I’d rule that out.

Marathon is still focused on its highest-end players in terms of attempting to balance gear and the maps themselves. But it does seem like a pretty obvious path forward that Marathon will have to find a way to bring more players in, and that is not going to happen, making say, an even harder map than Cryo. Next season, there is no “new” map, rather a night version of Dire Marsh, where I’d at least classify Dire Marsh as being more accessible than most at this point.

The sponsored kit mode’s success and continued investment tell me that Bungie likes what they see with the data (yes, yes, overall playercount continues to slide) and that it’s worth making a permanent part of the game, even if that hasn’t been announced yet. Of course, that raises the contradictory truth that a mode that loads of people are playing is the least extraction-y of anything, given that you can literally never load in with looted gear, and you risk essentially nothing on death. Marathon, as ever, is in a weird place.

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