Gaming News · Issue #32 · 8 September 2026

TL;DR

• Bungie has shrunk to 500 staff with most of its games cancelled, leaving Marathon's future and its September 22 PvE mode in doubt.
• ARC Raiders' final Expedition before a 2027 break is live until September 29, so grab the Zenith Outfit now or wait months.
• SPRAWL zero drops as a fast 2000s-style shooter, splitting critics but sitting at 95 percent on its Steam demo.
• Palworld's 1.0.4 update adds two missions, reworks fishing, and pushes PC to 120 FPS by default.
• Lenovo's 225 dollar Legion C700 cloud handheld opens preorders, but only in China for now.

🎯 Extraction shooters

Bungie Shrinks to 500 Staff as Marathon Stumbles and Most of Its Projects Get Cut

Bungie is subleasing its roughly 20,000 square foot Bellevue headquarters and has fallen from about 1,600 staff to 500, a downsizing Gamereactor reported and Bungie confirmed on September 7. The studio framed it as a move to a digital-first work model, but the timing follows a weak launch for its extraction shooter Marathon and a declining Destiny 2. Reports say most of the six games Bungie had in development when Sony bought it for 3.6 billion dollars are now cancelled. Marathon Season 3, its first permanent PvE (player versus environment) mode, still lands September 22.

Player impact: If you play Marathon, a skeleton studio makes the Season 3 mode and any real turnaround a genuine question. Runners betting on long-term support should watch player counts after September 22 before sinking in more time.

Sources: IXBT Games · Neonsect

ARC Raiders Opens Its Final Expedition Before a 2027 Break, Closing September 29

Embark opened ARC Raiders' fifth Expedition on September 8 at 11am UTC, and it runs until September 29 at 8am UTC. This is the last Expedition (a timed progression event with cosmetic rewards) until early 2027, when Embark rebuilds the system around complaints about tight departure windows, thin rewards, and poor new-player access. There is no separate last-call period, so players have to sign up inside the window. Finishing all five Expeditions fully unlocks the Zenith Outfit, and any consecutive buffs already earned carry through the pause.

Player impact: This is your last shot at Expedition rewards and the full Zenith Outfit for months. Log the run before September 29 or wait until 2027, because there is no grace period once the window shuts.

Sources: ARC Raiders · DualShockers

🆕 Just released

SPRAWL zero Lands as a Fast 2000s-Style Shooter, With Critics Split and Players Sold

SPRAWL zero launched September 8 on Steam, the Epic Games Store, PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2. It is a single-player first-person shooter and a prequel to 2022's SPRAWL, leaning on fast movement, gravity gloves, and more than 40 weapons across a collapsing cyberpunk city. It is a boomer shooter, the community term for a fast, arena-style FPS with no cover-and-regenerate play. Critics are split, with an OpenCritic average in the low 60s, but its free Steam demo sits at 95 percent positive across more than 800 player reviews.

Player impact: If you miss twitchy, movement-heavy shooters with no live-service grind, the price of entry is low. Play the free demo first, since the critic and player scores disagree and it carries the same feel as the full game.

Sources: Pure Xbox · CGMagazine

🖥️ Hardware

Lenovo's Legion C700 Cloud Handheld Opens Preorders at About 225 Dollars, but Only in China

Lenovo opened preorders for the Legion C700 on September 8, starting at 1,499 yuan (about 225 US dollars) for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, down from a 2,199 yuan list price. It is an Android 16 cloud gaming handheld built for streaming games from a PC or the cloud rather than running them locally, with a 7.82-inch 1080p 120Hz screen, TMR joysticks, Hall effect triggers, an 8,000mAh battery, and a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chip. Lenovo has not confirmed a global release.

Player impact: This is a cheap look at where budget handhelds are heading, but it streams games instead of running them and stays China-only for now. Anyone eyeing an import should wait for a confirmed global date first.

Sources: Notebookcheck · Gizmochina

📦 Other

Palworld's 1.0.4 Update Adds Two Missions, Reworks Fishing, and Defaults PC to 120 FPS

Pocketpair shipped Palworld update 1.0.4 on September 7 (console build 1.102.642) across every platform. It adds two story side missions, Beyond Dimensions and From the Far Side of the Moon, rebalances fishing difficulty and bait rewards, and lifts the default PC frame-rate cap to 120 FPS. Base Pals (the creatures players capture and set to work) now favour higher-damage skills, and the patch lists more than 100 bug fixes across crashes, multiplayer, and UI. Palworld is Pocketpair's creature-collecting survival game that sold millions at its 2024 debut.

Player impact: If you drifted off after launch, the 120 FPS default and 100-plus fixes make a solo or co-op base run smoother, and the two new missions give lapsed players a fresh reason to boot it up this week.

Sources: MP1st · Palworld Wiki

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