Marathon Season 3 Overhaul | Gaming News #15
Marathon Season 3 lands September 22 with a full PvE mode and a rebuilt early game, Bungie's bet to win back players after a 96% drop.
Gaming News · Issue #15 · 22 August 2026
TL;DR
- Marathon Season 3 lands September 22 with a full PvE mode and a rebuilt early game, Bungie's bet to win back players after a 96% drop.
- ARC Raiders is handing out a free Subterranean outfit, and the catch is buying a Subway sandwich to unlock it.
- Call of Duty NEXT dropped the first look at Zodiac, the new Warzone Resurgence map coming with Modern Warfare 4.
- Dying Light is free to play all weekend on Steam before The Beast arrives September 19.
- FromSoftware scrapped the opening session of The Duskbloods' first network test after the servers fell over.
🎯 Extraction shooters
Marathon Bets Season 3 on a Full PvE Mode as Daily Players Fall Below 3,600
Bungie detailed Marathon's Season 3, live September 22, as a rescue plan for its struggling extraction shooter (a PvPvE looter where you raid a map, grab gear, and extract before rival players kill you). The season adds a full PvE mode, new Perimeter areas and encounters, a reworked early-game onboarding, and fresh weapons. Reporting on August 20 pegged Marathon's 24-hour Steam peak at 3,507 players, down 96% from its 88,337 launch peak in March.
Player impact: If you bounced off Marathon at launch, Season 3 is the version to judge: a solo-friendly PvE mode and a gentler start aimed straight at the players who left. Whether that holds them past October is the real test.
Sources: The Game Post · TechRadar
ARC Raiders Ties a Free Outfit to Buying a Subway Sandwich
Embark Studios and Subway launched Fuel the Raid on August 20, a promotion that unlocks the exclusive Subterranean outfit in ARC Raiders, the free third-person extraction shooter. Buying a qualifying Subway meal at participating US locations through October 26 gives a single-use code for the outfit, one of three variants, plus two bonus in-game items that rotate weekly. The tie-in runs ahead of the Frozen Trail map update on October 8.
Player impact: The cosmetics are locked behind a US fast-food purchase, so most Raiders outside America (or anyone who does not eat Subway) simply cannot get them. Free-with-purchase skins in a free game always split a community over what counts as fair.
Sources: ARC Raiders · Subway Newsroom
🔫 FPS
Warzone's New Resurgence Map Zodiac Gets Its First Look at Call of Duty NEXT
Call of Duty NEXT on August 21 gave the first look at Zodiac, a new Resurgence map (Warzone's faster, respawn-enabled battle royale mode) launching in the Modern Warfare 4 era. Zodiac is a compact island built around an industrial research complex, with 10 named points of interest including Admin, Solar, Old Mines, Furnace, and Cooling. It is playable now in the Early Access beta running August 21 to 25.
Player impact: Resurgence is where most Warzone players actually live, so a fresh map sets the rotation you will grind for months. Trying Zodiac in the beta this weekend is the cheapest way to decide if MW4's Warzone is worth your time.
Sources: Dot Esports · GameSpot
Modern Warfare 4 Details Its Launch Maps and a Reworked Movement System
Alongside the Warzone reveal, Xbox Wire on August 21 broke down Modern Warfare 4's core 6v6 multiplayer: its launch map list and a reworked movement system tuned for the beta running August 21 to 25. Developers walked through map design and traversal changes players can test this weekend, ahead of the full game's October 23 launch. DMZ, the returning extraction mode, ships with that launch too.
Player impact: Movement decides whether a Call of Duty feels good or floaty, so the beta is your window to judge MW4's core before buying on October 23. If the traversal changes click, this is the multiplayer you will be playing all winter.
🔜 Coming soon
WARDOGS Opens a Closed Beta Before Its September 10 Early Access
WARDOGS, a large-scale tactical FPS, ran a closed beta from August 21 to 23. Rather than battle royale or extraction, it drops three teams into randomized 2km control zones inside larger maps, and the side holding the most players inside the active zone scores, first to 100 points wins. Every life costs an in-game loadout bought with cash earned from kills, objectives, and revives, and that money carries between matches. Early Access starts September 10 at $39.99.
Player impact: This weekend is the test of whether a three-team control-zone shooter feels different enough from Battlefield and extraction games to earn a $40 slot. A pre-order or a Steam Playtest invite got you in; otherwise wait for the September 10 Early Access verdict.
Sources: BisectHosting · G2A News
FromSoftware Scraps The Duskbloods' First Network Test After a Server Meltdown
FromSoftware canceled the opening session of The Duskbloods' first closed network test on August 21 after roughly two hours of failed logins and connection errors. The Duskbloods is FromSoftware's Switch 2 exclusive, an 8-player online game in the studio's Bloodborne-adjacent gothic style. The test was scheduled across five time slots through August 23. The studio apologized and said it would work on the servers before the remaining sessions.
Player impact: A network test exists to catch exactly this, so a broken first session is rough optics but early enough to fix. If you got a code, the later slots are your shot; if the servers keep failing, expect the launch-delay conversation to start.
Sources: Game Informer · Kotaku
🆓 Free to try
Dying Light Is Free to Play on Steam Through August 25
Techland put the original Dying Light, its 2015 open-world zombie parkour survival game, on a free play weekend on Steam from August 21 through August 25. This is a play-for-the-window offer, not free-to-keep, though the game and its Anniversary Edition are 80% off until September 2 if you want to buy in. The weekend lands ahead of the spinoff sequel Dying Light: The Beast, which launches September 19.
Player impact: The free window closes August 25, so this is a no-cost way to see if the run-and-climb zombie loop still holds up before The Beast on September 19. If the 80% discount tempts you, buy during the weekend, since your free progress carries into the full game.
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