Just as things were starting to look up for Bungie, with some positive buzz building around Marathon as we inch closer to the new extraction shooter's arrival, the tides take a turn for the worse once again. In a statement shared on its social media channels, the studio has announced that the next major update for Destiny 2, the upcoming Shadow and Order update, which was supposed to be out on March 3, 2026, has been delayed by three months and will now arrive on June 9, 2026.
A lack of promotional marketing for the update this close to its initially intended release already had players suspecting a delay would be announced, alongside the fact that the update would have been out just days ahead of Marathon, which arrives on March 5, 2026. Bungie fans and anyone who wanted to try out Marathon would have also just finished playing it for a whole weekend during its server slam test, which runs from February 26 to March 2.
Instead of squeezing in the launch of a new update and a new game into one week, the Shadow and Order update will now arrive a little more than three months after its initial date. To make matters worse, if the delay time didn't raise concerns about the state of the update, Bungie's statement surely will, as the delay isn't to give Marathon more space to breathe or give the studio time to fix a significant bug they've recently discovered. It's to give the update "large revisions," including changing the title of the update and give the team time to bring "sizable" quality-of-life updates.
"Our next Major Update, Destiny 2: Shadow and Order, is undergoing large revisions and will be delayed," Bungie begins in its statement. "This update is being changed and expanded to include sizable quality-of-life updates and as a result, will also be renamed. This update will now launch on June 9, 2026. We will provide exact details closer to release covering previously announced Weapon Tier Upgrading, but also additions like expanding Tiered Gear to all Raid and Dungeon activities, Pantheon 2.0, Tier 5 stats for Exotic Armors, and more."
"Through June, we will continue to have routine bug fixes and stability improvements, continued portal modifiers, Guardian Games (March), and the return of a more frequent Iron Banner cadence (April)."
Of course, the changes being made to this update could, and likely will, ultimately be for the better. But announcing such major changes this close to release, for something that is not the game's next big expansion, and just a mid-season update, clearly points to there having been not just one, but several mishaps along the way. Delays and changes like this are rarely due to just one thing going wrong, and it doesn't inspire confidence in Destiny fans who now have to wait months for an update they thought they'd get to check out in just a couple of weeks.
Especially after its last major update, which was the arrival of its Star Wars-themed Renegades expansion, failed to revitalize the player base. Hopefully, when Bungie is ready to talk about the update closer to release, it'll have been worth the wait.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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