Marathon initially launched on March 5, 2026, but you could make an argument that its full release didn't arrive until two weeks later, on March 20, with the arrival of its endgame raid, Cryo Archive. It's the fourth zone and the game's biggest challenge yet, and while there's a sect of Bungie fans who love the raid as a return to a kind of Bungie they thought long gone, there are plenty who see some of the studio's choices around it as plain-old outdated.
That's why Marathon game director Joe Ziegler took to his personal X (formerly Twitter) account to reveal that the studio will at the very least be discussing the most heated topics of player feedback in relation to Cryo Archive.
Currently, getting into Cryo Archive takes a bit of doing. You can check out our guide on how to access the raid for full details, but the long and short of it is that you need to meet three core requirements, you can't run it solo, and you can only run the raid on the weekends.
Those last two points are two of the key issues players are having. While everyone understands it's meant to be one of Marathon's biggest challenges, which is where the full-squad requirement comes from, if we're allowed to take on the rest of the game solo, why not Cryo Archive? And even some of Marathon's biggest cheerleaders do not love the idea of having to plan their weekends around getting a chance to play what you could argue is the best part of their new favourite game.
"We've been watching and ingesting all the thoughts and feedback we're hearing, aggregating it and taking it down in notes," Ziegler said after congratulating players who'd already been running Cryo Archive over the weekend. He continues saying that once the weekend is done, the team will look at all of the feedback, though specifically highlights three topics:
- Scheduling: options for players who can't play on weekends
- Solos: is there any way to play this map without joining a crew?
- Subroutines: can subroutines be more guaranteed as a drop from vaults?
That last point relates to the RNG involved in running Cryo Archive. You might go in with all the necessary knowledge to open a vault, wipe the rest of the lobby and be prepared to have the run of your dreams, but not get the necessary RNG to actually do it.
The current scheduling issue harkens back to Trials of Osiris for Destiny fans, and many see the weekend restriction as nothing more than manufactured FOMO. In its most generous light, you could see it as giving players weeknights to build their Vaults up and get ready for Cryo Archive runs on the weekend, but again, that means having to plan your life and game time around Marathon, which not everyone may want to do.
Running the raid solo may be more of a challenge for Bungie to solve. Cryo Archive is a very difficult raid, with a lot of PvE action on top of the PvP encounters, and it would take quite a bit of rebalancing to make it accessible for solo players, though it's worth wondering if the team would feel like by doing so, they're betraying their original intent behind Cryo Archive's design. Perhaps there is a middle ground to be found, but it's unclear if Bungie is willing to land on it.
The last point feels most like what should be a slam dunk, especially if Bungie isn't going to bend on the weekend scheduling. If players are going to continue having a limited window to run Cryo Archive, it would be better to know that they can really make the most of those runs.
So far in Marathon's post-launch life, Bungie has been incredibly quick with responding to player feedback. If it keeps up that pace, then we may have a proper plan of action from the studio before the end of the week, just ahead of Cryo Archive's second weekend.
For more on Marathon, check out our hub page for all of our news and guides coverage. You can also check out my in-progress review, which will be updated to a complete and scored review soon now that Cryo Archive has been released.
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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