Marathon Symbiosis Update Launches December 8 With a Free Open Play Week

Marathon‘s Symbiosis update launches December 8, and Bungie opens the game to everyone for a free Open Play Week from December 8 to December 15. You get the new Expedition PvE mode, the Bishop Runner shell and the updated Perimeter map, and on PC you can play without buying it. Buy it after the free week and you keep every item and progress. Our Marathon game card lists the platforms and the $39.99 Steam price, and our Steam page tracks price drops.

Symbiosis adds Expedition, phase one of a permanent PvE mode built around a three-run series you can play solo or with a crew. Perimeter gains the underground Burrows and the submerged Reservoir, with the Tick Queen beneath the surface. A Deathmatch beta adds 3v3 matches, and Limbo is a social space for testing weapons and dueling. A Runner shell is the character class you pick, and the new one is Bishop, a fast, blade-wielding robot. Two weapons arrive: the V17 Flamethrower and the Maverick revolver.

A Crew Up event runs December 8 at 12 p.m. PT through December 22 at 10 a.m. PT. It needs one other player in your crew who redeemed the event code. The rewards are named: the “Queen’s Nest” emblem, the “Queen’s Dominion” background and the “Exterminator” title. Bungie’s own notice calls Expedition the first phase of a permanent PvE mode, so more PvE is coming, but nothing more is detailed. More free-to-play windows are in our free games roundup.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report