Last weekend was the first weekend for two major additions to Marathon, the new extraction shooter from Bungie. A Ranked queue was added to the game for Marathon's sweatiest players, and its endgame raid, Cryo Archive, finally went live. Both are events that, in their initially set schedules, overlapped with each other on weekends.
But not anymore, thanks to the latest example of Bungie being quick to respond to player feedback. Earlier this week, game director Joe Ziegler told players that the team would be discussing ways to make Cryo Archive more accessible, specifically mentioning issues players had like the lack of solos, challenging RNG, and scheduling.
Two of those issues have already been solved, thanks to Bungie's quick work. Firstly, Ziegler confirmed that players' RNG issues with subroutines on the Cryo Archive vaults are a thing of the past. "One thing we've aligned on and will be doing for the next Cryo window is making Subroutines a 100% drop from each vault," Ziegler wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Secondly, and arguably more importantly for players, the Marathon Development Team X (formerly Twitter) account confirmed the next day that going forward, Cryo Archive and Ranked schedules will no longer overlap. "We've heard your feedback that having Ranked and Cryo Archive overlap can make it difficult to decide where to spend your time and hard-earned loot," Bungie wrote. "Based on that, we're updating their schedules so each has a clear, focused window."
Going forward, Cryo Archive will open starting on Thursdays at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BT and close on Sundays at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BT. Meanwhile, Ranked play will be available from Sundays at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BT to Thursdays at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BT.
Instead of overlapping, Ranked will run throughout the week while Cryo Archive runs over the weekend, with both getting some weekend time as they split Sundays. "We know that no schedule is perfect, but we're here to listen and learn! As we see how this lands, we'll continue to keep your feedback in mind as we make any further adjustments," the studio added.
Players are already very appreciative of the change, and hopefully, we'll see Bungie address the other remaining Cryo Archive issue, the lack of a solo queue, sometime soon. Though that may understandably take a little longer as Bungie would have to tweak and re-balance elements of Cryo Archive to make it something that a solo player could reasonably survive.
Recently, data firm Alinea Analytics reported that the game had sold an estimated 1.2 million copies across all platforms, with most of those sales coming from players on Steam. While it's not the massive commercial launch PlayStation and Bungie may have hoped for, there are plenty of positives, including the fact that those who get into Marathon really get into it, as its daily active user (DAU) count across PC and consoles is said to be over 300K players.
For more on Marathon, check out our hub page with all of our news and guides coverage. You can also check out our full review, which was updated from its 'review-in-progress' status following the release of Cryo Archive.
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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