Players Received Destiny 2 Instead of Marathon Due to Preorder Glitch on Steam

Bungie has finally revealed a new release date for its much-anticipated extraction shooter, Marathon, and opened up preorders. However, some Windows PC gamers attempting to preorder through Steam found themselves inadvertently downloading another Bungie title filled with vibrant colors and futuristic weaponry.

“We’ve fixed an issue where Destiny 2 would start installing after pre-ordering Marathon on Steam,” Bungie shared on X. “We’ve also resolved a problem where Collector’s Edition owners encountered an error when trying to activate their game code on Steam.”

Destiny 2 takes up 170 GB of storage on Steam, but since it’s a free-to-play title, players weren’t hit with unexpected charges. Nonetheless, the situation sparked some lighthearted banter online.

“How can someone preorder a free game like Marathon?” one user quipped. “You guys aren’t planning to charge for Marathon, are you?” Another user humorously edited Bungie’s announcement to highlight just the part about Destiny 2’s installation issue. Others compared the incident to satirical headlines or classic Simpsons jokes.

The preorder situation also created a hiccup within Destiny 2 itself. Players who preordered Marathon were supposed to receive themed cosmetics for their ship, Ghost, and Sparrow, but those rewards weren’t showing up right away. By Monday evening, Bungie confirmed on X that the issue had been resolved, and players should now see their rewards.

While these glitches are ultimately minor, they add to a series of missteps for the upcoming shooter. Early preview footage from 2025 received mixed reactions and drew comparisons to the criticized live-service shooter Concord, which is also under the same umbrella. There were even allegations of plagiarism. Bungie initially set Marathon’s release for September 23, 2025, but later postponed it indefinitely. Two months after that, studio head Pete Parsons stepped down. Marathon resurfaced in the fall for a series of closed technical tests, then again in December 2025 with a narrowed release window of March 2026, and now with a confirmed release date.

Marathon is set to launch on March 5 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. As of now, Marathon preorders are the 11th-bestselling item on Steam.