Bungie Brings Experimental Duos Mode to Marathon This Week

The developer is testing a limited-time duos queue on the Perimeter map as it works to expand the mode in the future.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 9:05pm

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Bungie is rolling out an experimental duos mode for its first-person shooter Marathon this week, allowing players to team up with a friend to battle it out on the Perimeter map. The developer says this is an early test of the feature, with plans to potentially expand duos as a permanent queue in the future if the experiment goes well.

Why it matters

Marathon has been criticized for its lack of duos mode, which makes it difficult for players to consistently team up with a friend. This experimental feature addresses a major gap in the game's multiplayer options and could help Bungie gauge interest and feedback as it works to implement a full-fledged duos mode down the line.

The details

Starting on Wednesday, March 18th at 10am PT, players will be able to access a limited-time duos queue on the Perimeter map only. There will be no matchmaking, so players will need to invite a friend beforehand. Bungie says this is an early prototype and the final implementation may look different, but the developer wants to get the feature into players' hands as soon as possible to gather feedback. The duos queue is expected to last around 2 weeks, though Bungie may adjust the timeline based on learnings.

  • The duos mode will be available starting on Wednesday, March 18th at 10am PT.
  • The duos queue is expected to last around 2 weeks, though Bungie may adjust the timeline.

The players

Bungie

The developer behind the Marathon first-person shooter.

Joe Ziegler

The game director for Marathon at Bungie.

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What they’re saying

“We're going a bit rogue here. We have a bit of an experimental feature that's in development we want to test and we'd love for you to help. As of Wednesday morning 3/18 at 10am PT, we'll be enabling a limited time duos queue on Perimeter only to test how the game plays with crews of 2 at a wider scale.”

— Joe Ziegler, Game Director (X/Twitter)

“This likely won't be the final implementation of how it would look and flow in the game, but for now it was [the] easiest way for us to get it to you all to help us test. We're excited to run this experiment with you all. Pending what we learn, we're hoping to expand duos as a queue in the future and we wanted to take this first step sooner than later so we could understand how it affects our game better before investing a lot more time in fleshing out the feature.”

— Joe Ziegler, Game Director (X/Twitter)

What’s next

Bungie will monitor player feedback and data from the experimental duos queue on the Perimeter map over the next 1-2 weeks to determine if and how to expand the duos mode as a permanent feature in Marathon.

The takeaway

The addition of an experimental duos mode in Marathon, even in a limited capacity, represents a significant step forward in addressing a major gap in the game's multiplayer options. This early test will help Bungie gather crucial feedback as it works to implement a full-fledged duos mode that caters to players who want to team up with a friend.