Bungie fixes bizarre Marathon pre-order bug that could auto-install Destiny 2 onto your PC

Bungie is no stranger to unusual bugs - I've been playing Destiny 2 long enough to know that. But Marathon has already suffered from a rather odd one despite not even being out yet. Pre-orders for the extraction shooter went live on Monday, January 19, and as I reported yesterday, it seems to be doing rather well for itself. Once labeled 'dead on arrival,' things feel more optimistic now. However, those pre-ordering on Steam may have noticed something strange - in some cases, purchasing Marathon was triggering the installation of Destiny 2 on your PC.

While this could be seen as the gaming equivalent of U2 muscling its new album onto everyone's iTunes library back in 2014, I want to stress that this is not an intentional move by Bungie. Sure, Destiny 2 is in a bit of a grim place right now - even I'm struggling to return to my most-played FPS game of the 2020s at the moment. But I don't think Bungie would stoop so low as to forcefully install it on the PC of every excited Marathon fan. This is certainly a case of a weird, back-end gremlin.

"We've resolved an issue where Destiny 2 would begin installing after pre-ordering Marathon on Steam," a new message on the Marathon Development Team X account reads. "We have also resolved an issue where Collector's Edition owners would receive an error when attempting to activate their game code on Steam."

As for what may have caused this oddity, my guess would be the free Destiny 2 cosmetics you get as a pre-order bonus with any edition of Marathon. This incentive will earn you a bundle of three vibrant, blocky, UESC-themed items - while the ship and the Sparrow look kinda goofy, I'm messing with the Ghost shell.

Some wires may have potentially been crossed in the linking of the two games, causing the free base game of Destiny 2 to also install. But whatever the issue, it's all been straightened out now.

Speaking of those freebies, Bungie has also had to sort a separate bug involving their delivery to Guardians in Destiny 2 earlier in the week. The bundle wasn't appearing in players' Special Delivery Kiosks, but that's now been rectified. So, if you're one of those with Destiny 2 intentionally installed, you can now pick up your pre-order bonuses without an issue.

I'm currently crossing my fingers, praying, and doing various ceremonial rituals in the hope that this janky rollout of pre-order bonuses isn't a sign of a things to come. Bungie's done an excellent job in recent weeks at flipping the script on Marathon - where there was once relentless negativity, you'll now find a decent amount of optimism. Given the extra time the devs have been afforded - the Marathon release date was delayed from September last year to Thursday, March 5 - a buggy and problematic launch should be avoided. However, if there are severe issues straight away, it could be detrimental for a game that needs to immediately impress.