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‘Extraction Shooter’ Is a Terrible Genre Name, Says Marathon’s Former Product Manager
November 13, 2025Chris Sides, the former Bungie product manager who worked on Marathon, isn’t mincing words: he hates the label “extraction shooter.” Sides slammed the popular genre name on the Shooter Monthly Podcast, calling it “so dumb” and arguing it’s built around a core misunderstanding of how games are actually played.
“The genre name is so bad,” Sides said, frustrated that marketers keep pushing a term that’s all about a single mechanic, extracting, rather than what makes the experience unique. “It’s the only genre where its name is a mechanic.” He claims he even pleaded with Bungie’s marketing team to come up with something better, but nothing stuck.
Why the Name Doesn’t Fit
2025 has seen “extraction shooters” like Escape from Tarkov and Arc Raiders claim massive audiences. The label is everywhere. But Sides argues it’s not just misleading, it actively confuses players about what they’ll encounter.
When the podcast host pointed out “battle royale” as another genre name rooted in a game mechanic, Sides wasn’t having it. “‘Battle royale’ is not a mechanic,” he pushed back. “It’s a mode. Extraction is the mechanic to get out.”
He used Helldivers 2 as an example. The game features an extraction sequence, but “Is Helldivers 2 an extraction shooter because you extract? No, it’s not like Tarkov at all.” Sides’s point: just because extraction happens, it doesn’t define the genre.
This naming mess isn’t just a pet peeve. Sides believes it creates real confusion for players trying to compare or understand games. Some, like Arena Breakout and Escape from Tarkov, genuinely share a structure and can be compared. Others, like Arc Raiders and Tarkov, aren’t even close in gameplay.
“Comparing Arc Raiders to maybe Rust could fit,” Sides mused, “and then Rust; is that an extraction? Because it’s survival…” The lines blur. As Sides put it, “the genre doesn’t even know what it is.” For players, this means you have no real idea what experience to expect from a game just because it’s branded as an “extraction shooter.” Sides summed it up bluntly: “When you say ‘the extraction genre’, it should hit your spot.” Instead, it’s muddled, and, for now, there’s no clear fix in sight.
Inside Bungie and Where Marathon Stands Now
Sides left Bungie in 2024, not looking back. He’s since moved into freelance consulting and teased that he’s building a new studio, though he wouldn’t share details on what’s next. It’s clear the label debate was more than a passing annoyance.
The game that sparked all this, Marathon, has been on a rocky road. It faced fierce criticism during last year’s technical test and was pulled from Bungie’s release schedule. Fans went months without a word. Then, out of nowhere, Marathon resurfaced with Sony pledging a release by March 2026. The big question: will it actually launch on time, and if it does, what state will it be in?
Sides’s complaints about genre names might seem niche, but they reveal bigger problems across the industry. The way we label and market genres might be leading players astray, and even the folks building these games are sick of it.
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