‘It’s the Only Genre Where Its Name Is a Mechanic’ — Ex-Marathon Dev Explains Why He Really Hates the Term ‘Extraction Shooter’

Former Bungie developer Chris Sides has called out the term “extraction shooter,” saying it’s a “terrible” genre name because it doesn’t tell the player what to expect from the game.

Talking on the Shooter Monthly podcast, the former director of product on Bungie’s upcoming Marathon didn’t hold back, stressing that with so many distinct games potentially falling under the umbrella of “extraction shooter,” players will find it hard to know “what you’re going to get.”

“The problem is Helldivers 2 can be called an extraction shooter, but it’s not. The genre name is so bad,” Sides said (thanks, TheGamePost). “I hate the genre name of ‘extraction shooter.’ When I was working on Marathon, I was working with marketing, dying to be like, ‘Can we please create a different genre name, because extraction shooter is so dumb.’ It’s the only genre where its name is a mechanic.

“Extraction is the mechanic to get out. Helldivers 2, is that an extraction shooter because you extract? No. It’s not like Tarkov at all. So the terminology of the genre is already terrible. It makes it really hard to compare these games. It’s why Arena Breakout and Tarkov, you can kind of look at it because they’re both extraction shooters and they kind of fit the same mold. Comparing Arc Raiders to Tarkov just doesn’t really fit. Comparing Arc Raiders to maybe like a Rust could fit, and then Rust… is that an extraction because it’s survivor? It’s a problem. I cannot stand the name of it.

“So I think that when you say the extraction genre, it should hit your spot, I think it’s really the fact that the genre doesn’t even know what it is. So you as a player, how do you know what what you’re going to get? And I think that’s one of the real issues with the genre itself.”

It’s well worth listening to the podcast, where Sides is joined by other shooter developers in an interesting discussion about the extraction shooter genre generally, as well as the problem with how it’s named. They discuss everything from Marathon to Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2 to Escape from Tarkov.

While the term ‘extraction shooter’ may be problematic, according to Sides, it hasn’t held back the performance of Arc Raiders, which developer Embark Studios describes as a “multiplayer extraction adventure,” as opposed to an extraction shooter. It sold 4 million copies in less than two weeks, with a peak concurrent player count of 700,000.

As for Marathon, it was recently delayed out of 2025 and into 2026 as Bungie works to respond to feedback from playtests. Bungie describes Marathon as a “team-based extraction shooter.”