At the 2023 PlayStation Showcase, Bungie announced a revival of its 1994 sci-fi first-person shooter Marathon. However, a turbulent development has put the title’s timeframe in question.
Since it was announced in May 2023, impressions have not been positive. In October 2023, Marathon was allegedly delayed after several Bungie staff members were laid off.
One month later, the title reportedly flopped amongst playtesters, as none of them raised their hand when asked if they would play if it came out tomorrow.
Fear escalated when Bungie lost roughly 40% of its workforce in one day on July 31, 2024. The layoffs put the Destiny series in peril, and fans aren’t sure if that extends to Marathon.
Does Marathon have a release date?
Marathon does not have a release date, and leaks about the title being delayed have not helped clarify any timeframe. That said, it does have a very loose window: 2025.
Platforms
Marathon is currently in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox series x/s, and PC with full cross-play and cross-save.
Trailer
The first and only trailer so far showed a brief glimpse of a gunfight taking place on a remote planet.
Marathon gameplay details and leaks
The title takes place on a planet where 30,000 people mysteriously disappeared without a trace, and it’s a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter that has players compete for survival, riches, and renown.
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The developers briefly described what fans could expect on the game’s website. “You are a runner, venturing into the unknown in a fight for fame… and infamy. Who among you will write their names across the stars?”
Marathon is also a follow up to one of Bungie’s earliest shooters, a game of the same name that released in 1994. The Marathon series predates Halo by almost an entire decade, and it’s one of the earliest examples of an FPS title considering the original Doom released in December 1993.
Beyond that, not much is known about the upcoming title or how it ties into the original game.
On Aug. 9, during the Friends Per Second podcast, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier was asked about the state of the game and didn’t have a positive update.
“Not great from what I’ve heard,” Schreier said. “There’s a reason that it was planned for this year and slipped a whole year.”
“People who I’ve talked to are a little pessimistic about it even hitting it’s current planned deadline, but we’ll see,” he added.
Without anything else to go off, fans will have to wait for an official update from Bungie. For more on what Bungie has planned, check out our guide on the future of the Destiny franchise.
