Bungie’s Marathon will aim to offer a unique experience rather than trying to directly rival leading extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov.
Marathon will aim to compete with other extraction shooters by offering an unapologetically different experience than anything else currently available. That’s according to Marathon director Joe Ziegler, who also shared some insights into why the extraction shooter genre is so challenging to break into.
While it was officially announced back in May 2023, Marathon was only treated to a gameplay reveal two years later. Bungie showcased its extraction shooter during an April 12 livestream, which also confirmed the game’s release date: September 23.
The start of the game’s full-fledged marketing campaign was marked by multiple interviews with Marathon director Joe Ziegler, published by various outlets after the April 12 livestream. One of them comes from YouTuber Jake Lucky, who sat down with Ziegler to discuss the wider context of the game’s upcoming launch. Among other things, the director revealed that Marathon won’t be trying to rival other extraction shooters directly.
Marathon Won’t Try To Eat Escape From Tarkov’s Lunch
“I don’t think of making games as like directly competing and trying to eat a bunch of other people’s, like, lunch,” Ziegler said, while noting that some might find this perspective naive. Nevertheless, Marathon won’t attempt to be like Escape from Tarkov, the long-time leader in the extraction shooter space. Ziegler opined that copying highly successful live-service titles is a pointless affair because if consumers want to keep playing the same game, they’ll just stick with the original.
Marathon Will Be More Accessible Than a Typical Extraction Shooter
Based on this perspective, Bungie is doing its own thing with Marathon, confident that the final product will be compelling enough for mainstream success. Some of the key ways the upcoming game will differ from leading extraction shooters include its cyberpunk setting and the absence of proximity chat—a feature Ziegler says was excluded to help reduce toxicity. Marathon will also attempt to stand out by offering high accessibility, aiming to be immediately compelling from the outset. In contrast, most of today’s extraction shooters are known for having fairly steep learning curves.
I don’t think of making games as like directly competing and trying to eat a bunch of other people’s, like, lunch.
While the game is still half a year away from hitting the market, some fans will get to experience it in a matter of days thanks to the newly announced Marathon closed alpha. The test will run from April 23 until May 4, with Bungie limiting it to North America. The developer will likely hold more tests targeting other parts of the world afterward. Marathon will have three maps and six playable classes at launch. Bungie confirmed that its upcoming extraction shooter will be neither free-to-play nor a full-priced game, suggesting Marathon will retail in the ballpark of $40.
