Bungie has delayed Marathon indefinitely. Marathon is an upcoming extraction shooter from the same studio behind mega-popular FPS games like Halo and Destiny. Unfortunately, Marathon has not received nearly the same kind of warm welcome as Bungie’s past franchises enjoyed. The game has found itself at the center of an art plagiarism controversy, and its Alpha test didn’t exactly light the world on fire.
It was recently discovered that Marathon featured plagiarized art, allegedly added to the game by someone who is no longer at Bungie. This soured the already lukewarm public reception of the upcoming extraction shooter, and when the game no-showed at the latest PlayStation State of Play event, many saw the writing on the wall. As expected, Bungie has confirmed it is pushing Marathon‘s launch back to an undetermined date in the future.
Marathon was originally going to launch on September 23, but Bungie has hit the game with an indefinite delay. While Marathon is not canceled, Bungie is not ready to commit to a new release date, and it’s unclear exactly when the game will be released. It’s possible Marathon will still launch in 2025, but it’s also possible that the game will be delayed to 2026. Bungie has said it will share an update on Marathon this fall that will also include news on the game’s release date, so while we have no idea when it will launch, we should know more within the next 4-5 months.
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Marathon is Delayed, But Here is What Bungie Plans to Change About the Game
- Upping the Survival Game
- More challenging and engaging AI encounters
- More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events
- Making combat more tense and strategic
- Doubling down on the Marathon Universe
- Increased visual fidelity
- More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with
- A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy
- Adding more social experiences
- A better player experience for solo/duos
- Prox chat, so social stories can come to life
Bungie’s statement on Marathon‘s indefinite release date delay revealed what the studio plans to do with the extra development time. Bungie has confirmed that it will be making Marathon‘s AI opponents “more challenging and engaging,” while making runs more rewarding by introducing new types of loot and dynamic events. Bungie also hopes to make Marathon combat “more tense and strategic.” Additionally, Bungie wants to double down on the “Marathon Universe” through improved graphics, more storytelling, and a darker tone.
Marathon Alpha feedback is also leading Bungie to add more “social experiences” to the game, accomplished through “better player experience” for solo and duos modes and the addition of proximity chat. Marathon‘s lack of proximity chat was one of the big complaints that fans of the extraction shooter genre had, and so many will be happy to see that it’s being addressed.
It’s unclear if this will be enough to turn around the negative public reception that Marathon has received since its Alpha test. Bungie has an incredibly impressive track record, but parent company PlayStation hasn’t always had the best luck with live-service games, canceling The Last of Us multiplayer game and shutting Concord down mere days after it launched. Time will tell how Marathon‘s launch will go, but the extra time in the oven should put it in a better position to succeed whenever it does release.
I knew this game was cooked as soon as I heard about the stealing of art once again by Bungie
