Bungie has announced an indefinite delay for its live-service extraction shooter Marathon, citing the community’s “passionate” feedback following its reveal in April and a subsequent playtest.
Bungie formally unveiled its Marathon reboot in May 2023, but the response wasn’t an immediately enthusiastic one, given the decision to ditch the classic Marathon series’ single-player focus in favour of PvP – and the reboot has largely remained in the news for all the wrong reasons since then. It’s faced leadership changes and substantial legal challenges, it’s seen ongoing reports of declining staff morale and accusations of toxicity aimed at Bungie management, it’s been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, and more.
April’s big reveal, then, was a chance for Bungie to shift the narrative to something more positive. But reactions weren’t especially kind – some went as far as to draw comparisons with Sony’s ill-fated Concord – and it seems Marathon’s alpha playtest last month also generated substantial negative criticism, judging by Bungie’s latest blog post
“Thank you not only for your passionate feedback around the Marathon reveal and Alpha playtest,” the studio wrote, “but also for your patience while we took the time to listen closely and chart our next steps. Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear. We’ve taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion.”
As a result, and “after much discussion”, Marathon will no longer launch on 23rd September as originally announced, and has instead been indefinitely delayed. “The alpha test created an opportunity for us to calibrate and focus the game on what will make it uniquely compelling,” Bungie continued. “We’re using this [extra] time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around.”
As it looks to get Marathon back on track, Bungie will hold more closed testing over the “next few months”. These will bring new game updates and features, with the studio’s “immediate focus” being on the following:
- 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 says it’ll provide a progress update, alongside a revised release date, some time this autumn. “Thank you again for your patience and – much more importantly – your passion,” it concluded. “Your continued feedback will help us make Marathon the incredible gaming experience we all know it can be.”
Today’s delay announcement follows a wave of live-service project cancellations at Sony, as it continues to reassess the viability of former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan’s ambitious live-service strategy. In 2023, it pulled the plug on Naughty Dog’s multiplayer The Last of Us game, and it opted not to revive Concord after its disastrous launch last year. The company has reportedly also cancelled a live-service adaptation of Twisted Metal in development at Firesprite, a live-service Spider-Man at Insomniac, a live-service God of War at Bluepoint, and an unknown live-service project at Days Gone studio Sony Bend. Despite that, the company recently insisted it remains committed to “diverse and resilient” live-service portfolio.