Bungie's Marathon: A Mysterious Tease Revealed

Remember Marathon? It's the next big game from Destiny developer Bungie, and it looks like we're finally about to see more of it.

Marathon is a PvP-focused extraction shooter set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV. Players take on the roles of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries designed to withstand the planet's harsh conditions, as they explore the remnants of a lost colony on Tau Ceti's surface.

It's been a while since we last heard about Marathon. In October, Bungie released a detailed development update video that provided insights into the game's mechanics, but emphasized that the game was still in its early stages. At that time, player character models were still being refined, and enemy models were in an early state.

Now, half a year later, it seems Bungie is ready to unveil more of what they've been working on. A tweet from the official Marathon account featured a cryptic image and accompanying garbled signal noise. Fans have noticed ASCII art of footage from the debut Marathon trailer. Given Bungie's reputation for mysterious teasers, hidden clues, and Easter eggs, there's likely much more to uncover, and fans are already on the case.

Despite the excitement, Marathon's development has faced challenges. The game was first revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, emphasizing themes of "mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness." However, Bungie has encountered several controversies in recent years, including the layoff of 220 staff members in July 2024, which represented 17% of its workforce. This move was criticized by industry peers and came less than a year after another round of 100 layoffs, which left the studio's atmosphere "soul-crushing," according to staff.

Further controversy arose when a report surfaced weeks after the 220 job losses, alleging that former Marathon director Chris Barrett was fired following an internal misconduct investigation at Bungie. Barrett subsequently filed a lawsuit against Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie for over $200 million.

These developments coincide with Sony's reevaluation of its focus on live-service games. In November 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki announced that the company would launch only six of the 12 live service games it had in development by March 2026, marking a strategic shift that led to the cancellation of The Last of Us multiplayer game.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 was a massive success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other Sony live service games faced cancellations or disastrous launches. Sony's Concord, for instance, was one of the biggest video game disasters in PlayStation history, lasting only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to low player numbers. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and shut down its developer.

Earlier this year, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced live service games: one a God of War title in development at Bluepoint, and the other at Days Gone developer Bend.

Are you excited for Marathon?