Marathon, the upcoming PlayStation extraction shooter from Halo and Destiny developer Bungie, is “on track” at the studio but too early to show off yet.
Bungie released a lengthy development update video which shed light on some of Marathon’s mechanics but also just how early it is in development. Player character models are still “coming together,” for example, while enemy models are still in an “early state.”
It’s therefore “a little early to show you all of it as a one piece,” game director Joe Ziegler said, though insisted Marathon is progression as planned. “They’re not all together, but when they all do come together, we really, really are looking forward to showing you what that looks like, especially in play,” he said.
Marathon was revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, and Ziegler said it will retain its themes of “mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness.”
Questions have been raised surrounding its development, however, for myriad significant reasons. Bungie itself has encountered several controversies in the last year or so, perhaps headlined by the laying off of 220 staff members, meaning 17% of its workforce, in July: a move even industry peers criticized.
This came less than a year after 100 other lay offs at Bungie, at which point staff told IGN the atmosphere was “soul crushing” at the studio.
Further controversy came when a report released weeks after the 220 job losses alleged former Marathon director Chris Barrett was fired after an internal misconduct investigation at Bungie. At least eight women came forward saying Barrett behaved inappropriately toward them.
This all comes as Sony rethinks its focus on live service games such as Marathon. Sony president Hiroki Totoki said in November 2023 the company was committed to launching just six of the 12 live service games it was working on by March 2026, in a shift in strategy that saw even The Last of Us multiplayer game cancelled.
Marathon will also be launching into a post-Concord world. This was another PlayStation live service shooter that was released to tragic player numbers and pulled offline by Sony just two weeks after launch.
There is therefore a lot of pressure on Marathon to perform, with not just the game itself on the line but perhaps Bungie itself.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
