Bungie’s Marathon Releasing Very Soon (And Lots of New Details Revealed)

Bungie’s long-awaited extraction shooter, Marathon, is finally releasing in just a few months, and it won’t be $70. Bungie is one of the great first-person shooter developers out there, having created Halo and Destiny, two of the most beloved sci-fi gaming franchises out there. They’re also responsible for another series known as Marathon, which pre-dates Halo. It was revealed a few years ago that Bungie’s first brand new game under PlayStation would be a reboot of that series, spinning it into a live-service extraction shooter. The game has been a huge point of interest for Bungie fans for some time now and after some hiccups, it is finally coming out.

Bungie has confirmed that Marathon will be released in March, and it will only cost $39.99, making it reasonably affordable. However, it is doing other things to enhance that value as well. It was noted that the game’s battle pass won’t expire, so players can continue to progress through it over time, there are no pay-to-win mechanics, and all updates to the game will be free, so you won’t have to pay for DLC for things like new maps. The developer sort of re-revealed the game after going quiet earlier this year with an extensive ViDoc that dives deep into Bungie’s vision for Marathon. You can view it below.

Marathon Has Had a Bumpy Development

Marathon‘s new release window is pretty exciting, as it was previously due out in September. Marathon was delayed following mixed feedback from a summer playtest as players felt it wasn’t quite up to snuff and even missing key features for a game like this, such as proximity chat. Games like Arc Raiders have since proven the power of proximity chat, so hopefully Bungie changes course on that decision as it can radically alter this game’s potential and help it get seen more on social media.

Marathon also featured plagiarized art in a previous build. This resulted in a pretty dramatic legal situation, which was recently settled with the original artist. Nevertheless, it was a messy stain on the game’s PR. It looks like Bungie has made a lot of effort in reshaping Marathon, and hopefully, it will be a solid game. Some have suggested the game should be free-to-play, but Arc Raiders still found success in being a $40 game. If the game is good, it should hopefully find success.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

Bungie’s New Game, Marathon, Has to Avoid Destiny 2’s Biggest Problem