Bungie’s Marathon Gets Concerning Update in New Report

A new report has shared some concerning information about Marathon, the upcoming multiplayer shooter from Bungie. This past week, a high-profile new report indicated that Bungie had recently delayed Marathon internally to 2025. This delay came alongside a number of layoffs at the studio, which raised major red flags with fans. Now, in the wake of these layoffs, one Bungie insider has shared what they have heard about Marathon and it’s not too encouraging. 

According to YouTuber Aztecross, Bungie hosted an event earlier in 2023 where it allowed various streamers to play Marathon. Many of these streamers predominantly stream Escape From Tarkov, which is an extraction shooter similar to what Bungie is looking to create with Marathon. After letting these streamers play Marathon, Bungie members asked them if they would be interested in playing the game if it was released tomorrow. In response, none of the content creators raised their hands to express interest, which indicates that the early response to Marathon wasn’t all that positive. 

Even though this might sound worrisome, there are obviously a number of caveats with this situation. For starters, the version of Marathon that was played was still in its pre-alpha phase and was very rough around the edges. Furthermore, Bungie is said to have stressed to those who experienced Marathon that the game was still multiple years away from launching. As such, this initial reaction to Marathon might not mean a whole lot as the version of the title that will eventually see the light of day will surely be very different from the iteration used for internal testing. 

Currently, very little is known about Marathon overall. To this point, Bungie has only shown off an initial teaser trailer for the title alongside some broad details associated with its world and gameplay. Even though Bungie is now owned by Sony, Marathon is also planned to come to all current-generation platforms which include PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Whether or not new details emerge before the end of the year isn’t known, but at this point, it seems more likely that we won’t hear anything further until 2024. 

[H/T Windows Central]