Extraction shooters are tough, there’s no doubt about it. It’s one of the biggest blockers to the widespread adoption of the genre – nobody wants to play a game that can punish them in a single second and spoil an hour of otherwise entertaining gameplay.
That’s why Bungie has developed Marathon to be a ‘social extraction experience’, promoting a seamless, team-driven ethos in a game that’s desperate to break the mould in the extraction space. In a recent interview between Bungie’s Joe Ziegler and Gaming World Media’s Jake Lucky, that very concept was broken down.
‘We’re Not Trying to Fragment You’
Marathon is attempting to break into the extraction genre with a bold premise – a game that’s not punishing but fun to play and even lose at. It retains all the trappings of an extraction shooter, but it’s designed from the ground up to be enjoyed with friends.
Here’s the full interview:
With that in mind, the team has promised that ‘almost every map will have a way to avoid other players’, but at the same time, the core gameplay loop will revolve around the risk of running into someone else and engaging in an intense fight.
Joe Ziegler, the Game Director on Marathon, explained to GWM’s Jake Lucky:
The key thing for us was making Marathon a little bit more of a social extraction experience where there’s a lot value in playing with other people that you know or people that you want and you all feel like you can create that adventure together and we’re not trying to fragment you all the time, you know?
He gave an example, leaning on the typical operating model for battle royale games. He mentioned that when you’re playing as a trio in a battle royale game and one of you dies, that person must then sit out and spectate, enjoying very little about their experience. In Marathon, players can be brought back to life, given that they’re cybernetic operators.
It’s about getting value from the game even if you’re unsuccessful as an individual:
We also just wanted to add automatic value, which is like, some things are shared. We’ve put data cards into the world which makes it so that everyone can get cash out from the session together. Things like that add that, ‘Oh, actually playing with my friends is always a pretty frictionless experience’
With that being said, Marathon will only be a game for those playing as a trio – at least at the start. It’s not going to be possible to exceed that group number, nor can you run solo – unless you break away from your teammates when a raid starts.
Marathon is set to be released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on September 23, 2025.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Mafia: The Old Country might have had a release date leak
Comments