Bungie has announced that it’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon has been delayed. Originally scheduled to release on September 23, the game’s launch has been pushed back. A new date, however, hasn’t been revealed.
In a post made on the game’s official website, the development team said they have taken all of the feedback from players “to heart” and that the messages have been “strong and clear”.
“The Alpha test created an opportunity for us to calibrate and focus the game on what will make it uniquely compelling—survival under pressure, mystery and lore around every corner, raid-like endgame challenges, and Bungie’s genre-defining FPS combat,” the post reads. “We’re using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around. This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.”
Just days ago, Sony said that Marathon was scheduled to launch in fiscal year 2025. Per their fiscal calendar, that would see Marathon release sometime before March 31, 2026.
What’s Next For Marathon?
The blog post continued to mention that “over the next few months” the developers will have more closed testing to make fixes and add new features to the game. As far as what those fixes, updates, and features are, they gave a brief list of key focus points during this extra pre-launch development time.
The key points for the team include:
- Upping the Survival Game
- More challenging and engaging AI encounters
- More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events
- Making combat more tense and strategic
- Doubling down on the Marathon Universe
- Increased visual fidelity
- More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with
- A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy
- Adding more social experiences
- A better player experience for solo/duos
- Prox chat, so social stories can come to life
The message closes with the developers saying that players will hear from them “later this fall” when they share the progress being made on the game.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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