Bungie Announces Marathon for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 May 2023 / 5,210 Views
Bungie has announced sci-fi PVP extraction shooter, Marathon, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
View the announcement trailer below:
Read details and a Q&A on the game via PlayStation Blog below:
Today Bungie makes history with the announcement of its first completely new project in more than a decade: Marathon. A sci-fi PvP extraction shooter, Marathon will find players engaging one another as cybernetic mercenaries known as Runners, exploring a lost colony on the planet of Tau Ceti IV in search of riches, fame, and infamy. Marathon is currently in development for PlayStation 5 and PC with full cross-play and cross-save.
To mark the announcement, we spoke with Marathon General Manager Scott Taylor and Game Director Christopher Barrett to find out more about where we are in the race towards Marathon.
Today you announced Marathon – the first entirely new project announcement from Bungie in more than a decade. How hard has it been keeping this under wraps for so long?
Scott Taylor: So hard! It’s so wild to be talking about this in front of the world. As a team, we’ve been completely immersed in developing this world behind closed doors at Bungie. Even though there’s still a long way to go before release, it’s fantastic to be able to open up (even just a little) and share what we’ve all been working on.
The name “Marathon” obviously conjures up visions of the original game from 1994 but this is something new.
Christopher Barrett: Finding the right balance is one of the most fun parts of development! We have a tremendous amount of respect for the original Marathon games and, from the very start, we’ve wanted to honor that, especially the mythology, story, and themes of the world. At the same time, our vision for this game is something new. It’s not a direct sequel to the originals, but something that certainly belongs in the same universe and that feels like a Bungie game. Finding those opportunities to nod to the universe’s lore, while also getting to build something different and new has been one of the best parts of developing this game so far.
It’s our aim to create something incredible both for players who are completely new to the Marathon world and for those that have been waiting years for more stories in the Marathon universe. You don’t need to know anything about Marathon to understand or play this game, but if you do, we’re making the experience with references and deep cuts you’ll recognize.
You mentioned that Marathon will feel like a Bungie game. What does that mean for you?
CB: There are many elements to what makes a Bungie game. To me, it runs the gamut from the incredible feel of the weapons to beautiful and evocative world building, rich in lore, immersion, and opportunities for incredible adventure.
With Marathon, one of the areas that is a big focus for us is our player-based storytelling. The original Marathon games revealed story moments through terminals, all in text. But now we have so many more ways to immerse players in this world, both in and out of game. We’ll be carrying that through in the design of this game.
Our design philosophy here is to have players affect the story of the world through their choices and their actions. This approach also lets us shape the overall narrative direction of the game experience while giving players a direct sense of agency and power.
Marathon is designed from the start as a PvP-focused game and won’t have a single-player campaign. Instead, with the PvP experience as our foundation, we’re creating opportunities for player-driven stories to unfold, stories that are integrated with the overarching game narrative. We’re building a world full of persistent, evolving zones, where players create their own journey with every run they take. That might mean an unforgettable firefight against another crew vying for the same loot, or a last-second extraction while beset on all sides.
Beyond just the “story of your last run” however, we want to give players the chance to affect these persistent zones and the larger world as a result. For example, imagine a crew discovering a previously undiscovered artifact that, when activated, opens a new area of the map for all players to explore. In essence, we’re creating a game where the actions of players can have ramifications for the world and players with each unfolding season.
You said Marathon is currently in development. What does that mean and do you have a timeline for when fans will hear more about the game?
ST: There’s still a lot of work to do before launch or even before we’re ready to talk about the game in more detail. The team is hard at work, and we’ve got a great base to start from but there is still so much more to do, including continuing to grow our team. That’s one of the most challenging parts of game development: hiring when everything is still under wraps. Now that we’re announced, I’m excited because we can be much more candid about the positions we are looking for and talk more openly to candidates about the work that’s going on and our vision for the game. If you’re interested you can check out our Bungie Careers page to see our open positions, which we’re constantly updating with new roles as needed. Come work with us. We’re working on something we feel is really special.
I know that fans are interested in learning more about Marathon. Believe me we can’t wait to show you more. And while I can’t give a timeline on when that information will be coming what I can say is this: The next time you hear from us about Marathon, we’ll be able to show you the gameplay and will be much closer to launch.
> Marathon... compiling
— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) May 24, 2023
> Coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
> Extracting data...
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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A Bungie game on XBox? Isn't Bungie owned by Sony?
It benefits sony to have the game on xbox, because if it's a massive success on that console/s, they could use it as leverage against microsoft incase they ever decide to remove call of duty from PS.
Not really, I am sure Sony would rather have all bungie games exclusive but since Bungie did not want to be a exclusive game maker, Sony just going to have to settle. Bungie already lived that life with MS and its evident that they do not want to go back to such a situation again.
The MLB games releases on Xbox as well and quite a few games on Microsoft Windows as well.
MLB required the games be released on Xbox as a condition of renewal of the license of the MLB name a few years ago.
Anyone know what the 2 main music rifts are from? The last one sounds like something by Chemical Brothers. I've heard it and the first one before.
EDIT: Found it, Justice - Heavy Metal for both I think.
What happened to the Bungie that created Halo? :(
Nothing, seems like the are still making successful games. Even this game looks interesting. I see nothing wrong with Bungie today than before and if anything I would rather they continue to do what they like and not feel they need to create the same game all the time.
That Bungie made fantastic single player campaigns.
Modern Bungie don't.
I disagree, Bungie SP compaigns were criticized a lot from my memory it was the sandbox nature of Halo that was the bigger selling point.
eh, I don't particularly care what other people thought. I loved the Halo campaigns, especially Halo 3! Had a tonne of fun with that.
Bought MCC twice (Xbox and PC versions) and every single minute I've played of it has been in the campaign, I'm not interested in the multiplayer. Now Bungie only does online only MP stuff, so of course I'm disappointed!
Destiny has a ton of single player content. I've been playing since midnight release of the original destiny, and I still play a couple hundred hours per year. I would say 60% of my time is spent in single player stuff. And even more if you count PvE with teammates that I'm not talking to.
Never heard of this game before,
Looks very interesting though!
Marathon was the first FPS game Bungie made before getting bought by MS. A lot of people probably today never even played it since it was on the Mac. Even still, you would call this game a spin-off of that universe than anything else but who knows, I like to see more of it to base any real opinion on the game.
There was a Marathon re-release on Xbox, so that's at least a LITTLE bit more prominent a gaming platform (and a little more recent).
It might have been on the Xbox I remember playing the game. Its only vague in my memory but I do have this feeling I did not enjoy it that much. It just did not give me the visceral feel that Doom did and never really captured me.
It's not a "might have been on the Xbox", the Marathon franchise was known to have been. Here's a Microsoft web page for it: https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/Marathon-Durandal/BNQLQBLKR2MN
Idk how I would imagine Marathon would be made in modern day, but it wasn't this lol
You have not played it yet and most gamers are not even old enough to even know what Marathon is to Bungie. I rather see how this games turns out before making any opinion on it just yet.
Well yeah, it was considered a Doom clone that Bungie would need to modernize, but it exclusively being turned into a PvP extraction shooter like Escape from Tarkov, only assumingly a hundred times less hardcore, is a hard sell. Bungie knows how to make gameplay fun, but I'm not holding my breath on the premise.
The only thing we saw was a CGI trailer with no gameplay. Until we actually see what Bungie take on this genra, I will hold any opinion. I have no clue how this game is going to play out.
I wouldn't mind so much if they released a remake of Marathon 1 first...
