Fresh Marathon Details Cover Heroes, Pricing, and Bungie's Silence

The final sprint is going to be brutal

by · Push Square
Game Profile

https://images.pushsquare.com/cace8dde900bb/cover_small.jpg
Title:
Marathon
System:
PlayStation 5
Publisher:
Bungie
Developer:
Bungie
Genre:
FPS
Release Date:
PlayStation 5
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Official Site:
marathonthegame.com
Where to buy:
Pre Order on Amazon

We know remarkably little about Marathon, considering its release window begins in a few months, having been revealed almost a year and a half ago. We aren't sure how many more mulligans Bungie is allowed, either, and with the spectre of Concord and The Finals hanging in the air, there isn't much margin for error. Naturally, fans are curious about what the plan is here, and some fresh details have emerged, unofficially, of course.

Forbes journalist Paul Tassi heard from a source within Bungie who is eager to dispel some of the doom and gloom surrounding the game. This source spoke at length, giving us a better idea of what to expect from Bungie's next. Firstly, the reported $40 price point is real and happening. This is apparently due to The Finals failing to set the world on fire as a free-to-play game and because Helldivers 2 became such a hit at the same price. Concord's spectacular implosion has not affected this thinking, and the game is too far along to pivot to free-to-play now, anyway.

Bungie is not expected to showcase Marathon in any major way before Spring 2025, although there might be a video introducing Joe Ziegler, as well as clearing up some misconceptions that have taken root. For example, Marathon is not a traditional hero shooter in the Overwatch vein and is described as being closer to Apex Legends, just with more customization. It remains an extraction shooter at heart, and the gear and guns acquired during a run are meaningful and can be further customized.

According to the source, the "hero" concept was brought to the fore by the now-fired Sam Barret. Issues arose with the team's struggle to achieve his vision, which had echoes of Destiny 2's Dreaming City. There will still be puzzles to solve and secrets to uncover, but they are vastly reduced from what was originally planned. Despite this, the aesthetic and art direction depicted in the reveal trailer remain; in fact, Bungie's doubled down, considering the positive reception amongst fans.

Finally, and less optimistically, Bungie is in a really tough spot, with Sony applying pressure on its multi-billion dollar investment. Sony needs Marathon to be delivered within the stated 2025 window and for it to be a hit, and it seems like failure is not an option. Getting the game out, let alone at the quality level needed (or the subsequent post-launch content required), will be a Herculean task. Morale is relatively low amongst the game's 300-strong team, with some voluntarily departing in the studio's current state. Others want to get out and talk about the game, to counter the "dead" Bungie narrative, and to push back on being labelled "the next Concord".

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How optimistic do you feel about Marathon? Has Bungie's recent history impacted your anticipation? Hold out for a hero in the comments section below.

[source forbes.com]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 52

Giving players a small single-player or co-op campaign a la CoD would build so much goodwill...

Doe anyone believe in the quality of this after all that happened in the past few months?

No PvE only modes, no story campaign, no sale.

It's such a cutthroat market. No one is safe, no matter the pedigree.

Fairgame$ seems so incredibly tone deaf and desperately wants to be cool. But could be the gameplay lifts it up of the trash.

Concord don't need to be commented upon. ☠️

Haven't seen enough of Marathon to get any real impressions either way. Will it include a SP/Co-op campaign w/multiplayer modes? Or will they try to cold-boot a GaaS leaning on the older games?

Let's hope they're cooking up something good, or they'll be cooked.

Need to sprint through Marathon before they delete it.

@2here2there Nope, sounds like a shiit show

"Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”

I think people need to stop hitting the panic button at the first opportunity... and understand, whether you like online live service games, it's in no one's interest for Marathon to fail. How about we all just wait till we know more - and accept that not everyone has to like the games you like; and it doesn't have to be a zero sum game.

I wouldn't want to make any predictions here. It's great they've doubled down on the art direction, but I think it has a fight ahead of it. Need to see more..

The thought of yet another “hero/extraction shooter” makes me sad. They had an opportunity to make a great single player experience. Bungie used to do that. Not since their Xbox days. Its turned into just a shill of its former self trading in compelling stories and experiences in exchange for micro transactions and RNG gambling simulators

"More like Apex Legends"
"extraction shooter"
"There will still be puzzles [...] and secrets"

...Like, what the hell is this supposed to be? I kinda get it — Siege would've probably been a better comparison than Apex. But still, this description makes it sound like a confused, half-baked idea inside a jumbled mess of gameplay concepts. Obviously this isn't a targeted info dump put together by marketing. But still, none of it instills much confidence.

Especially the news that Sony's forcing them to get this thing out by next year while Bungie's bleeding staff and morale. These are not the ingredients of a passionate, quality game. And if they're going into the market at $40, they're going to need that apparent passion and quality to get any attention. Helldivers 2 had both in spades, and it still had to go viral on Tiktok — or something — before the wider community took notice.

For a brief moment in time, DMZ was the most popular extraction shooter on consoles, but the support stopped. Marathon looked to be a possible replacement for DMZ, but following the turmoil that became heavily questionable. Now Bungie are trying to clear the air and make Marathon look like it will be it... It's a pity for them rumors that Infinity Ward will revive DMZ in 2025 are looking quite promising, because I'd take DMZ over Marathon any day.

I actually like multiplayer games (probably only one on push square) 100s of hours into The finals, Apex, Fortnite, COD, R6 Siege and many more I always try most multiplayer games with friends. But I just think they've completely choosen wrong type of games I think socom would do better than any hero shooter they attempt I even think warhawk would do better. I think the right way to go about it is add multiplayer onto single player games even if it's quite basic like resistance, killzone, last of us and even socom did and then you have people happy they've got they're single player and you may even get a audience for multiplayer side and they you build from that if you have a player base, it seems alot less risky. I know alot will disagree but just my opinion.

It can fail just as hard as Concord or even harder as far as i'm concerned. We don't need another live service game that is shutdown in 6 months. Sony needs to go back to making great singleplayer games and stop forcing us this live service crap. Another really disappointing State of Play incoming...

There is nothing in the reveals or teasers or trailers, nothing in the reports or leaks, nothing to make me think Marathon will be anything but a new Concord.

Granted, it probably won't fail as hard...

But extraction shooters are so passe right now, and Tarkov players and the like already invested. And Marathon has gone from extraction shooter to hero shooter to loot shooter back to extraction.

Given the likely turmoil at Bungie right now, and the reports of its loathed playtest, Marathon doesn't seem poised for success.

I anticipate it will be a mid success....but the high asking price and negative vibe will turn many players away though Sony will hopefully do a better job marketing it than it did Concord.

Even so, this game seems likely to be cancelled as right now it just looks and feels like another Concord situation and that is something Sony doesn't want.

A lot of this sounds like a recipe for failure to me, especially the ultimatum-like pressure to deliver a hit this time and within a strict deadline.

Maybe changing the name to Snickers will help them out. Either way Sony are clearly nuts... I'll show myself out.

Wake me up in 2026 when we hopefully hear of a single non-live, non-coop focused game.*

*Specifically single party before I get rear ended with comments purposely misunderstanding my point

I hate the trend of stuff getting criticisms by not releasing asap.

We all know what happens if stuff get released too soon.

Same with the Stardew Valley guy. Just let people work on their stuff without adding even more pressure.

Really is a shame they couldn't have had a small single player campaign in the game, would serve as nice little intro to the world / story etc would have at least got me to consider buying it, as it is, PVP only games aint my bag, so wish them luck, they gonna need it!

Bungie badly needs a win, for their sake I hope they get it. Without a PvE element, this game is not going to be for me, but at least the trailer had a unique look about it. That's more than could be said of Concord, so I don't necessarily think Marathon will follow in that game's ill fated footsteps.

"More like Apex, live service extraction shooter, and 40 bucks"

Ok. So nothing in this report that makes me say i want to play Marathon nor it makes the impression that Marathon will not end up like Concord.

But eh good luck for Bungie i guess, especially if they aim for 2025 release date. I mean, next year will have high profile games like GTA 6, MH Wilds, Wolverine / Venom, Death Stranding 2, new RE, and Doom: Dark Ages which people will prefer to spend their money for those games over a 40 bucks live service extraction shooter.

Heck, i'm not surprise if 2XKO will have more players than Marathon since it will be free to play.

If Marathon isn't a success they can always re-release it as Snickers.

@MrHabushi Star Child from Concord to be renamed Opal Fruits.

@Ssimsim I'm the second one all I want is either a new socom or any remaster version of it not interested anymore in single player games I tend to skip everything and it has to be a really good single player game for me to finish it last one I played was red dead 2 haha

So if they don't like "another Concord" tag, we can call it "Concord 2"

I get the feeling this game gonna be DOA.

Not the marathon reboot people want.

I mean, of all the live service games announced this, to me, was the most visually appealing.

Would I rather a single player/coop campaign that looked like this? 100%. But I know I'm not the audience they're all trying to woo because I've never given a live service game any money.

I'd have given it a go if it were free. But I'm not paying for it if there's no campaign attached and I'm just getting an online multiplayer that's then going to pester me for more money for battle passes and such.

They've said in their ViDoc the next time they would show up is closer to launch and would go dark in the meantime.

Let's wait and see, same was said for Destiny and they delivered on Final Shape.

If it's a gotcha game it's perfectly fine any other multiplayer gets pooped on

I'm really feeling sad for Bungie and I hope they find their way back quickly with Sony's guidance.

Not looking at Concord at all in the decision to release at $40 is wild and blatantly irresponsible. I get that they can't just pivot into Free-to-Play on a dime but that isn't an excuse to just shrug and say "We will be fine".

I got a really bad feeling about this.

I properly love the art style in the trailer. Had this been a single player, campaign-driven game it would likely have been a launch day purchase for me. Even if I wanted to, I'm never going to be able to commit to a grindy live-service title as I have kids and it feels like a total waste to spend the little personal free time I have on something with no defined ending and no story to tell.

Not sure about the wisdom of that image symbolism. Dead in the water?

Pretty sure “Sam Barrett” mentioned in this article was actually Chris Barrett.

@RoomWithaMoose Agreed that it does sound a bit confusing throwing all those comparisons in, I guess putting all that together, to me it sounds like Hunt Showdown, but with a scifi setting and a faster/more action oriented gameplay.

Which I don't know, maybe it could work? I've not played other extraction shooters, but at least in Hunt the slow pace and tension is what makes it so enjoyable. Not sure how a game of that type would play out if everyone was mad dashing and gunning and throwing Supers all over the place. I'll wait and see.

Why is The Finals mentioned in the same breath as Concord LMAO
Even its 24 hour peak is over 20x what Concord ever managed nearly a year after launch.
And that in the last week of its worst season so far 😂

I have really clouded memories of the original Marathon trilogy, but i do remember it being mostly single player with a story. I was so excited when the reveal came for this new Marathon and then that excitement was slapped out of my hands and stomped on.

It sounds like it'll be really pretty but also extremely shallow like all extraction shooters.

Not very optimistic at all but if anyone can pull it out the bag it’s these guys? 😂

Helldivers 2 is one of those things that just randomly worked out. Right price at the right time for launch. Not every game is going work out like this and for everyone trying to catch lighting in a bottle, sorry it's not going to happen. I'll keep an open mind about it for now but I have a feeling it's going to be Concord 2.

From what they've shown it looks like the only thing Marathon about this game is the name itself. Marathon was a fun game back in the days, they need to make another go at it as opposed to a live service game. They're a dime a dozen... onto the next one guys!

So is this due out before or after Fairgame$, which Sammy really did not seem to like according to this fandom page. 😂

https://playstation-studios.fandom.com/wiki/Fairgames

Sony really did petal to the metal on the GaaS games huh? Try to be as cool as James Dean, go out like James Dean.🔥

If Marathon wasn’t converted to be a “hero shooter,” I’d be more interested. I like the overall aesthetic of what we’ve seen, but I suspect this one will flop, same as Fairgame$ will. The live service push Sony is doing gets frankly more baffling by the day. I understand they want their live service games to be a “premium product” in comparison to their F2P peers, but you need robust games to justify a price point. Even CoD realized they needed a campaign to charge for a $60 package. I think that, largely, the industry has move past the live service model as we currently know it. In a world where The Finals is failing, despite its innovations and doing most things that would appear to be right, it’s clear that the current big GAAS ARE the market. I don’t see why some of these games don’t go back to the campaign + mp formula, which was a format that seemed to work. The campaign usually functions as a glorified tutorial that gets you invested in the characters. Seems so obvious that things were working and a few anomalies disrupted things for a new market that is largely complacent now as well.

@somnambulance it's not a hero shooter

I want this game to succeed AND be fun. I'm no Bungie apologist. It doesn't come from that.

I just think the extraction shooter genre is one that could take off on consoles in a way no game really has. And I think it's a smart differentiator in the market, something Concord definitely lacked.

I also just love the aesthetic. I think we deserve visually interesting games and this could be one of them. I adored the teaser and hope that look carries through to release.

I still think that the safe-ish way of making a successful live service game is to utilise an already strong games brand. The way that The Last of Us Online had planned to be.

Concord has made me suspicious so I’ll say No thanks and it’ll have to persuade me otherwise

The live service push will continue until morale improves.

This sounds like a mess based on the details in this article.

@idiotthechef I feel entirely the opposite. If I'm spending my money on something I want it to provide as much entertainment as it can for that money. Open ended gameplay that's fun and relaxing or cathartic is exactly where I want to spend my time, rather than finishing a $70 game in 10 hours and looking for the next fix.

@Hi569 It’s an extraction shooter, but also has been likened to Apex a lot, which is a hero shooter. Bungie has commented that the pivoted to it being hero-based.

I just never understood why the huge change of direction for the series. Could have been so much more! See Doom.

I was sure this game was going to be cancelled or rebooted. What is Bungie's aversion to SP?

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