Bungie says Marathon "on track", but "a little early to show" in first developer update
Will "reveal a lot more" next year.
Almost exactly a year since it was reported Bungie had delayed its sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon into 2025, the studio has released a gameplay free developer update saying the game is "on track", albeit a "little early to show" - and that it'll "reveal a lot more" next year.
The news comes via a nine-minute developer video presented by Marathon game director Joe Ziegler, who took over the role from former project lead Chris Barrett earlier this year, after the latter was reportedly ousted from Bungie due to inappropriate behaviour.
In his update, Ziegler began with a brief overview of Bungie's Marathon reboot, outlining the extraction shooter's basic loop (complete quests, find loot to upgrade abilities, then get it out of the extraction zone to keep it), alongside a few other gameplay details. Playable Runners, for instance, are each said to have a "small subset" of abilities that can be further customised with gear, depending on what players want to achieve. That's alongside promises of "lots of tools, "lots of objectives" and lots of ways an individual run can unfold.
Ziegler also touched on Marathon's connection to Bungie's 90s sci-fi shooter series of the same name, saying the reboot uses a lot of "familiar elements" from the original - including the "mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness" - then layers on elements that help "modernise" it, such as a new story and world Bungie can continue to update.
In terms of progress, Zeigler explained there'd been a "lot of aggressive changes to the game" over the last few years, and that Bungie has been "iterating pretty heavily". As such, there are a "variety of different things in different states" right now; environments, for instance, are said to be "coming together in a really beautiful way", while character models are "coming together but not fully there yet", and enemy models are still "kind of a little bit in an early state".
"It's a little early to show you all of it as one piece," Ziegler said, "but all of these things are on-track. They're not all together but when they all do come together, we really are looking forward to showing you what that looks like, especially in play." But while Bungie isn't yet ready to show any gameplay, Ziegler did share a couple of bits of concept art, one showing a Runner with the codename Thief, and another "deception" based character called Stealth.
And while Bungie has nothing else to show right now, it plans to "reveal a lot more... in the midst of 2025". Next year will also see the studio expand its playtesting, with Ziegler revealing the team wants to add a "significant amount of players to each of our milestones as we're going forward". The studio will let the community know "when that happens".
"The interest that you've shown engaging with all the content we've created... really fuels us on a daily basis," Ziegler concluded in his video update. "We're excited to engage with you more in 2025 and beyond as we bring this game to all of you to play."
Today's update is the first time Bungie has talked about Marathon in any real detail since unveiling the project in 2023, and the first promotional push since the studio laid off 220 staff - roughly 17 percent of its workforce - back in July.