Remember Marathon? It’s Destiny developer Bungie’s subsequent sport, and it seems like we’re about to lastly see extra of it.
Marathon is a PvP-focused extraction shooter set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV. Players inhabit the our bodies of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries who’ve been designed to outlive the planet’s harsh environments, exploring the misplaced colony that after inhabited Tau Ceti’s floor.
It has been a while since we noticed or heard of Marathon. In October, Bungie launched a prolonged improvement replace video that make clear Marathon’s mechanics, however careworn how early in improvement the sport was. Player character fashions have been, at that time, nonetheless “coming collectively,” whereas enemy fashions have been nonetheless in an “early state.”
Now, although, half a 12 months later, it seems like Bungie is lastly able to reveal what it’s been engaged on. A tweet from the official Marathon account, beneath, revealed a usually cryptic picture and accompanying garbled sign noise. As followers have observed, there’s ASCII artwork of footage from the debut Marathon trailer. Given that is Bungie we’re speaking about, a developer recognized for its mysterious teasers, hidden clues, and Easter eggs, there’s most likely way more right here to find, and fans are already working to find out what it all means.
Either method, it very a lot seems prefer it’s lastly taking place for Marathon after what has been a troubled improvement.
— Marathon (@MarathonTheSport) April 4, 2025
Marathon was revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the basic Bungie franchise, however with all its themes of “mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness.” But Bungie itself has suffered a number of controversies in recent times, headlined by the shedding of 220 employees members, that means 17% of its workforce, in July 2024: a transfer even trade friends criticized.
This got here lower than a 12 months after 100 different layoffs at Bungie, at which level employees informed IGN the ambiance was “soul crushing” on the studio.
Further controversy got here when a report launched weeks after the 220 job losses alleging former Marathon director Chris Barrett was fired after an inside misconduct investigation at Bungie. Barrett subsequently sued Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie for greater than $200 million.
This all comes as Sony rethinks its concentrate on live-service video games. Sony president Hiroki Totoki stated in November 2023 the corporate was dedicated to launching simply six of the 12 reside service video games it was engaged on by March 2026, in a shift in technique that noticed The Last of Us multiplayer sport cancelled.
While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 was a breakout hit, turning into the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios sport of all time with 12 million copies offered in simply 12 weeks, Sony’s different reside service video games have been both canceled or suffered disastrous launches.
Indeed, Sony’s Concord is among the greatest online game disasters in PlayStation historical past, lasting simply a few weeks earlier than it was introduced offline amid eye-wateringly low participant numbers. Sony later determined to kill the sport completely and shut its developer.
And earlier this 12 months, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced reside service video games, one a God of War title in improvement at Bluepoint, the opposite within the works at Days Gone developer Bend.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
