PlayStation made many of us concerned when they announced a heavy focus on live-service games a few years ago, so it was no surprise that Bungie didn't exactly see the desired hype when they revealed the new Marathon back in 2023. Things have only gotten worse since, as plagiarism, a dissappointing alpha test, the hype surrounding ARC Raiders and more led people to say Marathon would be "another Concord" if it launched this September as planned. Then it's quite understandable that Bungie decided to delay the game to the first quarter of 2026 and promised big changes. They've been very quiet since then, but its time to end the year in a positive way.
Bungie has published a new video and blog where we're told Marathon will launch sometime in March 2026 and confirms the rumours about it costing 39,99 dollars.
The best news is that the game looks and sounds a lot better now. To make a long story short: the developers have made Marathon more grounded, gritty and diverse. This includes more detailed maps that feel lived in, the inclusion of proximity chat, more challenging enemies, corpses staying in the world and more that makes it seem more like ARC Raiders and the other top-tier games in the extraction-shooter genre.
All of this wrapped around what seems to be Bungie's amazing controls and feel, being able to play solo matches, improved audio, multiple ways of being rewarded for playing and customisation options. I wasn't interested at all before, but this gives me hope that Bungie might give us something interesting in March. What do you think?