Bungie has announced an indefinite delay for its live-service extraction shooter Marathon, citing the community’s “passionate” feedback following its reveal in April and a subsequent playtest.
Bungie formally unveiled its Marathon reboot in May 2023, but the response wasn’t an immediately enthusiastic one, given the decision to ditch the classic Marathon series’ single-player focus in favour of PvP – and the reboot has largely remained in the news for all the wrong reasons since then. It’s faced leadership changes and substantial legal challenges, it’s seen ongoing reports of declining staff morale and accusations of toxicity aimed at Bungie management, it’s been embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, and more.
April’s big reveal, then, was a chance for Bungie to shift the narrative to something more positive. But reactions weren’t especially kind – some went as far as to draw comparisons with Sony’s ill-fated Concord – and it seems Marathon’s alpha playtest last month also generated substantial negative criticism, judging by Bungie’s latest blog post.
“Thank you not only for your passionate feedback around the Marathon reveal and Alpha playtest,” the studio wrote, “but also for your patience while we took the time to listen closely and chart our next steps. Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear. We’ve taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion.”