Developer Bungie has announced an indefinite delay to their upcoming live-service title Marathon following what they referred to as “passionate” feedback on the part of the community following the gameplay reveal in April, as well as a subsequent playtest. The studio announced these plans via a post to their website, stating that the previously planned release of September 23, 2025, was no longer on the company’s calendar.
In the press statement, Bungie Stated:
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. After much discussion within our Dev team, we’ve made the decision to delay the September 23 release.
Much of the criticism of the game revolves around the playtest held in April, which was poorly received by fans at the time. The company went on to say that “We’re using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around. This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Herman Hulst additionally commented on the feedback last week, referring to the fan response as “Varied.” He additionally stated the Marathon reboot would get a release date set by March 31, 2026, saying that Sony has no intention of repeating their mistakes made with Concord.
Bungie has laid out three major points of feedback that they plan to address moving forward, in hopes of getting back into their audience’s good graces. These include “Upping the survival game,” which includes changes to the AI to make it more challenging and engaging, more strategic combat to make the experience more tense, adding more to the social elements of the title, as well as adding more lore to discover. The studio has stated players can expect increased visual fidelity across the game as well.
The development cycle of Marathon, which was announced in 2023, has been fraught with multiple scandals, including accusations of plagiarized artwork, something the company has admitted to in some capacity. While their Playtest was live, the similar game Arc Raiders also had an early playtest, leading to more positive praise for Arc in comparison, which, assumably, played a part in this decision as well.
Remember to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Bluesky to keep up to date on everything we have going on!
