Destiny 2 developer Bungie is reportedly working on a modern-day revival of the Marathon series that started in 1994, now billed as a three-player, squad-based extraction shooter in the vein of Escape from Tarkov.
That's according to a new report from Insider Gaming, which cites sources familiar with the studio's plans and was later corroborated by Jeff Grubb. The report claims Bungie's Marathon revival, which is unannounced and therefore unconfirmed, is currently in pre-alpha as the first post-Destiny game developed at the studio.
Described as the "ultimate example of a living game," this Marathon revival is said to feature a seasonal progression system which feeds into deeper customization of the cyborg "Runners" players pilot out in the field. The push for a new live game fits with Bungie's Destiny expertise, not to mention comments that Sony made when it acquired the studio for $3.6 billion, largely to help fuel its own live service ambitions. That being said, when and where this unannounced game will be released remains to be seen.
The alleged loop of the game will sound familiar to fans of Escape from Tarkov and its contemporaries: pick an area, choose an objective, deploy, explore, loot everything you can, and try to get out without dying – or lose everything you have if you do get killed.
Grubb supported many of these claims in a recent Giant Bomb Twitch stream. He also added that this game is "almost certainly" free-to-play, with the pivotal Runners providing opportunities for microtransactions of some sort. Given Destiny 2's shift to free-to-play (albeit with paid expansions and seasonal content), not to mention the game's Eververse cosmetic shop, this would also come as no surprise.
Regarding the Runners, Grubb stressed that players "are going to be customizing everything about this." He described the look of the game as "vibrant" but "brutalist," referring to a "boxy" sci-fi aesthetic. Grubb also touched on the bones of the game's tech and multiplayer, mentioning a push for "no load times" and "minimal queue times."
Rumors of new projects at Bungie have been swirling for years, and many of them have been fueled by cryptic job listings and comments from the company. As early as September 2019, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons committed to launching "other franchises" by 2025. In March 2021, design director Jacob Benton commented on Bungie's mystery games, talking up "a new secret world in parallel with Destiny" set to launch in or before 2025.
New descriptions for this Marathon revival, which some speculate is tied to the Matter trademark Bungie filed in 2018, loosely align with descriptions from several Bungie job listings. Bungie has specified a new "multiplayer action game," seemingly with "MMO, F2P, and mobile" elements as well as in-game purchases. However, whether all of these qualities are related to this neo Marathon, or indeed the same singular game, is unclear.
For the unaware, the first Marathon game was released back in 1994. Per Bungie's Wikipedia, it started out as a sequel to Pathways into Darkness – the studio's first FPS, made back when it was just Alex Seropian and Jason Jones with assistance from Clin Brent – but evolved into its own franchise and ended up being Bungie's first major IP. Marathon predates the Myth strategy games and had a longer life than the RPG Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, which is generally considered Bungie's first game, albeit not the first game its co-founders worked on.
More recent Bungie patents also hint at a push for mobile games, and recent reports claim it may be partnering with NetEase on a game of its own.
