Bungie's upcoming survival extraction shooter Marathon hasn't had the easiest time since it was announced in 2023, with the developer suffering layoffs the following year, and in 2025, releasing a poorly received alpha that featured plagiarized art – which ultimately led to the game being indefinitely delayed in June. But here we are, closing out 2025 with a possible redemption arc for Marathon, which has finally locked down a March 2026 release date and $40 price tag.
I should say, I'm using the term "release date" loosely here, as we don't actually have a specific date yet. Thanks to a new Bungie ViDoc video, we know the game is coming at some point in March, but we'll have to wait a little longer for the exact release date.
Chiefly, Marathon is embracing one of Arc Raiders' more distinguishing features: proximity chat, which will let players communicate via voice chat when they're physically near one another in maps. Other oft-requested features that'll be available at launch include a solo queue and a new Runner shell called Rook.
Bungie is wisely taking a pretty clear and explicit stance against pay-to-win with Marathon, making it clear in an accompanying blog post that "survival will never come down to how much money you spend." The studio also says your $40 will get you "full access" to the game including a roadmap detailing all sorts of free updates that'll drop throughout the year. The game's battle, er, Rewards Passes, meanwhile, won't expire and will be available for purchase even when a new pass releases, hopefully avoiding the sense of FOMO that accompanies so many online games these days.
This all sounds great, and it definitely seems like Bungie took a lot of feedback on-board since the alpha earlier this year, but we'll see how it all plays out in another few months.
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