Marathon, Bungie's upcoming revival of the 1994 FPS, seemed like it could disappear after serious layoffs plagued its developer. But, despite the sci-fi extraction shooter's Twitter laying dormant for 18 months, director Joe Ziegler assures fans in a new video that Marathon is alive and well.
"In 2025, we're going to be expanding our playtests a little bit wider and wider," he says. "We'll definitely let you know when that happens."
That last line summarizes the tenor of Ziegler's video, which feels, for the most part, purposefully vague. Ziegler emphasizes that Marathon will have "a ton of loot that you can find," as well as "weapons" and "equipment [...] that changes your stats." Cool! It sounds like Bungie's Marathon reboot was heavily inspired by The Division, or Hunt: Showdown, or Borderlands, or Call of Duty, or Luigi's Mansion.
"There's also consumables that help you sort of heal yourself," Ziegler helpfully adds.
I'm assuming these aren't the impressive updates Bungie fans were hoping to receive after more than a year of quiet, but Ziegler at least manages to offer a few details on Marathon's production status. Sort of.
"There's a variety of different things at different states inside of the game," he says. "Our environments are starting to come together in a really, really beautiful way. Some of the character models we've been iterating through, so they're coming together, but they're not fully there yet. [...] It's a little early to show you all of it as one piece."
Ziegler is able to share the codenames for two of Marathon's playable characters, or runners: Thief and Stealth, and he suggests that both of these characters will be sneaky, much like Bungie itself when sharing news about Marathon.
In any case, Ziegler is grateful for fans' patience.
"Our goal is ultimately to make a game that all of you feel like is worth spending your time [on], he says. "Thank you all for actually following us, and we do this all for you."
