Marathon is indeed still underway, according to Sony – and it's set to release sometime this fiscal year, if everything goes as planned with pre-launch analyses of its performance.
After delays and other such setbacks, it seems the upcoming team-based extraction shooter from Bungie really is coming. Sony confirms as much during its recent earnings call Q&A, in which figures like chief financial officer and corporate executive officer Lin Tao participate as speakers. The matter of Marathon's release comes up in a question on whether any changes have been made to Sony's plan to launch the game this year.
"With regards to the development of Marathon," replies the company, "we are still working on it." Sony then references the closed testing Bungie conducted late last month, and what key performance indicators the team looked at. "From October 22 and then 28 for a week, there was a technical test that involved 80,000 people. As a result, the gameplay and then retention – those are the key KPIs that we tested on."
It's an ongoing process, however – neither Bungie nor parent company Sony is prepared just yet, with results from the closed testing still being looked at: "We are in the process of analyzing the performance against those KPIs. As needed, we will make corrections. We are fully dedicated to launching the title as scheduled. Yes, we assume that we will launch this within this year, and that is included in the forecast."
The future looks bright for Marathon, then – judging by what Sony reveals during this Q&A, anyway, with a release forecast for the latter half of 2025 that includes the Bungie game… despite any previous problems with its development. Marathon was initially charted to launch on September 23 this year, with Lin Tao going on to say it'd come within the fiscal year (before March 31, 2026) after a delay, and Sony's answer now seems to line up with this.
Here's hoping that, when it does finally arrive, Marathon meets expectations and outperforms Sony's ill-fated shooter Concord – a title that was pulled offline soon after launch.
Searching for something else to get excited over? Here are the best new games releasing this year and beyond to wishlist while you wait for Marathon.
