Marathon (2026)

One of the things I love about Marathon, or adjacent to Marathon, is the smart stuff people are writing about it. Bullet Points Monthly has a very sharp series of essays on Marathon including a piece by Gareth Damian Martin (founder of one person studio Jump Over the Age) on story and storytelling through their relationship to both Destiny and Marathon:

Sometimes it's a comedy, a dark kind of slapstick as you run straight into a hail of buckshot after you round the first corner. Sometimes a tragedy, where you complete all the steps only to find yourself face to face with another player in the extraction circle, one far crueler than you. Typically it's some hybrid of the two, where the shifting conditions create opportunity and conflict in equal measure. That other runner was hiding at the computer, damn, scratch that run, but then if you kill them, perhaps they are carrying just the gun you need to take down that stubborn enemy later on. Opportunity from adversity. Improvisation. Tension and twists. Now we are talking good stories. Good stories that fill the hours, and the numbers are going down. This is incredibly inefficient, you think, as you watch another player pick through the equipment you left behind, your favourite gun zipped up in a bag. But then as you watch them take it out, equip it, and inspect it, maybe a little solidarity takes hold. Maybe you whisper, “enjoy it” as you return to the lobby, having wasted your evening on one beautiful, impossible, singular task. You know they too are telling a story, one where they found an incredibly sick gun on some idiot who didn't even seem to know how to use it. We all play a role, and the clown is far better than the optimiser, if you ask me.

As always, an enjoyable piece from Grace Benfell, this time on Marathon.

Marathon May Never Be Popular, And That’s Why It’s So Good

Just a couple months after release, the announcement of Destiny 2’s final update, as well as the revelation that Bungie had no “Destiny 3” or any other tentpole project waiting in the wings, have put Marathon in a difficult and unfair position. But part of the skepticism about the game exists because Marathon, unlike every Bungie game since Halo: Combat Evolved, is not a game expertly tuned for mass-market success. Instead, it is something altogether stranger and more exciting.

A lot of the discourse around Marathon has posited essentially one of two things about it: that it is a money-grubbing cash-in on a popular trend, or that it fails at being a mainstream title at the scale of Destiny 2.The graveyard of live-service games like Highguard and Concord have prompted constant comparison. But Marathon is not a shotgun blast, trying for the broadest possible appeal; it is a knife’s edge, cutting away at a well-defined niche.

These might all sound like reasons not to engage, but all these things combine to make something with genuine mystery and awe. Marathon’s most game-changing loot and its most profound challenges might be locked away, but anyone can start to get the picture from their very first match. The electronic hum of the starting music. The terror of enemy footsteps. The thrill of a well-timed attack. Deciding not to extract, because there is still loot waiting to be found, and dying from greed. Or besting an enemy team’s ambush through guile and speed.

Within Marathon’s nigh-endless deaths and rebirths, there is the rush of life. It is stressful, demanding, and by definition “not for everyone,” but that’s true of most things that are worth your time.

Rating: 2/10 (but with some caveats)

I'll keep this short because my opinion on this doesn't matter but I'm still rating and reviewing because I did play the game and want to remember what I thought.

I tried this out because it's currently free and I've been curious because Bungie is worth checking out, even if I'm not a massive fan of them (minus their Halos, which I do love). But I do not like extraction shooters. In fact, I basically hate them and wish fewer games would go down this path.

• Like how the game feels. There's some heaviness to it while also offering some quicker, advanced movements.
• Visuals are pretty cool.
• Obviously very polished.

However,

• None of this matters because the core loop of an extraction shooter bores and infuriates me. I like looting in certain types of games but not in competitive online shooters. I don't like losing stuff. I don't like single life runs. There's nothing about extraction shooters as a genre I like. Which makes it impossible for me to like this game, even if I think it's well made. Though obviously someone who played it longer will have a more in-depth opinion about how it's made. I'm just surface level saying it feels and looks good.
• Oh, I did enjoy the Dark Zone in The Division back when it came out, but that was also a bonus thing tucked into a co-op game, so it was nice to just pop in occasionally for a run or two and then go back to the rest of the game.
• The funny thing is, if this game offered a team deathmatch mode, I'd probably buy it and put some good time into it.
• Spends SO MUCH TIME loading. I sat there just being like, "Let me play!" Plus onboarding was shit.

But again, don't listen to me. I didn't spend enough time with it to really matter and I'm prejudiced against the genre anyway. When it comes to online shooters I like 10-15 minute team deathmatches while rotating every map. For context, Killzone (specifically 3 and Shadow Fall) are my shit.

• Playtime: 50 minutes (tutorial + 2 solo + 1 group run)

• Played: June 2026

• Context: I liked the gunplay of Destiny but not the MMOness.

FPS history for context

I have been playing shooters for over 30 years. In games like Day of Defeat, Urban Terror, Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, etc. i would pretty much always be in the top 25% for my team at least. In Battlefield 4 i was literally 3 SPM away from being Tier 1 at some point. I've also completed Half-Life 1 & 2, Deus Ex, etc. on the hardest difficulty. I have played dozens of shooters and i was quite good at some of them.

Terrible onboarding

With the above context, let me state that the bots in this game are too hard. At least early on, with the free kit. The gun bots aren't that bad unless they surprise you, but the grenadier bots can kill you with a single grenade. A single grenade. In the first map that is listed as being "very low threat".

Loading times

Maps take up to 1,5 minutes to load. No, i'm not joking, i used a stopwatch. It goes through a bunch of different screens. And then it spawns you automatically, instead of requiring you to click. This would be bad enough if it wasn't for the fact that 1) there is no timer or other countdown and 2) for the first minute it plays animations with tons of bright flashes.

Tutorial

After going through a bunch of settings and tutorial menus i start the tutorial. I kind of zone out because it takes so long. It drops me in an area with an environmental hazard that instantly kills me. Awesome. The second time i had no problems, but that's partially because i'd already watched oboeshoes play it.

Three games

Game #1: I go into the "baby" map and it takes me a while to figure out why i can't join a squad. I walk around a bit and two grenadiers show up near my objective. I have a quest to kill bots, so i engage them. They kill me instantly.

Game #2: I join two other new players. We walk around a bit, shoot some bots then a bot very high up downs me in less than 2 seconds. One team mate stupidly gets shot too. The other gets killed by an enemy squad.

Game #3: I go into the baby map, shoot half a dozen gun bots and complete the objective. I see a case that is specially marked. I open it. An alarm sounds and before i can take cover a grenadier spawns and kills me with a single grenade. I Alt+F4.

Other points

The style is cool. The gunplay is great. The classes seem pretty decent. I liked the story elements. Looting slowly reveals items in a random order, which sucks. Dragging and dropping an item on an item doesn't exchange both items for some reason.

Conclusion

This game deserves to die.

I watched Laura Fryer's video on Fairgames, the next Sony live service game, and Marathon came up. I've been following the situation a little bit and i tried to look further into it:

When i looked on Steam Charts two days ago Marathon was #99 for 24h peak player count. Right now it's not even in the top 100 anymore at #110. In the first three weeks almost 70% of sales of Marathon were on Steam, so if console players play at the same rate Marathon has ~29.000 daily players.

Sony spent $3,600 mln on Bungie and $200+ mln on Marathon. And less than two months after launch it already has fewer players than Peak, which was made for less than $200.000. If we use the magic formula of Steam reviews times 30 we get a bit over 1 million total sales. If that's still 70% that means 1,53 mln sales total. At full price that would've mean they made $61,5 mln on sales. It's safe to say this is a major flop.

On top of that, Destiny 2 went from selling millions of copies and (supposedly) making over $900 mln to DLC only selling tens of thousands of copies with a player count under 10.000. Combined with the Halo Master Chef collection Bungie's games have under 40.000 players on Steam. Even if they have as many players on console that would mean 1 employee per 100 users. And they spent $10.000+ per current user on Marathon.

Bungie already fired almost half their employees in less than three years. Sony claimed a $204 mln impairment charge last year. Destiny is doing terribly. Marathon bombed. Halo Infinite tarnished the Halo brand, which isn't even Bungie's anymore. What happens now? More massive layoffs and Marathon going F2P like Destiny?

Sony seems to have made back only a quarter of what they spent on Bungie, if that. That's insane. Add to that Concord, Marathon and possibly Fairgames and maybe even Horizon Hunters next. Plus closed studios like Bluepoint and Dark Outlaw. What a waste of time, effort, resources, etc. just because a few people thought gamers are ATMs.

Article: Vision of Marathon: New Gameplay, Dev Insights, & More by Marathon Dev Team

Marathon releases March 2026, targeting a price of $39.99/€39.99/£34.99. We’ll announce additional regional pricing as we get closer to launch. Purchasing Marathon will give you full access to the game, including a roadmap of free gameplay updates as the year progresses. This will include new maps, new Runner shells, events, and more, starting with the exploration of UESC Marathon's Cryo Archive in Season 1. We also want to ensure you are logging in because you love the game, not from fear of missing out—so Marathon's Rewards Passes will not expire, and you’ll be able purchase and unlock prior Passes. Finally, and most importantly, we believe in preserving competitive integrity in Marathon, so survival will never come down to how much money you spend. We’ll share more about our plans for seasonal content, a roadmap, and details about when you’ll be able to try the game as we get closer to launch.

Pretty excited to hear about Battle Passes that don't expire. I wish this was the norm.

Article: Artist At The Center Of Marathon’s Plagiarism Scandal Says Bungie Has Made Things Right by Claire Jackson

Antireal (4nt1r34l), whose art was plagiarized during the development of Marathon, seems to have found an agreeable resolution with Bungie though they did not go into the details. This occurred months after an apology was given and an art audit was completed. I feel like this doesn't often occur when art has been stolen and feels good to see.

Article: Bungie confirms it stole art once again, will undertake a 'thorough review' of Marathon assets

"Bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language I have refined for the last decade," Antireal said in follow-up tweets, "but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution."

It astounds me that art burglars think no one will notice their thievery in the age of online artists. It's even more gross this is being done by a huge company that can afford paying these same artists for their assets and work.