Bungie’s Marathon returns as a sci-fi extraction shooter

It has been six years since the publication of Destiny 2, a sequel to the popular Destiny 1., Bungie, the studio that created Halo, is ready to talk about what’s next. Sony owns Bungie, which revealed their plans during the PlayStation Showcase in May 2023.

Bungie is finally a studio of two games when they release MarathonThis will also run in tandem with Destiny 2. This is an extraction-based team shooter in a sci-fi future setting with minimalistic art and lots of white spaces and neon-colored splashes. It’s in development for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, with full cross-play and cross-save.

On the official Marathon website, Bungie offers this synopsis: “A massive ghost ship hangs in low orbit over a lost colony on Tau Ceti IV. The 30,000 people who once called this planet home are gone. Strange signals point to mysterious artifacts and long-dormant artificial intelligence, as well as untold treasures. You are a Runner, venturing into the unknown in a fight for fame… and infamy. who among you will write their names across the stars?”

The game is set in the year 2850, by which time clone technology allows people to shift their consciousness between their born body and synthetic bodies — which explains the android-y look of the characters in the trailer.

“Become a runner in Bungie’s new sci-fi PvP extraction shooter,” continues Bungie’s blurb. Compete for survival, riches, and renown in a world of evolving, persistent zones, where any run can lead to greatness.”

Marathon is actually a revival of one of Bungie’s earliest games. Originally released for Apple’s Macintosh PCs in 1994, the first MarathonThe first game to allow free-look using the mouse was. In this, the player is cast as an officer who must defend a spaceship from aliens.

The Marathon reboot, first rumored to be in 2022 was actually made possible by a partnership between Bungie and Chinese publisher NetEase, which brought Bungie a $100 million investment, specifically for the purpose of helping it create multiple teams that would work on new properties. Although the studio has since been acquired by Sony, this will be music to the new owner’s ears — Sony has repeatedly said that it wanted Bungie for its expertise in multi-platform live-service games, not to build PlayStation exclusives. Sony said in 20222 that it wants to launch more than 10 live-service games by 2026 — with the announcement of MarathonWe can cross one item off the list.