Bungie Reveals New Gameplay for 'Marathon'
Bungie has released a new gameplay trailer for its upcoming extraction shooter, "Marathon." The video showcases a full gameplay loop from the start of a mission to extraction, highlighting the game's high-stakes action and design.
- This new title is a revival of Bungie's own *Marathon* trilogy, a series of first-person shooters first released for the Apple Macintosh in 1994. The original games predated the studio's more famous creations, *Halo* and *Destiny*. - The game is a PvP (player-versus-player) extraction shooter set on the planet Tau Ceti IV, a location from the original series. It is designed for three-player teams, with a total of 18 players per match, though solo and duo play will be possible at a disadvantage. - Sony acquired Bungie for approximately $3.6 billion in a deal that closed in July 2022. Despite the acquisition, Bungie will continue to operate as an independent, multi-platform studio, and *Marathon* is slated for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC with full cross-play and cross-save functionality. - The project's original game director, Christopher Barrett, a Bungie veteran who had worked on series like *Halo* and *Destiny*, was fired in March 2024 following an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior with at least eight female employees. - In December 2024, Barrett filed a lawsuit against Bungie and Sony, claiming his termination was a scheme to avoid paying him nearly $50 million in equity and that the companies "deliberately destroyed" his reputation. Sony has since responded in court, detailing what it describes as a "pattern of misconduct" and "disturbing communications" with subordinate female employees. - *Marathon* is scheduled to launch on March 5, 2026, and will be a premium title with a price of $39.99, rather than a free-to-play game. An open "Server Slam" playtest is scheduled to run from February 26 to March 2 across all platforms.
