Marathon hit with indefinite delay

Bungie’s upcoming multiplayer extraction shooter, Marathon, will no longer be releasing this September. The developer has announced that the game has been indefinitely delayed, ostensibly in response to mixed reactions to the game’s closed alpha.

“Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear,” writes the Marathon development team on Bungie’s website. “We’ve taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion. After much discussion within our Dev team, we’ve made the decision to delay the September 23rd release.“

Marathon has not had the smoothest development since its 2023 announcement. Its developer Bungie has been roiled by layoffs and controversies relating to art theft. What’s more, I’m sure a premium, multiplayer-only game developed by a Sony-owned studio seemed like a much safer bet before Firewalk Studios’ Concord crashed and burned last year in one of the biggest commercial failures in the history of the video game industry.

Last month, a closed alpha for Marathon was made available, the reception to which was not great, according to Forbes. Common criticisms from participants included the game being impenetrable for players not accustomed to extraction shooters while failing to appeal to the more hardcore extraction shooter crowd who would ordinarily be into that sort of experience.

Bungie is understandably keen to avoid Firewalk’s unfortunate fate. As such, it makes sense to want Marathon to release in the best possible state. The developer has confirmed that areas it will be focusing on include making combat more tense and strategic, adding more narrative and environmental storytelling and improving the experience for solo or duo players, considering one criticism of the alpha (and other multiplayer games built around teams of 3, such as Elden Ring: Nightreign) is the difficulty of consistently coordinating a trio of players. The announcement confirms that we will learn of the game’s new release date later this year; we will have to wait and see what kind of changes will be made to the game during this period.