Bungie and PlayStation have just announced that their next extraction shooter Marathon is targeting March 2026 for its release. A video of the developer update shows, among other game features, proximity chat, new solo experiences and visual improvements. The announcement sparked a lot of conversations on the internet with players expressing doubts and making comparisons to PlayStation‘s recent poor performance with live-service games, especially its loss of Concord.
Thus, Bungie has just shared a new update for Marathon, and yes, a date has been set. To be precise, it will be March 2026. That’s an eternity, my friend. It feels like it has taken forever. Still, they did release a video that gave a glimpse into all the features they are working on. You will get proximity chat which lets you hear your enemies or even potential temporary allies, and so on. Then, there are new single-player experiences for those times you just don’t want to play with a team. Lastly, we have the visuals being put through a really good yet subtle makeover, and from the clips it looks really good. Alves, a player, had a good point when he simply said, “The aesthetics are amazing”, and they are truly not wrong. There is a great mix of light, clean but at the same time dirty sci-fi.
The problem is, The public reaction? It cannot be termed as a hype train really. It is more like a hype… tumbleweed rolling across an abandoned town. The responses to PlayStation’s tweet are an excellent illustration of gamers’ skepticism. One of the initial replies by Damake mentions, “This looks so bad”, which seems to have set the mood. Most of the people are simply not in support of it.
Concord looms large over the issue. It is almost impossible to discuss PlayStation and live-service games without mentioning it, and players are certainly making that point. Expressions like “Just another Concord” by elmasheavier89 and “Cannot wait for Concord 2 to become Playstation’s second Concord” by JestersWar keep on surfacing. Gamers do seem to have the impression that PlayStation has no intention of learning from the past. After the very public downfall of Concord, trust is just…gone for a lot of people. User PauloLoukian even stated, “Poor Sony, they can’t even make a single-player game anymore. I hope this one flops like the Concorde did.” Ouch.
Bungie is making the situation worse for itself. Do you remember when Sony bought Bungie for a billion dollars or something like that? That question pops up too. The_Fit_Gamer made a tweet saying, “Buying Bungie was Sony’s biggest mistake.” On the other hand, ryuthesamurai just wanted to ask, “Is it worth a $3.6 billion acquisition?” That’s been the implicit question all along, hasn’t it? This game seems to be taking the full load of that corporate decision. If it flops, the narrative will be so harsh.
The flip side is that some vocal Destiny 2 players are holding a completely opposite view and let’s just say they are not too pleased. The consensus is that the PvP resources of Destiny 2 were trimmed for Marathon’s development and now PvP of the former is in very bad shape. Ibetonme bluntly asserted: “1 reason many want Marathon to fail is because they felt Bungie gutted Destiny 2’s pvp to send devs to work on Marathon.” Thus, for those players, a successful Marathon may feel like a betrayal, whereas a failed one would be some sort of bitter justice. What a terrible no-win scenario for the developers!
But, fear not! A small section is still very excited about it. User chicotejp foretold, “Can’t wait!! Day one!!” while Crush, just posted a fire emoji and said “I will be there no matter what.” Hence, there is interest but it is all under a heap of doubt. Some players even consider the broader picture, idlikebittecoo proposed, “A short live action series based in this world would go bonkers. Easily as much potential as Fallout if done right.” The world seems cool. It’s just the game part that concerns people.
Gameplay concept also faces a lot of skepticism. Chicken Airline made a comparison that might seem a bit extreme, called it a multi niche combo: “Extraction shooters are niche, @SplatoonJP is niche, so combining the two … @MarathonTheGame is just suicidal …” Wait, Splatoon? That’s a new one. But the main idea is that the game is being seen as a risky genre mix in a market that’s already overflowing. User Remipop3 straightforwardly asked, “Is multiplayer fatigue a thing yet?” and honestly, that’s a valid question considering the competition from platforms like Xbox.
