Bungie's Marathon Launching September 23, Gets New Gameplay Trailer

[GFreeman]

Today, Bungie, the creators of Halo and Destiny, revealed gameplay of their upcoming team-based extraction shooter Marathon. As part of the live Marathon Gameplay Reveal Showcase, Bungie developers premiered Alpha gameplay of the tactical and fast-paced FPS, explored the mysterious and cutthroat world of Tau Ceti IV, and discussed how to join the Marathon Closed Alpha Test.

In addition, Bungie announced Marathon will release on September 23, 2025 on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with full cross play and cross save. In the meantime, players can join the Marathon community Discord, where they can sign up for a chance to be one of the first to playtest Marathon. The Bungie team will be actively engaging in Discord, holding live Q&As, and evolving the game based on player feedback for launch and beyond.



The World of Marathon
In Marathon, players inhabit a Runner, a cybernetic mercenary scouring the remains of a lost colony of Tau Ceti IV for fortune and power. Players team up in crews of three as they battle rival Runner teams and hostile security forces for weapons and upgrades. Survive and everything they've scavenged is theirs to keep for future runs on Tau Ceti IV—or if they're brave enough, a journey to the derelict Marathon ship that hangs above.

Tau Ceti IV
Welcome to Tau Ceti IV, a lost colony whose inhabitants disappeared without a trace. Rival factions compete for the resources left behind, hiring Runners who've given up their human form for biosynthetic shells. Death is but a hurdle in this cutthroat competition where power, fortune, and answers to Tau Ceti IV's mysteries hang in the balance.

Become a Runner
Choose from a roster of cybernetic mercenaries with unique abilities. Players customize their Runner's playstyle with the weapons, implants, and equipment they collect on their runs. Strategize, execute, and become Tau Ceti's most feared mercenary.

A High-Stakes Journey to Grow in Power
Bungie's best-in-class FPS gunplay sets the stage for a unique mix of tactical and fast-paced action, where every run is a tense competition for a big score. End game challenges, ranked play, seasonal storytelling, community events, and more await in Season 1.

Marathon | Reveal Cinematic Short
While Marathon gameplay was the focus of the Showcase, Bungie surprised audiences by closing out the event with the first, original cinematic short set in the Marathon universe, displaying the team's commitment to rich storytelling both in and out of the game. This cinematic short was written and directed by the award-winning director Alberto Mielgo and his animation studio pinkman.tv.

"When I first read about Marathon's universe and characters, I found everything strangely poetic and mysterious," said Alberto Mielgo. "The concepts of futility and endurance immediately came to mind, and I felt an urgent need to write about it. Seeing the game team's super bold and vibrant artwork created an instant connection. It's all deeply inspiring and thought-provoking."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Onasi]

Gameplay-wise it doesn’t really feel like Marathon. Neither it does so visually. Hopefully there would be some mind-breaking lore, but considering Bungies writing quality over the past decade I would absolutely not hold my breath.

 

[cinemaware]

All I really want from Bungie is Myth 3 or SP FPS with AI as revolutionary as in the original Halo.

 

[Vladiczech]

Probably for Fortnite fans (childrent) who prefer (or are forced to prefer) cartoon/plastic visuals.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Looks like some unity engine asset flip

 

[TheDeeGee]

Looks DOA.

 

[unhealthy]

I guess I'm not the only who thinks the "magic" is kind of gone in the gameplay videos they showed now compared to the teaser trailer. Looks more flat, I was hoping for some more lights and RTX goodness with all those colours.

 

[Gucky]

My first thought: The Cinematic looks Love, Death and Robots-ish.
My second thought on Gameplay: Concord 2.0...

 

[Hakker]

How unoriginal just another lootbox shooter ready to take everyones money with gambling. The only thing this game wants to do is take peoples money especially from kids.

 

[happytohear]

The CGI trailer was visually interesting and brutal, showed their fragile printed bodies and artificial blood etc. The gameplay took away all this grit for a, highly probable, wide target group with teen ratings.
Still, should this not be F2P, it's gonna be rough, I presume. The market is just not that easy on extraction shooters anymore. People have their go-to titles already.

 

[thomasjpr]

Gameplay-wise it doesn’t really feel like Marathon. Neither it does so visually. Hopefully there would be some mind-breaking lore, but considering Bungies writing quality over the past decade I would absolutely not hold my breath.

Their IP-necrophilia they are practicing here is just kind of weird. They use the Marathon name and the original logo, but I'm just not seeing any other connections to a video game that nobody other than Mac gamers have thought about in 25 years. None of the lore is present. Halo had more concrete connections to the Marathon universe than this new game seems to possess.

 

[Onasi]

@thomasjpr
Halo WAS supposed to be a sequel of sorts to Marathon early in development, though that obviously didn’t play out. I remember people speculating more than a decade ago that Destiny would be one also based on the title and the parting words from Durandal in Infinity, though that also wasn’t the case. What they are doing here is just… odd. Marathon isn’t a super strong brand, yeah, and naming a new extraction shooter of all things as a part of the series (or a reboot?) just seems weird.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Hmm, I guess it comes down to play style and if it’s actually fun. Visually it’s a bit abstract, but maybe that will make it playable on a wide range of hardware. That can be good considering how GPU prices and supply are still not very good.

However, I can play Destiny 2 on an RX 480 at 1440p, and that game looks better than Marathon, IMO.

 

[Scattergrunt]

If the game is fun gameplay wise, I'll try it out. But I would steer hardcore marathon fans away. This game clearly has nothing to do with the original games, and is only using the name & took 'inspiration' from it.

I don't have a problem with these types of shooters if they're done relatively well.. its just most aren't. I didn't enjoy destiny 2, despite the fact it turned around eventually after launch (only mildly though), so I'm not too excited for this new 'marathon' game (marathon in name only, to be honest)

Their IP-necrophilia they are practicing here is just kind of weird. They use the Marathon name and the original logo, but I'm just not seeing any other connections to a video game that nobody other than Mac gamers have thought about in 25 years. None of the lore is present. Halo had more concrete connections to the Marathon universe than this new game seems to possess.

IP-necrophilia is unfortunately a pretty common practice nowadays, big corporations do it all the time to prevent a IP from being lost (or something like that.) I'm sure it will probably have SOME sort of connection to the originals maybe, but I don't think anyone who loves the original marathon should play this game unless they like the new aspects & can accept that the game just.. is marathon in name only. Speaking from experience w/ Halo here, when playing other halos VS halo 5.

 

[Arkz]

I don't think digging up the Marathon name is gonna save this game the way they think it is.

 

[MCJAxolotl7]

i swear, if this is another DOA shooter, I will be very annoyed/dissapointed.

 

[TechLurker]

This is going to be DOA like Concord was. Full-priced game (even if they insist it won't be "full-priced") that isn't even fully complete (they plan to add in the finishing touches after launch), has paid Battlepasses (which supposedly will be the old FOMO style, rather than the more generous buy and unlock at your convenience), bland, futurepunk/cyberpunk designs that look like tweaked store art assets, and not even the Marathon successor that was originally promised by the former devs, before it got rebooted into what it is now.

Frankly, I'll give it a month before it crashes, since the looter-shooter market is saturated with plenty of free or cheaper options, and the current Bungie devs are pretty incompetent given their handling of Destiny 2 after the split with Activision.

 

[unhealthy]

This is going to be DOA like Concord was. Full-priced game (even if they insist it won't be "full-priced") that isn't even fully complete (they plan to add in the finishing touches after launch), has paid Battlepasses (which supposedly will be the old FOMO style, rather than the more generous buy and unlock at your convenience), bland, futurepunk/cyberpunk designs that look like tweaked store art assets, and not even the Marathon successor that was originally promised by the former devs, before it got rebooted into what it is now.

Frankly, I'll give it a month before it crashes, since the looter-shooter market is saturated with plenty of free or cheaper options, and the current Bungie devs are pretty incompetent given their handling of Destiny 2 after the split with Activision.

Bungos track record with monetization is one of the worst in the industry, I have little to no trust they will be able to handle unlocks in satisfying way like in olden Halo days. Just quick glance at Destiny 2 Steam page gives me the chills. This is without the in-game battle pass and cosmetic store items too.