Bungie has delayed Marathon from its September 23 release date, opting not to give a new launch date as it focuses on improving the game with updates, new features, and more.
“Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear,” a post from the Marathon Dev Team at Bungie reads. “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.”
Bungie continues, stating the recent Alpha test period created an opportunity for the Marathon dev team to calibrate and focus on what will make the game compelling in the survival FPS genre. It will use additional closed testing (including Alpha participants) to deploy gameplay updates and test new features as they come online over the next few months. Those features include “upping the survival game, doubling down on the Marathon universe, [and] adding more social experiences.”
Regarding upping the survival game, Bungie plans to add “more challenging and engaging AI encounters, more rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events, [and] making combat more tense and strategic.” For doubling down on the Marathon universe, the developer plans to increase visual fidelity, add more narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with, and a darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy. And finally, in terms of adding more social experiences, Bungie wants a better player experience for solos and duos, and to add proximity chat, “so social stories can come to life.”
Bungie says players will hear from it this Fall when it can share its progress alongside the game’s new release date. This indefinite delay follows news last month after an artist online claimed Bungie had stolen her work and used it in Marathon, which Bungie confirmed as an “unauthorized use” of art shortly after.
While waiting to learn the new release date, check out this Marathon gameplay trailer.
Do these improvements for Marathon sound like something you want? Let us know in the comments below!
