Bungie's game director on Marathon, Joe Ziegler, has fronted a camera, offering a nearly 10-minute development update on the eagerly anticipated PS5 extraction shooter. In addition, some new images are shown but no gameplay, with the promise of "a lot more" to come, including playtests, in 2025.
Gematsu has the full transcript if you read at an advanced level, but if you'd just prefer the highlights, Zeigler reveals the following factoids. Marathon is Bungie's take on the extraction shooter subgenre, and "the goal of every session is to get out alive, and, along the way, you’re going to be completing quests, you’re going to be finding loot", described as an "intense survival experience". Equippable gear will change your character's stats, which puts us in mind of Destiny, and there will be a ton of loot and weapons to track down. As "Runners", players can use a small subset of abilities on top of those provided by equipped gear.
For the last couple of years, Bungie has been making "a lot of aggressive changes," iterating heavily and working with players and content creators. Ziegler says that the game is coming along in some ways and taking a little longer in others. For example, the game's environments are "starting to come together in a really, really beautiful way," but some of its character models are "not fully there yet."
Marathon does not have a release date, but keep an eye out for expanded playtests coming in 2025, which Ziegler confirms will expand to PSN. Are you looking forward to Marathon, whenever it does arrive? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 25
Hopefully Sony give Bungie and they’re other live service developers the time to try to make the best game possible.
Personally the fact that the Director makes so much emphasis in the playtesting process and its expansion in 2025 tells me the game still will take some time and that is good news.
Marathon was supposed to release this year before Bungie collapse so it sounds like Sony isn't rushing it and that is the best they can do with Bungie right now. Absorb as much employees as possible, keep them working in the project, let the development take its time for the best result possible.
I know a Sony studio that has a whole shed-load of character models just waiting to be picked up... for a song.
"the goal of every session is to get out alive, and, along the way, you’re going to be completing quests, you’re going to be finding loot"
Just get out alive and collect loot?
Well, i guess this is why looter shooter never be my cup of tea. I tried Destiny for a couple of hours and i found the core gameplay loop isn't interesting. Then i tried Borderlands, The Division, and Warframe and i felt the same.
I can only say good luck to Bungie because they need this game to success. If not, daddy Sony will belt their ass again or worst deleted them from the family card lol.
Apex is that you?
I wish less Sony studios were working on live service games. If more Chinese gamers bought a PS in the future and expressed interest in these types of games. Then sure a variety of live service would be good for such a large player base. However I think in the west the live service market is so saturated right now. Who does Sony think will be playing their multiple live service games? As people usually stay on one for a while to include the established ones. I haven’t been a fan of Bungie since Halo Reach which was an excellent title for those whom didn’t play it.
Well, it sounds like it’s not coming soon.
We may as well forget about it because it’s too far out to care about.
"working with players and content creators."
I'm betting that didn't go over well on the Destiny forums. While I haven't been on there since just after Final Shape launched, one of the biggest and most consistent complaints was always that Bungie caters to the hardcore "no-life" content creators that have all day to play and hone their skills, while average-joe ends up becoming proverbial cannon-fodder for their streams.
Sony thinks they are Apple so hard now that they're hitching their wagon to Marathon.
It’s not just a live service, it’s an extraction shooter. Have they not looked at the fact that Battlefield and COD’s takes on that genre absolutely tanked and they came with a pre-existing player base and (mostly) working gameplay?
@Vaako007 live service ain’t saturated at all , it’s just over infested with shooters
It would be a shame for Naughty dog to be brought in to consult on the game/service and cancel it.
@nomither6 I agree. There are plenty of other genres but the looter shooter seems to make up the majority of them. I love path of exile and warframe but I've gotten a bit fed up of the shooters. Warzone was brilliant when it first launched but they have ruined it and I just can't get back into it.
I really love the visuals... but don't have much interest in the game itself as a GaaS or an extraction shooter.
Gimme a campaign than I can solo or co-op and I'm in and might then try the live service, but if that's all you got I'll just admire it from afar.
I'll wait until I see gameplay to fully judge if it's something I'd be interested in or not. I've not really tried an extraction shooter yet. I gotta say though, based off the description it sounds kind of...well boring. Hopefully some gameplay will change my mind.
The original Marathon games were interesting scifi stories. I have no interest in this new version of Marathon.
Honestly so much depends on the trophy list as to whether or not I’ll give it a try, or avoid it like the plague. I remember Destiny 1 had that awful ‘Beat a raid without anyone in your fireteam dying’ trophy. That trophy alone is the reason I never even touched Destiny 2, fear they might add something like it. I would never pick up another game that put the onus of whether or not I get a trophy on the skill of multiple other people. If they shoehorn something like that into Marathon, count me out.
@Balaam_ Thats a shame that you didn’t get to Destiny 2 because of that bud, I myself was sceptical about the No Death trophy on the first game too, but honestly, finding literal random people on Destiny that became good friends to this day and completing all the Raids without deaths made for incredible gaming memories. And when Bungie released Crotas End, more and more people were able to complete the trophies as that Raid was way easier than Vault of Glass!
@AndyKazama Precisely! With the visuals provided so far, along with the premise of the game it comes across as another generic looter shooter.
Bring back the original Marathon and then we will talk...
Can't we just skip this to the part where they shut down servers?
@nessisonett as someone that played DMZ (CoDs take on extraction shooters), I can say it didn't tank. It still has a healthy player base even today. The reason it stopped being as large as it was is because when the newer CoD launched, Activision cut off support, which froze the game in place - no more updates, no balance patches, no mission resets.
@ZeroSum That’s literally the definition of tanking. Having support cut within a year of release. If it was that much of a success then it would have been kept around, same way Zombies keeps being brought back, same way Warzone has become its own thing.
@nessisonett tanking implies it died on it's own merits a la Concord. There are 3 major teams that work on CoD games, each bringing something different to the games they develop.
Treyarch control Zombies and include it in their games, which is why it has stuck around in the Black Ops games. DMZ is unique to Infinity Ward, so Treyarch and Sledgehammer won't continue it. Instead, Sledgehammer tried their own take, working in conjunction with Treyarch in making DMZombies.
Popular speculation and rumor amongst the fans is that when Infinity Ward next get to develop a CoD (CoD 2026), they'll bring DMZ back as it's their exclusive mode.
After Concord's trainwreck im sure they won't be showing anything until the very last minute.
It's all pretty vague still. I'm not hopeful considering the sad state of Destiny 2. Time will tell I guess.
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