As per the game's showcase, Marathon has nailed down a release date on PS5. Bungie's latest shooter arrives on the 23rd September, kickstarting what will no doubt be a busy last few months of the year.
The developer has also spilled the beans on how Marathon actually plays. As was previously confirmed, this is a squad-based extraction shooter. You drop into a map, locate the loot, and try to leave in one piece while other players track you down.
There are set characters with unique abilities, and you can customise their style of play to suit your own needs. Weapons have their own upgrade trees, too, so you're incentivised to grab as many resources as you can and carry that progress through multiple matches.
For what it's worth, the gunplay itself looks very Destiny 2 to us.
You can check out the gameplay trailer for an overview of what Marathon's about:
If you want to give Marathon a shot well before its launch, you can sign up for the closed alpha test right now, via the official Discord. The alpha begins in just over a week, on the 23rd April.
Of course, the big question here is whether there's space in the market for Marathon to begin with. The competition is incredibly fierce when it comes to live service, multiplayer shooters these days, and while we're sure that Bungie's name will add weight to Marathon's cause, it'll still have to catch on if it's to stand a chance.
What do you make of Marathon? Take careful aim in the comments section below.
Comments 104
I really like the art style! Will definitely be playing this (when I have the time 😋)!
Edit: does anyone know the price?
I’m sure it’ll be very good for what its attempting to be but… I’m not sure that there are the number of gamers out there that actually want this (extraction shooter), that would be required for the game to thrive.
@graymamba What about Helldivers 2? That is squad based right? And Escape from Tarkov (not squad based but extraction)
Looks great. I’ll be there
Looks great, but not my cup of tea. Best of luck to Bungie, though!
And so it starts the third chapter in the book of how Sony saved Bungie.
Chapter 1: Acquiring them. Employees said that when the bubble popped if it wasn't because they were already part of Sony Bungie would have been done.
Chapter 2: Relocating 50% of the people Bungie fired to other positions in SIE, included the creation of a new PS studio. Also absorbing a department that wasn't fired liberating some economical pressure from Bungie in the process.
Chapter 3: Marathon. From how they had patience for it to all the marketing you can expect from the PlayStation ecosystem.
Every time I see the name “Marathon” it makes me wish they’d resurrect the actual original Marathon games. Maybe while they flog this thing, they can do that…
Since this is one of PlayStation's biggest live service gambles, I'm much more interested in seeing how the game does financially than actually playing it. I'm sure this will do fine in the short term on Bungie's name and fanbase alone, but this thing's long-term success is a huge mystery to me.
My view is an amalgamation of others:
"Really like the art style".
"Not my cup of tea".
The grindy online shooter space is incredibly competitive. It's at market saturation point, so any player count this game achieves, will have to be at the expense of an existing grindy online shooter title.
I don't think the Bungie name is enough to stop it falling flat on its face (I think Destiny is the brand with the value), although failure is not guaranteed. Rather it's just a roll of the dice as to whether it makes it or not.
As great as it is to finally have a new extraction shooter (only great multiplayer mode, almost non existent), it's still so sad to see this inszead of a Factions 2. Scifi setting like that is just so boring, plus 1st person and typical bad Bungie gameplay.
An extraction multiplayer in a "realistic" setting of TLoU and in 3rd person and incredible gameplay of tlou2... man...
@graymamba the destiny masses will be all over this. Bungie are right up there with the gun play and it looks slick as hell. I'll be joining the multitude day one as this looks brilliant.
@Frmknst agree, will never understand how they got to a point where it was better to cancel. It already had a great online multiplayer with the first game..
Here they come..the naysayers are on their way..
I love the aesthetics and Bunjie are top class when it comes to gunplay and supporting a game post release so I'm definitely looking forward to giving this a play. This could end up being being a massive W for Sony.
@Sanquine aye but with Helldivers 2 it’s purely pve… this looks to have a hefty part of its format as pvp. I think that might well dilute the number of players willing to dedicate the amount of hours this’ll need to succeed. I’m not saying it will fail… I’m saying I have my doubts.
There is no space in the market unfortunately. This is going to tank.
@graymamba Understood I was not discussing your view that there are not enough players. Only that there are examples of games that are successful (escape from tarkov is niche I know).
I like the art style but have absolutely no interest in playing it.
Really trying to muster up enthusiasm — I like Bungie, I like Marathon, I like the art direction — but it just looks like another generic online shooter. I'm just not seeing anything about it that stands out. I'm not big on Helldivers II, but gameplay of it looks infinitely more interesting. I don't care much about From Software, but am way more interested in seeing more of The Duskblood than this.
I'm not ready to call this a failure. But all the people citing Bungie's pedigree or Destiny's fanbase are really underselling the struggles this game is going to face. The hardcore gaming public doesn't care much about Bungie anymore, and the general audience that plays Destiny would probably rather keep playing Destiny (or play another game from another developer that scratches that itch, as it seems they're actually the MOST critical of Bungie). If this game's not f2p, I don't see it getting any momentum in the first place.
It genuinely looks great, but it won't be for me unfortunately.
@dskatter
100% you’ve never played the original Marathon games in your life.
@ChrisDeku I did. Don't know if I'd ever play them again though. Sometimes its better just to leave some things to nostalgia.
@ChrisDeku “100% you’ve never played the original Marathon games in your life.”
I not only played them all in college on my trusty Power Macintosh 7100/66, I also made a couple of single player maps and one of them was included on the Marathon Trilogy box set they released.
So…nice try there, bud. 100% sure you’re dead wrong. The number of hours I spent playing it on the campus network with other like-minded folks was ridiculous.
But please, do tell me what other games I’ve never played in my life. I’m amused by this.
Live action-like cinematic short looks really good compared to the other sections shown for me.
The content shown is very limited, I'm hoping to see more exotic locales and cats.
It will probably be enough to hold my interest for a couple of months until R* drops👌
I wasn't sold on the idea but after watching the trailer I can now say that this game really isn't my cup of tea.
@ChrisDeku I wouldn't say that undermines their thoughts, even if they haven't. I've never played PaRappa, but am still aware of the series, am fond of it, and would be interested in a new entry.
But then, at the same time, what's so hard to believe about someone expressing interest in Marathon having actually played Marathon? Plenty of modern gamers were playing computer games in the 90s, one entry was released on Xbox Live Arcade, and I think the whole series was recently released for free on Steam. That's plenty opportunity for someone to have played it.
@dskatter Should've called it Snickers.
The cinematic at the end looked so much more exciting than the actual gameplay. In saying that, I thought the gameplay itself looked okay. I'd rather still play Hunt: Showdown for my extraction shooter fix though.
If this isn't free to play, I doubt I'll play it.
@RoomWithaMoose Pfft, surely I’ve never played the game series I’ve claimed to play. I mean, obviously they know me better than I know myself somehow!
I like the aesthetics and the brave use of colour but it's not for me.
Yes... no, that won't work. Concord may be dead, but the legacy lives on.
@dskatter I bet you never played E.T. on the atari 2600...
@MrPeanutbutterz That's the comment I was waiting for.
@Northern_munkey Hilariously, you would lose this bet! My grandparents had a copy of it and I played it quite a bit along with Adventure and (of all things) a game that was officially licensed by the band Journey!
The joys of having grandparents who invested money in an Atari 2600 for their grandkids in the early 80s.
@Northern_munkey aye there’ll be a lot there day one but one swallow doesn’t a summer make, if you get me. We’ll see, I hope it does well.
@dskatter fair enough..it was a long shot.
@dskatter Also, my man's over here with an Evangelion profile pic. If that doesn't say 90s alt-cul computer gamer, I don't know what does.
This art style makes it look like a cheap shovelware F2P shooter. Not impressed.
If you watch the alpha test video it paints a much better picture of the gameplay. Looks fast and snappy. I actually think this'll be really good.
@Northern_munkey I respect the attempt!
That said, I’d be willing to give this game a shot for zero dollars. Just wish they’d chosen a different name, feels kinda icky dredging up a previous game name that has very little in common with what this is beyond having network capable multiplayer functionality.
@RoomWithAMoose Yer darn right!
@dskatter Err… bet you’ve never played Flimbos Quest on the C64?
The art style of this game looks like ***** honestly. Did not like it one bit.
Back on topic I think marathon looks cool, art style and shooting mechanics are on point 👌🏻
@LordFunkalot You win this one! I had a VIC 20 as a kid but didn’t have that game!
Looks crap, looks like it played like crap, yet more live service crap. What a crap generation this is for consoles:
Nintendo: here’s £76 games for you..
Microsoft: We are going to put all our games onto other platforms, no point buying our console.
Sony: Here is a live service game, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another and another, and another… oh single player games? Yeah we don’t really want to do those anymore.
It’s no wonder PC gaming is becoming more and more popular.
Can't wait to read the single player fanatics hating on it instead of not saying anything and move on
@Nepp67 I think it looks pretty good. But it's missing all the aesthetic charm of OG Marathon. That's not to say it's worse — in my opinion, at least. But when they first announced this, I imagined a modern shooter with a retro sci fi horror vibe, very alike the recent System Shock remake. Instead we got some bold, vibrant sci fi colors. Still nice, but not at all what I was hoping for
@Hi569 You mean you can’t wait for the millions of people who bought into Sony and made them successful and who they are today because of the ‘exclusive single player’ games they made, just shut up about all the endless live service online multiplayer player crap they now produce and move on…
@dskatter It was the most random game I could think of from my childhood lol, it came on a cart pack in with a terrible soccer game and a circus game. It was awful but I loved it at the time.
I’m not one for live service but I’ve put over 220 hrs into helldivers so will definitely be open to giving this a go come September. Love the minimalist/clean art style and design, IMO looks really cool
Ive no idea what the hell an extraction shooter is. It's a shame that to rely on decent single player fps games we have to rely on Nightdive to bring back some old examples of the genre. Still waiting on Mullet Madjack to come out since playstation are always last for everything.
@S1ayeR74 so well stated
"You mean you can’t wait for the millions of people who bought into Sony and made them successful and who they are today because of the ‘exclusive single player’ games they made, just shut up about all the endless live service online multiplayer player crap they now produce and move on… "
@S1ayeR74 what games have sony made live service wise can only think of concord and helldivers 2 tbh that I know of
The Art style is great, the music is great, the hints of story / lore behind it are great, but all of it seems wasted on just a pvp extraction shooter.
If they ever bring out anything PVE / Single player mode i'd be there.
If you told me this is Concord 2 I’d believe it lmao
I'll give it a try because it's a Bungie shooter backed by Sony and, this is more personal preference, I'm really digging the art direction.
Not my type of game but this seems different and interesting enough to at least stand out.
@PaperAlien in the stream they said there is a PVE mode with no other players but loot is less valuable. There are also PVE enemies on the map during pvp
The setting/theme seems cool but seeing the kinda slow gameplay as the trailer possibly perceives it as along with seeing a halo looking, grenade throwing animation I don't think I could be dealing with that type of floaty gameplay these days.
@RoomWithaMoose I've honestly never heard of the original Marathon games and definitely need to see how those play.
@Nepp67 Like Doom, but slower and more horror-focused. If you have Steam, I think they're all on there for free.
@Jrs1 Enter the map, grab special item, head towards an extraction point to leave is the gameplay loop of a mp extraction shooter.
@IOI I respect your right to your opinion, but I gotta be honest—this feels a bit disingenuous. Marathon and Concord are going for very different tones and gameplay styles. Visually and mechanically, they’re not really comparable beyond the fact that they’re both sci-fi shooters. But hey, you’re entitled to your take.
@RoomWithaMoose Ah you're right all three are free, alright I'll give it a shot thanks!
Bearing in mind this is multi platform, I think it could do well. The art style is gorgeous too. I don't really play pvp shooters, but it looks fun . Hope it does well for them
@Nepp67 Ah right ok, cheers 👍
I think it looks cool.
I'll wait for the re-release in a few years when it's called Snickers.
Looks like if Destiny and Fortnite had a baby starring Marilyn Manson, lol. I'm good.
I like the colours. Other than that there's nothing about this that is even tangentially interesting to me. Massive shrug.
Bungie is making a FPS, I love their diversity...........
Doesn't appear to be anything unique about it at all. Bungie do excellent gunplay so I'm sure that will be top class as per usual and from a design aspect it looks kind of flashy and appealing but is that enough for it to succeed?
If this bombed, I wouldn't be remotely surprised. Is there a market for this? What's it doing that f2p titles aren't? I'd be very nervous if I was a bungie exec. They need to get the marketing spot on for this. I want to see bungie do well so hope it's a success but I'll be merely a passing interested party, no interest in playing this. They'd have to give it to me on ps+ to get me to even try it.
Interesting (and even unique?) art style, but certainly not for me, as I have no interest in multiplayer games. That said, I hope that they make good use of early feedback and that it doesn't fail, for Sony and Bungie's sakes.
Could literally be the best looking game ever, I’m not giving this studio a dime.
I'd reccomend giving this a watch, goes into more detail of the systems and gameplay than what was shown.
https://youtu.be/J4xeaU6DnSk?si=7aSXlHfrcfXNIS9Y
@dskatter I bet you never played gamma attack on the atari 2600.
@graymamba there likely would be enough players interested to make the game worth it. With CoD Warzone a few years back, Infinity Ward added the DMZ extraction mode that became of an unexpected hit, but when the next CoD rolled out a year later, Activision ordered support for DMZ to stop. The mode is still played by a dedicated playerbase today, but a lot of the players left due to hacking and the lack of support, so I'm sure a bunch of us that loved DMZ will give this a go.
Damn, I didn't realise this was an online shooter. I don't typically play FPS but the artstyle of this got my attention and I was interested in getting it until I read this article.
I really like all the colours & artstyle although i'm not that interested with the gameplay since i never a fan of extraction shooter. Not to mention it doesn't have single player campaign. So big chance i'm gonna skip this.
Anyway. I wonder if Sony & Bungie can provide constant content updates and a solid competitive scene as well. If they want the game to success, i think they need to make sure they have a good roadmap and tournaments offline / online to keep players playing the game. R6 Siege and Apex Legends for example has a big e-sport scene which is one of the reason why both games are still quite popular after years in the market.
A lot of commenters on this site don’t really play shooters so it’s not really the target audience, BUT Marathon will have to compete against a lot of free to play options. It’ll be interesting for sure.
I really do like the design around this game, and great to see Marathon making a comeback. I just wish Bungie would focus on also giving us a singleplayer story like their previous games before Destiny.
@Northern_munkey Nope, but I did play Star Raiders and Circus Atari!
The movement and shooting mechanics look really satisfying. Not only that, the audio is top notch. Really looking forward to this!
@Hi569 Er , this entire article is about one???....
This is a good article about them:
http://thegamepost.com/all-sony-playstation-live-service-games-full-list/
And here https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/01/lists-of-sonyrs-cancelled-live-service-ps5-games-paint-a-worrying-picture
And here https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/02/rumour-one-of-sonys-last-ps5-live-service-games-fairgames-out-in-2026
And remember every time a live service game is made it's taking resources from other projects even if they end up being cancelled.
Dead on arrival, what a waste of an amazing art style
The art style looks okay at least, not as amazing as the trailer from one year ago it seems, I don't play multiplayer games so I didn't care for this.
I know marathon though, wish bungie make single player games with multiplayer like the original marathon. I just played beyond citadel, a pc indie game inspired by marathon and man the shooting feels really great, if marathon as good as this game I wish at least bungie make marathon remaster with nightdive studio.
What a GREAT PS4 release game.
It’s getting mostly bad takes on most forums, but i think it looks decent. Not saying i will play it a ton like i do other shooters. But i think it looks better than some of the dislikes it seems to be getting.
@dskatter Jesus I remember both of those games so well as if it was only yesterday..gamma attack is one of the rarest games in existence.
I played The Division single player and sometimes made a failed incursion of two into the PvEvP Dark Zones. It is tough as nails, you compete with people whose fun time is to make you have a bad time. I was tricked into getting the abysmal The Division 2. Crap game.
Destiny 1, the first years, I ABSOLUTELY wrecked with my jump-teleporting, shotgun slidin' hunter in PvP. Hundreds of hours went raiding with strangers that became part of your friend list.
The feeling of dominating the scoreboards are exhilarating, but.....
Destiny 2 came along with a slow start and made me regret spending my money. And the absolute avalanche of paid content made the experience fizzle out.
If Marathon is firmly rooted in strong PvE-content with a great story, I could see myself trying it out. But the online friends list is sort of a museum of yesterday's.
How is this different from Apex? A looter, battle royale? That is free, right?
I play Rainbow Six: Siege sometimes with irl-friends, because it is different and tactical in a way where anyone can contribute.
The art style looks like a cheap mobile game. I wish Bungie luck but it was about as "meh" and uninspiring a reveal as I have ever seen. Generic shooter which costs money in a market dominated by free titles. Is that you Concord 2.0?
The art style is AWESOME. Super slick, great colours and also looks really readable from a gameplay perspective.
I don't play these sort of games though, I don't have the time or interest in live service, but when it eventually comes to PS Plus and I randomly win the lotto and don't need to work then I'll have a look
@ZeroSum look, I hope that my doubts and concerns are proved wrong, both Bungie and Sony really need a win here (Bungie just in general and Sony on a Live Service platform)… but I’m sure they both need it to be considerably more successful than a niche game mode on COD that no longer gets support due to hacking.
It sounds like Bungie has bet the farm on this one and would need it to at least be as successful as the Destiny series (a decade-long cash cow).
Yes, I remembered!!! It looks like when you accidentaly choose EGA instead of VGA in first PC games.
Looks very cool aesthetically speaking, but sadly it just ain't my cup of tea. I've tried other extraction shooters like Escape from Turkov and Hunt: Showdown but I dropped them after a while. They are not bad games, just that this genre isn't to my liking. I do hope things go well for Bungie with this game, at least hope that it doesn't turn out into another Concord mess.
I want to like this, but the fact that PvP is always a part of it and, more importantly, the fact that it sounds like you lose all of your gear if you die makes this likely a pass for me. Will still give it a go for free, but doubt it’s gonna be my next Destiny.
@graymamba I do as well. As a long time Destiny player, I've always enjoyed the shooting mechanics, they usually get that aspect right. My only concern is that the trailer makes it appear to be far more gun-fight-centric, meaning you're always going to be fighting. The best extraction shooters also allow you to avoid other players, to play below the radar as it were. In DMZ, Infinity Ward accommodated this by adding bots, so even if you were avoiding other players you'd still have bots to fight off. This is the only reason I'm on the fence on this one - if it is purely PvP with small maps, it could get too sweaty too fast, driving out the more casual players.
*For clarification, support for DMZ stopped because Activision pivoted Infinity Ward on to their next CoD title, ceasing support for DMZ, at that point hackers were able to work new aimbots etc in unchecked. Hacking became an issue because of the lack of support, but was not the reason for the lack of support.
Love love love the art style, and you know the gunplay will be top tier. But I just don’t think I want to pay an PVP extraction shooter, at all. Nothing about the premise appeals. If it was PvE I’d be all over it.
@Northern_munkey ET on Atari was stupid and a horrible game. I'm sure someone out there liked it but i didn't. After about 10 minutes it was in the next yardsale.
@EfYI I played the first Destiny religiously but couldn't get in to Destiny 2 and I hated when it went free to play.
@BleedingDreamer or the desert...
PvP isn't for me so it's a no I guess. I generally like Bungie stuff, so it's a bit of a bummer
@HonestHick did you take all of your comments down from the article about ps5 price increase?
@Treestar yeah i don’t want to risk getting a ban or suspended account talking politics when i like to come here and talk with a few cool people on here whenever Sony releases something not the last of us remastered remaster, complete edition.
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