Bungie Delays Marathon Indefinitely After Alpha Feedback and Controversy

Bungie has announced that its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon will no longer launch this September. The game has been delayed indefinitely as the studio looks to rework core aspects of the project following feedback from the recent alpha test.

”Thank you not only for your passionate feedback around the Marathon reveal and Alpha playtest, but also for your patience while we took the time to listen closely and chart our next steps.

Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear. 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.

The Alpha test created an opportunity for us to calibrate and focus the game on what will make it uniquely compelling—survival under pressure, mystery and lore around every corner, raid-like endgame challenges, and Bungie’s genre-defining FPS combat. 

We’re using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around. This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.“

Bungie also shared a breakdown of the team’s immediate priorities and what players can expect in the months ahead:

Over the next few months, we’ll continue closed testing (including participants from the Alpha) to deploy gameplay updates and test new features as they come online. 

Some of our immediate focus areas will be:

• Upping the Survival Game

  • More challenging and engaging AI encounters

  • More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events

  • Making combat more tense and strategic

• Doubling down on the Marathon Universe

  • Increased visual fidelity

  • More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with

  • A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy

• Adding more social experiences

  • A better player experience for solo/duos

  • Prox chat, so social stories can come to life

You can expect Bungie to make an update again about the game sometime in Fall, as it looks like the team is aiming to be transparent with their community moving forward.

A delay that could give Marathon a fighting chance

The delay doesn’t come as a surprise, and frankly, it’s more of a relief.

When Bungie first showcased Marathon gameplay, the reaction was skeptical. Despite that, interest spiked heading into the Alpha as hopeful players spammed the Marathon Discord in hopes of securing access. The Alpha test launched, and in an odd move, Bungie lifted the NDA, allowing players and content creators to share footage and impressions publicly.

Unfortunately, that move backfired.

While the gunplay was generally praised, the looter-shooter systems and visual presentation were heavily criticized. Many agreed it felt like an early-stage project rather than a game months away from launch. It clearly wasn't ready.

Soon after, another disaster struck - Bungie was caught plagiarizing as a digital artist by the name 4nt1r34l called out the developer for using the posters he worked in back in 2023 without his permission. These weren’t minor assets either. They resembled key pieces of Marathon’s visual identity. Ironically, the game’s art style was one of the few aspects that had earned praise, which makes the allegations even more damaging.

It’s bad. If they still rushed it with this much baggage and controversy with barely any excitement riding on it, Sony could have seen a repeat of what happened to Concord last year. Neither studio nor publisher can afford a repeat, especially after Sony spent over 3 billion to acquire the studio.

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