Bungie's Marathon: A Glimpse Revealed, More Teased

Remember Marathon? It's the next big project from Destiny developer Bungie, and it looks like we're finally on the cusp of seeing more of it.

Marathon is an exciting PvP-focused extraction shooter set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV. Players take on the roles of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries engineered to endure the planet's harsh conditions, as they explore the remnants of a lost colony on Tau Ceti's surface.

It's been a while since we last heard about Marathon. In October, Bungie shared a detailed development update video, giving us a glimpse into the game's mechanics. However, they emphasized that the game was still in its early stages. At that time, player character models were still being refined, and enemy models were in their initial phases.

Now, half a year later, it seems Bungie is ready to pull back the curtain further. A recent tweet from the official Marathon account showcased a cryptic image accompanied by garbled signal noise. Fans have spotted ASCII art of footage from the debut Marathon trailer within the image. Given Bungie's reputation for mysterious teasers, hidden clues, and Easter eggs, there's likely much more to uncover, and the community is already diving in to decipher it all.

This latest update signals that Marathon is finally moving forward, despite facing a challenging development period.

pic.twitter.com/6NBgIdRVK2

— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) April 4, 2025

Marathon was unveiled in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, embracing themes of "mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness." However, Bungie has encountered numerous controversies in recent years, including the layoff of 220 staff members in July 2024, which represented 17% of its workforce. This move was criticized even by industry peers.

This followed another round of layoffs less than a year earlier, where 100 employees were let go, leading to what staff described to IGN as a "soul-crushing" atmosphere at the studio.

Further turmoil arose when a report surfaced weeks after the 220 job cuts, alleging that former Marathon director Chris Barrett was fired following an internal misconduct investigation at Bungie. Barrett later filed a lawsuit against Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie for over $200 million.

Amid these challenges, Sony is reevaluating its focus on live-service games. In November 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki announced that the company would launch only six of the planned 12 live service games by March 2026, marking a strategic shift that led to the cancellation of The Last of Us multiplayer game.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other Sony live service games faced cancellations or disastrous launches.

Sony's Concord, for instance, turned out to be one of the biggest video game disasters in PlayStation history, lasting only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player numbers. Sony ultimately decided to terminate the game and shut down its developer.

Additionally, earlier this year, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced live service games, one a God of War title being developed by Bluepoint, and the other at Days Gone developer Bend.

Are you excited for Marathon?