Marathon Release Date Could Slip Even Further After Bungie Layoffs

Highlights

Bungie’s future is uncertain due to recent layoffs, as is the release of its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon.
According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, the sentiment surrounding Marathon at Bungie is “not great,” with concerns about hitting planned deadlines.
Schreier also claims he hasn’t spoken to anyone that seems excited to be working on Marathon, as it feels like there’s a concenring lack of enthusiam among Bungie fans and the studio itself.

It’s been a rough year for the folks at Bungie, as two rounds of mass layoffs have gutted the studio to the point where development on its currently announced titles has shifted quite dramatically. It’s been made to shelve interesting projects, its unannounced titles have been taken from it and moved to other PlayStation studios, and the future of Destiny 2 is looking pretty shaky despite the critical success of The Final Shape.

Everything is up in the air at the moment, including Marathon, Bungie’s extraction shooter that was announced back in 2023. We still don’t know that much about the title, which isn’t that surprising given the turmoil at Bungie right now, but it was expected to launch at some point in 2025. However, now that date is looking pretty shaky, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier.

In a new video by SkillUp, it’s claimed that the sentiment around Marathon at Bungie is “not great” at the moment, as Schreier claims there are many developers at the studio that are “pessimistic” about the title hitting its planned deadline. Of course, we don’t know exactly what Bungie’s current deadline is, but it could spell trouble if it’s towards the end of next year.

“There’s a reason it was planned for this year and slipped a whole year, and people that I’ve talked to are a little pessimistic about it even hitting its current planned deadline, but we’ll see,” says Schreier. “I don’t know exactly when that is, sometime in 2025, I’m not sure. Yeah, I mean the sentiment I’ve heard is not great around it, at least as of a few months ago.”

Bungie Doesn’t Seem To Be Enthusiastic About Marathon

Schreier is then asked whether he’s spoken to anyone at Bungie that is excited to be working on Marathon, and it doesn’t seem like he has. He also brings up the point that the team behind Marathon has undergone a fairly big shake-up in the leadership department, with several high-profile-departments since the game’s announcement, so it’s difficult to gauge right now what Bungie’s overall feeling about Marathon is at this time.

Either way, it’s not a great sign for a game that doesn’t seem to have much excitement built up around it in general. It’s a pretty big departure from what Bungie’s core audience is used to, so it’s a game that’s already facing an uphill battle. Add to that the recent struggles of Concord, a fellow first-party PlayStation shooter that looks unlikely to build the audience it needs before launch later this month, and Marathon’s prospects aren’t looking great.