Destiny and original Halo developers Bungie is set to revive its legacy first-person shooter franchise Marathon as a new three-player co-op extraction shooter.
Most people would associate the name Bungie with its immensely popular first-person shooter Destiny 2. But, rumors first reported by Insider Gaming reveal Bungie has some new projects coming our way in the near future that isn’t centered around the Destiny universe.
The Marathon trilogy was a collective of games released throughout the ’90s, first released in 1994 by Bungie for the Classic Mac iOS. It was a relative success for Bungie, who was able to sell approximately 200,000 copies of the first entry.
Since then, no other Marathon games have been released throughout the 21st century. Bungie developed the now iconic Halo franchise, and then in the 2010s and 2020s has placed their focus on the popular shooter Destiny. Bungie’s rumored plans to revive the Marathon series would be the first time in over a decade the Washington-based company has developed a non-Destiny title.
The report falls in line with a statement Bungie CEO Pete Parsons made to IGN in 2019; he told them the company would release at least one non-Destiny title by 2025.
“So, by 2025 we have a pretty specific path to make sure we transform Destiny and that we have other franchises within the marketplace,” Parsons said. “We need to build our publishing group, but part of our vision is also to become a multi-franchise entertainment company.”
Marathon takes place on a planet with sparse human life. There, the humans that are left use cyborgs known as “Runners” to gather loot in order to survive.
According to the initial piece by Insider, the new Marathon game is currently in a pre-alpha state, though, the game could be announced in the near future. The initial report revealed the gameplay featured in Marathon will be similar to the rising extraction shooter genre made popular by Russian-developed Escape from Tarkov.
Players will be able to select specific missions, and their own loadout, drop into a select part of the map, and hunt for loot. All of this is done while trying to survive against opponents trying to take you down and make you lose your loot.
As of right now, there is no word on when everything will be announced, though, it is certain fans of the Marathon series should be excited about Bungie’s possible shift to non-Destiny titles in the future.
For now, Bungie fans can check out our section dedicated to Destiny 2.
