Bungie has announced that its upcoming shooter, Marathon, has been delayed from its initial September 23, 2025, release date. No new release date was provided, instead Bungie said that the team would give players an update sometime this fall as to how the game’s development is progressing, and would share a new release date at that time.
The news was announced with a blog post from the Marathon development team, and is the most significant communication the team has had with players since a live stream event where Bungie addressed that a former artist on the Marathon team had used assets from artist Antireal without her permission.
“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,” Bungie began in the blog post.
“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 post continues to say that the team will use the extra time from this delay to “create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around,” and also specifies which areas of the game the studio will be immediately focusing on.
These areas include “upping the survival game,” which Bungie clarifies to mean bringing “more channeling and engaging AI encounters,” as well as “more rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events,” and “making combat more tense and strategic.”
Bungie also adds that it will be “doubling down on the Marathon universe,” which it describes as the team adding “increased visual fidelity,” along with “more narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with,” and “a darker tone that delivers on themes of the original trilogy.”
Lastly, the studio also specifies that it will be working on improving the experience for solo and duo players, as well as adding proximity chat support to the game.
“You’ll hear from us again later this Fall when we can share the progress we’ve made, alongside the game’s new release date,” Bungie continues. “Thank you again for your patience and – much more importantly – your passion. Your continued feedback will help us make Marathon the incredible gaming experience we all know it can be.”
Realistically, this delay comes as no surprise. Beyond the fact that there were rumblings about a marketing campaign for the game being canceled, the fact that there was clearly a significant amount of art assets used in designing the entire style and visual language of the game felt like a clear sign that it would take a lot of work to remove that and insert something that wasn’t stolen.
Hopefully, when this fall rolls around, we can finally hear some good news about Marathon from Bungie, and not that the game continues to be in a development hellhole.
