Will Marathon be delayed/pushed back?

Marathon will

  • Release as planned on 23rd September 2025

  • Will not release as scheduled and will be delayed until a specified date

  • Will not release as scheduled and will be delayed (no date specified)


Results are only viewable after voting.
Definitely think they're going to have to delay the game or move it to early access on release.

A delay would be the smart thing to do, but Bungie seems pretty tone deaf here.
 
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If the Alpha is anything to go by, this game is nowhere near ready.
 
I don't know how the gaming business works precisely. But wasn't it better for them to just do a closed/alpha and later an open beta. Then after receiving all the feedbacks decide on a date to release it?
 
Bungie is afraid of gta6 like most devs/pusbs so game will launch on shedule, im not target audience for it so hard for me to asses if and how much of a success its gonna be tho, lets wait for open beta to be 100% sure, so far it doesnt look great tho, but i could be wrong ofc.
 
I'm not entirely sure that Bungie have the option. They need to start bringing in money for Sony - pronto. Pushing Marathon back - which, I believe, has happened once internally already - would likely mean layoffs.
 
They should fire the creative team, keep the engineers and anyone that is directly involved with gameplay, use the assets to make something else under new creative leadership and show a new game in a couple of years. Basically remove all the weird looking shit and make it a bro shooter.
 
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What can they change? Just go quiet until September and push it out with much fanfare. They'll be a few articles about Concord and where the 4 billion has gone, but people will move on to the Christmas games releasing and forget all about it.

Aso never show Fairgame$ again, just pretend it was an April fools or something
 
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I don't know how the gaming business works precisely. But wasn't it better for them to just do a closed/alpha and later an open beta. Then after receiving all the feedbacks decide on a date to release it?

They'll do a beta available for those who pre-order the game, but based on the game as it exists today, they're in serious trouble. They have time to implement a lot of feedback, but some of the fundamental feedback could take 1-2 years to implement.

Some people like the visuals for example, but I think for most it's entirely unappealing. The performance of the game also doesn't seem to line up with the visuals. This should be running at 120 fps on base consoles and it should probably even be running on the Switch to be honest (lower resolution and framerate) as well as the PS4 and X1.

This is one of the big problems of developing games behind closed doors for so long. You get to a point of no return and they're probably there when it comes to the art direction. Too busy playing around with streamers/influencers who either didn't give them good feedback or bungie didn't listen.
 
I think it'll be delayed to a specific date because i think the community will give very specific and direct advice on things they can change within a certain timeframe to make the game better.

It needs a few tweaks but the base is there
 
I think of these little side mode games as low effort anyway.

Imagine having to making a game like BotW and all the work that goes into that.

Now think of making Marathon.

1. Copy/paste fps gameplay we have used/tweaked since Halo
2. Add some character inspired moves to make it feel fresh and to make the characters feel unique
3. Design the characters and make the models
4. Make 3 levels to run around in that you will tweak later once you are sure how the game will flow
5. Setup the game to trend chase by copying and adjusting the mode you are targeting
6. Get your audio recorded
7. Splice it all together
8. Dump a bunch of people in the game online and get them to tell you how to make it better
9. Do said changes
10. Launch the game and repeat steps 8 and 9.

There, now I'm as master of gaas too. Low effort. I don't care when any game trying to sell me a single mode as a game launches. This isn't a full game for me. To be a full game, it would need many other MP modes and a single player campaign. Games like this are free to play because they don't' have much content. They are popular because they are free and people are cheap. That's it. Bungie better make this f2p because who is paying money for a single mode before they become addicted?
 
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I think they'll release on time, especially if they charge a price for it. But if they go F2P, it'll help soothe any negativity the game has as they can always say it's a WIP kind of game and hope gamers stick around. But if they charge money like it's a final release and still have a lot of work to do, it's DOA.

I don't think so. They know exactly what's missing and still said September.
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The biggest negative comments I've remember from streamers and any gamers who played the alpha doesnt even involve that bullet point list except for the hit and miss graphics and it seems boring. People can accept the bright sci fi characters, but it's the environments are the ugly things (grass, haze, low res textures). And some people ragged on the ugly UI.

But for the other stuff, I dont think I remember one person who ragged on amount of content, needs more character classes, ranked play etc... People understand the game is missing content. The core gunplay seems good. At worst, some streamers said the gunplay was ok, but none said it was bad. And people said the netcode seems solid too. So some of the most important things in a shooter Bungie has gotten right.

The keys things people said were bad generally involved:

- Hit and miss visuals
- Boring
- Did this, done that vs other similar games

Graphics can be improved if this alpha build is missing textures. And they can always adjust colours. But if the core gameplay loop is boring and feels familiar, I dont see how that can be improved easily even if Bungie polished up everything in the list unless they adjusted how the game feels or added tons of content that affects gameplay or extra modes.

In let's say COD, if someone thinks it's boring mindless shooter, Activision can double the maps and weapons, and add more prestige progression or class loadouts. If the gameplay still feels the same, that gamer will still say the same thing.
 
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I don't think so. They know exactly what's missing and still said September.
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I've not played myself and will reserve judgement until I do, but that seems like an awful lot to get through in just a few months.

On the plus side, the folks who are playing it seem mostly positive.
 
Betting it launches as expected.

But we will get another developer deep dive with an amended roadmap or whatever.
The game is too far along to really rework it.
How long it stays active is up in the air though.
"influencers" seem to like it, so maybe it plays better than it looks.
 
I think they'll release on time, especially if they charge a price for it. But if they go F2P, it'll help soothe any negativity the game has as they can always say it's a WIP kind of game and hope gamers stick around. But if they charge money like it's a final release and still have a lot of work to do, it's DOA.


The biggest negative comments I've remember from streamers and any gamers who played the alpha doesnt even involve that bullet point list except for the hit and miss graphics. People can accept the bright sci fi characters, but it's the environments are the ugly things (grass, haze, low res textures). And some people ragged on the ugly UI.

But for the other stuff, I dont think I remember one person who ragged on amount of content, needs more character classes, ranked play etc... People understand the game is missing content. The core gunplay seems good. At worst, some streamers said the gunplay was ok, but none said it was bad. And people said the netcode seems solid too. So some of the most important things in a shooter Bungie has gotten right.

The keys things people said were bad generally involved:

- Hit and miss visuals
- Boring
- Did this, done that vs other similar games

Graphics can be improved if this alpha build is missing textures. And they can always adjust colours. But if the core gameplay is boring and feels familiar, I dont see how that can be improved easily even if Bungie polished up everything in the list unless they adjusted how the game feels or added tons of content that affects gameplay (extraction loop) or extra modes.

In let's say COD, if someone thinks it's boring mindless shooter, Activision can double the maps and weapons. If the game still feels the same, that gamer will still say the same thing.
No way its DOA.

Not being the next big thing will be a huge miss for them for sure but i think it will find its audience. Will that be enough to keep it going? Who knows, but they wont shut down two high profile releases in a row.

I'm betting they open up the Alpha to more players in an effort to turn sentiment around, not that it will help.
 
More people willing to try the game would not help the game even a little?

Some people don't even know if they could like an extraction shooters until they try one.
In this case i dont think so. Most peoples minds are already made up. Folks would play one game and fuck it off i think.
 
I think of these little side mode games as low effort anyway.

Imagine having to making a game like BotW and all the work that goes into that.

Now think of making Marathon.

1. Copy/paste fps gameplay we have used/tweaked since Halo
2. Add some character inspired moves to make it feel fresh and to make the characters feel unique
3. Design the characters and make the models
4. Make 3 levels to run around in that you will tweak later once you are sure how the game will flow
5. Setup the game to trend chase by copying and adjusting the mode you are targeting
6. Get your audio recorded
7. Splice it all together
8. Dump a bunch of people in the game online and get them to tell you how to make it better
9. Do said changes
10. Launch the game and repeat steps 8 and 9.

There, now I'm as master of gaas too. Low effort. I don't care when any game trying to sell me a single mode as a game launches. This isn't a full game for me. To be a full game, it would need many other MP modes and a single player campaign. Games like this are free to play because they don't' have much content. They are popular because they are free and people are cheap. That's it. Bungie better make this f2p because who is paying money for a single mode before they become addicted?
The biggest difference between a game like Marathon and Breath of the Wild is that every inch of Marathon's map is important while 95% of BotW's map is useless.
 
Delayed and retooled as a f2p game, as they should've done with Concord after the reaction to the beta was crickets and tumbleweeds.
Possibly.

If youre right, no wonder they hadnt set the price yet. They want to see what the sentiment is after the alpha build. The better the reaction, the higher the price. The worse the reception the more it skews to F2P or budget price at $40 like Concord and H2. Every other shooter game would had already set the price and pre-orders by now except COD who doesn't promote their annual COD until first showing in the summer. But once they do, the price is familiar and always set at the standard full price anyway.
 
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The game is/will be fine. It's better than I thought. You have to know what you're getting into. It's not a fast pace shooter.

Now full disclosure, was on the Destiny train for 10 years with thousand of hours on it through the Final Shape campaign and dropped after that, so there is a sense of familiarity yet different. Not a bad thing, they did need to change some things up and they will continue.

It takes a few games for this to click, but it's fun. The release video was the worse possible way to reveal. This is just an alpha let's see what this looks like in a few months.


Alpha is a curated, limited slice of systems and content. We welcome feedback across the board, but the areas we are most keen to hear your thoughts on are:

  • Weapons and gunplay
  • Maps and survival gameplay
  • Runners, including kits and build-crafting
  • Early-game progression, including factions, contracts, and faction upgrades
  • PvP engagements against other Runners
  • PvE engagements against AI combatants
It's important to note the Alpha is NOT the complete game. It does not include:

  • Final visuals and graphics, including animations and lighting
  • Full and polished UI
  • All Runners
  • All zones, including the Marathon Ship
  • Pinnacle and end game content
  • All weapons, items, consumables, implants, cores, and mods
  • All factions and upgrades
  • Long term progression and systems
  • Complete narrative and storytelling systems and final shipping content
  • Ranked play
  • Final balance
  • We'll be hosting developer Q+As, streams, and jumping in with other creators all next week. See you on Tau Ceti IV.
 
It feels like Sony is definitely pushing them on this, which makes me think they will not delay it at all and it will stick to release in September. Which feels super risky to me, but I don't know. I imagine they're already crunching and won't stop until release to try to improve what they can with limited time.
 
Tell that to suicide squad...

Fair enough.

Actually Marathon is giving the same vibes as Suicide Squad did - everyone could see the gameplay was super lame and uneventful, the objectives were dull, the loot was boring, the map was uninteresting. Also an obnoxious UI, also had unpleasant characters to play as. Technically competent but in terms of experience insanely little meat on its bones.

I watched some livestreams yesterday and I saw streamers tap out after just 45 minutes because they were bored. How wild is it that a juggernaut like Bungie has been working on something for so many years and some people are bored of it after less than an hour? What a crazy situation.
 
In this case i dont think so. Most peoples minds are already made up. Folks would play one game and fuck it off i think.


And if out of 100 people who try the game, 10 people stay and continueto play the game is not already a small win?

I was not talking about being f2p saving matathon, more like what can they do to retard the ship from sinking...
 
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Call me crazy, but watching the videos if they made an extra mode like 9 vs 9 TDM with adjusted map sizes and keep the tough AI grunts getting in the way of everyone (like Titanfall), it would be a good side mode to mix it up between large map extraction and close quarters TDM. You can even include all the random gear scattered around that has nothing to do with objectives so gamers can find new items to equip. Heck, some streamers even say the AI grunts can be hard compared to other games which they are dumb as rocks. Make the AI its own bot team. 9 vs 9 vs 9 AI. Who knows. Just an idea.
 
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Word of mouth always wins.
I like the look of it but I'm in the minority seemingly. Like I said earlier in the thread folks who are into this type of game and have actually played it seem to like it.

Does look like it needs a while in the oven though.
 
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