Bungie's Marathon Finally Emerges From the Shadows to Tease… Something

Remember Marathon? It's the next game from Destiny developer Bungie, and it looks like we're finally about to see more of it.

Marathon is a PvP-focused extraction shooter set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV. Players take on the role of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries designed to survive the planet's harsh environments, as they explore the lost colony that once thrived on Tau Ceti's surface.

It has been some time since we last saw or heard about Marathon. In October, Bungie released a lengthy development update video that shed light on the game's mechanics, but emphasized how early in development it still was. At that point, player character models were still "coming together," while enemy models were in an "early state."

Now, half a year later, it seems Bungie is ready to reveal more of what they've been working on. A tweet from the official Marathon account shared a cryptic image accompanied by garbled signal noise. Fans noticed 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 fans are already working to decipher the meaning behind it all.

Despite the excitement, Marathon's development has been troubled. The game was revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, embracing themes of "mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness." However, Bungie has faced several controversies in recent years, including the layoff of 220 staff members in July 2024, which represented 17% of its workforce. This move was criticized by industry peers and came less than a year after another round of 100 layoffs, which left the studio's atmosphere "soul-crushing," according to staff.

Further controversy arose when a report surfaced weeks after the 220 job losses, alleging that former Marathon director Chris Barrett was fired following an internal misconduct investigation at Bungie. Barrett subsequently sued Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie for over $200 million.

All of this comes as Sony rethinks its focus on live-service games. In November 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki announced the company's commitment to launching just six of the 12 live service games it was working on by March 2026, marking a shift in strategy that led to the cancellation of The Last of Us multiplayer game.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 was a breakout hit, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, Sony's other live service games faced either cancellation or disastrous launches. Sony's Concord, for instance, is 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 later decided to terminate the game entirely and shut down its developer.

Earlier this year, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced live service games: one a God of War title in development at Bluepoint, and the other at Days Gone developer Bend.