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.
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 Alpha test created an opportunity for us to calibrate and focus the game on what will make it uniquely compelling—survival under pressure, mystery and lore around every corner, raid-like endgame challenges, and Bungie’s genre-defining FPS combat.
We’re using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around. This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.
Over the next few months, we’ll continue closed testing(including participants from the Alpha) to deploy gameplay updates and test new features as they come online.
Some of our immediate focus areas will be:
Upping the Survival Game
More challenging and engaging AI encounters
More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events
Making combat more tense and strategic
Doubling down on the Marathon Universe
Increased visual fidelity
More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with
A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy
Adding more social experiences
A better player experience for solo/duos
Prox chat, so social stories can come to life
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. 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.