Bungie's upcoming first-person extraction shooter Marathon has been delayed. It was originally scheduled to release this September, but fan feedback from the recent closed alpha has encouraged the developer to push the game's release back indefinitely.
"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 wrote. "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."
While Marathon has been praised for its strong gunplay and visuals, the closed alpha raised concens over AI, map variety, PvE content, and overall long-term replay value. It was also discovered that one of the game's former concept artists had stolen artwork without permission.
"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," Bungie continued. "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."
Bungie has not announced a new release date for Marathon, though the developer noted that they'll be making gameplay updates over the next couple of months, which suggests the game may be pushed back to early 2026.
Bungie did make note of some specific gameplay areas and features they'll be looking to address over these next couple of months, including more challenging and engaging AI encounters, more rewarding runs with new types of loot and dynamic events, and more tense and strategic combat. They'll also be looking to incorporate more narrative and environmental storytelling for players to discover and interact with, including a darker tone "that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy."
An update on the team's progress will be shared this fall, which should give us a better idea as to when we can expect Marathon to be released.
Marathon is based on Bungie's classic trilogy from the '90s, although it's more of a reimagining set int he same universe -- not a direct sequel or remake. It pulls from the original trilogy's lore, while introducing a completely new style of gameplay.