Bungie and Sony plan to sell the new Marathon as a ‘premium’ product though they have promised it won’t be a full price game.
It’s been nearly two years since Sony announced it was reviving Bungie’s Marathon series, albeit as the publisher’s next crack at a live service game.
After a long silence and a change in directors, Bungie finally lifted the lid on Marathon over the weekend via a livestream, where it shared proper gameplay details and a release date.
It also shared what fans can expect from the game at launch and it sounds even less content rich than Concord, Sony’s last live service game attempt.
As a reminder, Concord launched last August and was meant to be the first of many first-party PlayStation live service games. However, its launch was so disastrous that Sony killed the game after only two weeks and shut down developer Firewalk Studios.
Although other live service games have reportedly been cancelled in the aftermath, Marathon’s development has chugged along, with it slated to launch later this year.
Aside from establishing how this new Marathon is a PvP extraction shooter, with players forming teams of three to gather loot, Bungie also explained that there will be six playable characters and three maps at launch.
Obviously, the plan is to add more content over time (a fourth map is already confirmed), but this means Marathon is arriving with far less than what Concord offered.
By comparison, Concord launched with 16 playable characters and 12 maps. It also had six different gameplay modes to try out whereas Marathon only has the one.
One similarity Marathon does share with Concord, though, is that it won’t be free-to-play. Speaking with GameSpot, Bungie described the game as a ‘premium’ product, adding that it will include a battle pass but clarifying that the game won’t be sold at full price.
Neither was Concord, which was sold at £34.99, but that clearly proved too high an asking price. Marathon is at least an established franchise, but it’s not particularly well known, and it could face the same struggles if it launches at a similar price.
Among the initial fan reactions, plenty of people have been quick to draw Concord comparisons and seem to have little faith in its chances. ‘Concord tripped and broke its neck so that Marathon could jump off a cliff spread eagle,’ wrote discolunk on Bluesky.
‘Why would I pay to try Marathon when I already have The Finals for free?’ questioned berserker-thiis. Meanwhile, elhyana, despite loving the new trailer, unfavourably compared Marathon to Valorant, saying, ‘This might be another Concord moment.’
One James Galizio has bleakly predicted the same thing, pointing out that Concord’s own failure may have doomed Marathon to the same fate: ‘Players still remember how that went, why would they commit time to the game when history shows if it flops Sony will unexist the game?’
When will Marathon launch?
Marathon is scheduled to launch on September 23. While Sony is publishing it, it will be a multi-platform release and be available for PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
A closed alpha test will take place beforehand on April 23 though the only way to sign up for it is by joining the official Marathon Discord.
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