Bungie Has Delayed ‘Marathon’ Indefinitely

In a somewhat expected but rather dire announcement, Bungie has emerged from the shadows to confirm that its upcoming shooter, Marathon, has been delayed. Indefinitely. As in, we do not have a window as to when it’s being released, now pushed out of its former September 23, 2025 release date. Here’s an excerpt of what Bungie said in the announcement:

“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 move was widely anticipated in the wake of an underwhelming gameplay preview leading to a mixed-to-bad reception for its Closed Alpha. On top of that, Bungie is currently auditing the entirety of Marathon for stolen art assets after an artist came forward to prove an alleged ex-employee from the studio had previously taken her work, which ended up in the game itself.

There were many ways this current situation could have played out, but an open-ended delay is probably one of the worst outcomes. No, Marathon was never going to be cancelled. It is way too late for that, and even with this somewhat unsettling announcement, that’s still not where we are headed.

But this could have been handled differently, a delay with an actual date or at least a window. Sony just said days ago that Marathon would be out in Fiscal Year 2025, meaning before March 2026. But Bungie isn’t even saying that here, only that a new date will be announced this fall. They could have done some sort of “Early Access” launch with 1.0 further in the future, but that’s not happening either.

The main question is what exactly is going to change over this delay period. That is, of course, tough to answer without knowing the length of the delay, but given that there’s not even a window, Bungie’s certainly not going to be pushing it just a month or two.

They do not mention adding more maps and heroes for launch that they were perhaps launching in a later season, attempting to get more value pumped into its $40 asking price. There is nothing about potentially changing the model to f2p (though I suppose that’s not impossible). They talk about adding proximity chat, and having a “better experience” for solos and duos, but not confirming actual playlists for those kinds of players will exist. There are a lot of general things like “increased visual fidelity” and “making combat more tense and strategic.” They also say there will be a “darker tone” like the original game, however that may manifest.

But as ever, the fundamental sell of the game, an extraction shooter with traditional permanent loot loss while simultaneously using a class-based hero system somewhat antithetical to the genre, is not going to change. That package has already been extracted, and there’s no going back. No adding PvE, no switching to custom characters. It can’t happen.

This is dire. Sony made a big deal of Marathon being the centerpiece of its near-term live service plans alongside Fairgames, an alleged 2026 game that is almost certainly going to get cancelled. Marathon did need to be delayed, that seemed clear, but the questions are A) will a delay actually change the game and/or public narrative enough to matter? and B) why announce an open-ended delay at a time when players want far more concrete information?

The good news here is that Bungie will have more time to “cook,” but the open-endedness of this reinforces this is a game in peril. Bungie has confirmed there will be additional playtests going forward, so it’s not like we’ll see nothing from the game for months and months. Previously, I was told the plan was a big Open Beta in August, a month before launch, but now that will be a series of more closed tests with no dates given here. There was also word that the marketing campaign was going back to square one, as we were supposed to see a big new trailer soon to launch pre-orders, but “going dark” is certainly going to mean zero marketing as well here for an indefinite period.

I’ve been frank in my assessment that I do not think Marathon has a chance to succeed any longer. You can read my grand breakdown of that I wrote last month, and though I think a delay is mandatory, I do not believe it can accomplish what it needs to, and there are too many issues to core to this game that cannot be altered now. Bungie says we will not hear anything significant from them until later this fall, which includes a new release date. Probably.

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