‘Marathon’ Will Not Be Canceled, It Will Not Pivot

In the wake of Bungie’s announcement that Marathon will be delayed indefinitely, pushed out of its September 23, 2025 release date, a common refrain began that either the game should just be canceled at this point, or it needs to significantly change direction.

I’m here to say that neither will happen. Sony will not cancel Marathon, nor will it pivot to some dramatically different type of game. It will also not abandon its core concepts within the extraction genre it’s laid forth.

It’s too late for Marathon to be cancelled. This is not some previously announced game that has had no updates in years. This is a game that after 5+ years of work did a huge gameplay reveal followed by an extremely public Closed Alpha ahead of a release date that was supposed to be three months from today, almost exactly.

Should Marathon have been canceled? That’s a different question, but the other consideration here is that Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie with the idea that it would get a big new live service IP out in the form of Marathon. So acquiring the company, looking at Marathon, and cutting it would have been a wild decision in that context.

I may eat my words, but in no way do I think Marathon will be cancelled. The indefinite delay will hopefully have an endpoint as Bungie says they will announce the new release date this fall, which logic would dictate would be in early 2026 so it can squeeze out in Sony’s 2025 fiscal year as they just promised literally days ago.

So fine, Marathon is coming out. But it needs to change significantly right, if not go in a completely new direction?

This will also not happen. Again, it’s too late. The larger structure of the game is set in stone at this point. Ideas like adding PvE to the game like a campaign or separate mode are not going to happen by launch. Bungie says it will work on enemy AI and how those encounters play out on the map and increase lore to elevate the story, but that’s not the same thing. You cannot just add things of a larger scale even with what seems like a long delay. For this kind of game, you’re simply never going to see something like a PvE campaign added at all.

Even concepts within Marathon itself will not change. Another request is “just switch to customizable characters” as opposed to set classes of heroes, as that’s somewhat antithetical to the extraction genre. Bungie thinks it makes the game stand out, but players mostly view it as a negative.

Bungie already has six heroes in the bag for launch. It did not say that it would add more as a result of this delay, but given that this was mapped out as a live game, many are no doubt in production. There will be endless balancing between classes, but this pivot to classes was made two years ago when Valorant’s Joe Ziegler took over, and it is not pivoting back now. It will have to work within that system and make players accept and enjoy it.

There are requests that can and will be added. Proximity chat is happening. A solos mode was not explicitly confirmed, but it seems likely. Maybe heroes will get cooler and lore will get more interest and maps more dynamic. But big, sweeping changes are simply not on the table during this delay period, however long it may be. But no, it’s not going to get canceled either.

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