Bungie’s Marathon reboot was delayed once more, this time to 2025, after a prior postponement last year, amidst layoffs at the developer. Here’s an update on the sport, which has seen relatively little recent activity:
Ziegler disclosed his takeover of the project in March, succeeding former director Chris Barrett, who was ousted from Bungie after an internal probe into allegations of misconduct. Despite a prolonged silence, the latest update finally brings significant news for enthusiasts, making it a substantial revelation.
In this developer replace video, which can be viewed in full below, Ziegler initiates the discussion by breaking down the sport’s fundamental loop and tracing its inspirations before delving into the project’s current state of development.
“For the past couple of years, we’ve been implementing aggressive changes to the sport, and we’ve been iterating fairly closely. Throughout that time, we’ve been testing with numerous players, including those like yourself, as well as creators,” he mentioned. “Right now, there are a wide range of various things at different stages inside the sport,” with this being the reason why this update includes no full gameplay because the director says it’s “a bit early to show you all of it as one piece.”
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As part of this discussion, Ziegler addressed spatial concerns such as environments, character and enemy placements, and object positioning, noting that the first two categories were more developed and “coming together” in various ways, whereas the latter two remained in an early state, with some instances still “coming online”. As he wrapped up his remarks, he emphasized that those familiar with game development would recognize the trends he’d outlined as being very much on track. Once they unite, we’re eager to showcase the exciting results of their collective efforts, especially in game.
Ziegler offered updates on playtesting for the sport, which is set to be expanded incrementally in 2025 by incorporating a substantial number of players at each milestone. He also unveiled concept art for two codenamed characters, “Thief” and “Stealth”. The preceding pair was observed “creepily peering around a corner”, as if this name didn’t already hint at their reliability in playing.
The video concluded with the director expressing gratitude to viewers and announcing their enthusiasm to engage further in 2025 and beyond, stating that they look forward to sharing this experience with the audience.
