Marathon is Back on Track for March 2026
Bungie is pushing hard to convince players that its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon is very much alive and on schedule. After a rocky reveal and a wave of skepticism, the studio has reaffirmed that Marathon is targeting a March 2026 launch, with a clear pricing model and a stronger pitch for PC and console players who love hardcore loot based shooters.
The game is planned to release at around $40 in the US and a similar price in other regions. That puts it in the same bracket as other big online shooters like Helldivers 2 and Arc Raiders. Bungie says that buying Marathon once will give you full access to the core game plus a roadmap of free gameplay updates through the first year.
Those updates will include new maps, fresh Runner shells which are essentially character suits and cosmetics seasonal events and more. Season 1 will kick off with a major challenge called the Cryo Archive onboard the UESC Marathon ship, positioned as an end game style destination.
Reward Passes, Game Systems, and Arc Raiders Influences
Bungie is moving away from the usual fear of missing out battle pass setup. Marathon will use what it calls Reward Passes and crucially they will not expire. If you buy a pass you can work through it at your own pace even after new passes arrive. Old passes will stay available for purchase which lines up with the more player friendly systems seen in Helldivers 2 and Halo Infinite.
Marathon has also shifted direction on a couple of major social and matchmaking features. Bungie originally said the game would not include proximity voice chat because of toxicity concerns. That decision has now been reversed. The game will launch with proximity chat so players can talk to and mess with each other in the field just like in Arc Raiders and other social extraction style titles.
Likewise the earlier plan to launch without a solo queue has been dropped. Solo players will have ways to jump in without being forced into three stacks all the time. One of the bigger systems aimed at solo or more cautious players is a new Runner shell option called Rook.
Rook is a limited loadout mode that lets you drop into matches in progress using a kind of disposable kit. You can scavenge loot and explore without risking the gear you have already earned. If you die you do not lose your main stash. This is very similar to the free loadout idea in Arc Raiders and to what Bungie earlier called sponsor kits in Marathon’s alpha tests.
Bungie is also talking up big improvements to AI enemies. One of the main criticisms from previous hands on sessions was that Marathon’s bots were not very dangerous and were not worth the effort to fight. In the latest footage Bungie claims enemies are now much deadlier and more central to the experience. Expect bipedal combat robots and hovering drones rather than the huge monster style enemies that Arc Raiders is known for. Bungie has not shown anything yet that matches those large set piece style foes.
One detail extraction shooter fans are watching closely is whether Marathon will have a secure pocket style system like Escape from Tarkov and Arc Raiders. That mechanic lets you protect one or more items of loot even if you die. It has become a core part of the genre’s risk reward loop. In the new footage there is no obvious safe pocket in the inventory screen and Bungie has not confirmed either way.
Visual Style, Maps, and Community Hype
If nothing else Marathon now looks much better than it did in its early showings. Bungie is keeping the dark grounded science fiction style but has upgraded the presentation significantly. Environments are more detailed, and the studio is putting more effort into environmental storytelling so rooms and corpses tell you what happened before you arrived.
A standout detail is that dead bodies stay on the map and actually decay over time. That is not just a visual trick. It is also a gameplay signal. If you walk into a room and the bodies are still fresh and intact it suggests the fight just happened and the killer may still be close. If the bodies have decayed into messy remains the area is more likely to be safe.
The latest reveal also shows off four main zones which function as maps. Three of them are on the planet surface: Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost. Each offers different terrain and threats. The fourth is Cryo Archive, which serves as a high end late game style destination on the Marathon ship itself. Bungie describes Cryo Archive as a place where you will face every environmental hazard from the rest of the game and battle the highest tier UESC enemy units.
Behind all these details there is a bigger question hanging over Marathon. Can Bungie convince players that this project is not doomed before launch The game has had a rough public journey so far and Bungie’s live service history with Destiny has left many players wary of monetization and balance. On top of that Arc Raiders has already come out swinging and impressed a lot of the same audience Marathon is targeting.
However the new video and feature breakdown seem to be shifting attitudes at least a bit. Early reactions from the community on YouTube are more positive with many players saying this latest showing is far stronger than the original reveal. There is a growing sense that Bungie has listened and is reshaping Marathon into something closer to what extraction shooter fans actually want.
March 2026 still feels ambitious given the work that likely remains and the pressure from Sony around release timing. But if Bungie can nail the risk reward loop, make AI enemies worthwhile, and keep the monetization fair Marathon might yet surprise everyone and carve out its own space in the extraction shooter scene on PC.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/bungie-takes-its-second-shot-at-revealing-marathon-usd40-price-tag-proximity-chat-solo-queue-and-march-release-confirmed/
