Bungie’s troubled extraction shooter Marathon has resurfaced again with 22 minutes worth of info drop, courtesy of a new ViDoc. That’s Bungie-speak for dev diary.
The ViDoc covers the various changes Marathon, which may or may not be directly related to the company’s series of first-person shooters before they made Halo.
Marathon (2026) will launch with solo queues available as well as the much-requested proximity chat. Between these two features, Marathon can now play more in line with most extraction shooters where players can engage in a little social interaction, be it establishing a social contract, social engineer unsuspected players into a scam, or just roleplay.
When the game was expected to be referred as Marathon (2025), the game focused on the 3-player team play, a lot. There’s even a dedicated trailer to highlight the character banter of the playable characters. Marathon (2026) is moving away from the Apex Legends-esque setup, to the point that the devs insist that you are the Runner, not the characters. They are just shells (with a unique kit) where your consciousness gets transferred to. Less Apex Legends, more Warframe, if you will.
Marathon also has a sort-of comeback mechanic. Like most extraction shooters, all loot is lost when you didn’t successfully extract (i.e. die). You can hop into the new Rook Runner shell where you join mid-match to scour any dropped loot you can get your hands on. This should help get players back on their feet, unless other crafty players stop you.
The visuals of Marathon has been given another pass. The four maps available on launch, all based around the derelict colony of Tau Ceti IV with one high-level map set on the eponymous Marathon ship, has a darker, grittier feel. Bungie wants the world to feel dangerous.
Interestingly, the presentation doesn’t emphasise much on the cool minimalist graphic design motifs it had going on in earlier appearances. Bungie had allegedly plagiarised some of those graphics, and have recently resolved the issue with the artist, Antireal. Antireal’s created art are now sold as merch.
Dead Runners (other players) now drop as corpses that decay over time, which isn’t just there for the aesthetic, it provides a gameplay queue. A fresh body means the killer might still be around, while a rotted goop means it’s likely safe to loot though likely with less loot available.
The ViDoc also talks about loot, including game-changing gold gun mods that significantly alters a base gun with abilities you can buildcraft around. An example seen is a gold mod pistol that has a silencer and also turns you invisible on kill confirm.
Lastly, there’s the worldbuilding. The ViDoc teases why Factions task you with jobs to complete in a run. They’re corporations that invested on the Tau Ceti IV colonisation project, which has not gone well and are recouping what they can by hiring Runners like you. The factions have different objective types, from one favouring PVP to another tasking you to loot good guns to hand over.
Marathon has now locked a release window, March 2026. This should explain why PlayStation quietly delayed Housemarque’s upcoming shooter Saros to April.
Marathon has a lot against it right now. After missing its previous September 2025 release window gamers have been enjoying another big AAA extraction shooter, Arc Raiders. Escape From Tarkov is out on Steam, and the unrelated Escape From Duckov has been a big hit too. The extraction shooter space is getting crowded.
But hopefully even if Marathon stumbles on launch, it can get itself together in the long run. It’s not a sprint, but a… marathon, when it comes to live service games, after all.
Marathon (2026) will launch in March for the PS5, PC and Xbox Series X|S.