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Watch the'Future of Marathon' Vidoc Part 1 for Marathon, a first-person extraction shooter developed by Bungie. Players can get a behind-the-scenes look at where Marathon is, and most importantly, where Marathon is headed with the Symbiosis Update in December and the evolution of the game in March 2027. Get a look at what's to come, including PvE, an experimental Team Deathmatch mode, a new Bishop Runner Shell, a social space, an expanded Perimeter, and more. Marathon is available now for PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).
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00:16There was this idea when people were first starting to talk about, hey, let's go back to Marathon, was also
00:21going back to, like, hey, what's a game that's focused on, like, PvP?
00:25And so that was a lot of the genesis of it. Like, we wanted to make a game that got
00:30back to those Bungie roots of player versus player and building a world around that.
00:35I think we've built that amazing world that has a lot of potential, a lot of opportunity. We haven't quite
00:43delivered on it.
00:44Launch didn't go the way we wanted it to. We all built a game that we believed would resonate.
00:52But I think when you're so close to something, it's hard to see the bigger picture objectively.
00:59And so we made a game that was overly difficult, I think, for a lot of folks.
01:04And that constant loop of failure, I don't think, spoke to as many people as we hoped it would.
01:12While death is the first step, for many players, death was the only step.
01:17I think, like, it's a really solid PvE-VP experience, but that's not what a Bungie game is.
01:24A Bungie game needs to be more than that. We need more modes. We need a PvE mode. We need
01:29a PvP mode.
01:30One of the things we learned at launch is that our game is pretty niche.
01:35Like, it's for sweaty people who like PvP. And to be fair, a lot of us on the team like
01:41those experiences.
01:42We doubled down on this experience that playing against other players would be just as exciting, but we've learned over
01:50the last, you know, since Alpha, year and a half, that players want more than just blowing up other runners.
01:57Frankly, I want more than that, too.
01:59We all thought we were going to bring extractions to the masses, and we didn't, right?
02:05We built very much an extraction shooter, as it was, as you've ever seen one.
02:10You and I have talked about how there's kind of components of the Bungie DNA, and that this game has
02:16a lot of them, but there are strands missing.
02:18And it's our job over the next year to kind of weave those strands back in to create a holistic
02:24player experience that people recognize as being truly Bungie.
02:28Launching a game is exciting. It's, you know, it's scary, and it's a privilege, right?
02:35So, I'm really proud of the team, and just seeing what players have been saying since launch.
02:43Like, the players that are really into the game are really into the game.
02:47Oh, my God, that's a boss room. That's a boss room.
02:49Oh, that looks so cool.
02:51If you look at the mode select here, this is something we didn't have when we launched, because there was
02:56really only one way to play the game.
02:58It was an extraction mode, but this is going to be the launching pad for so many other types of
03:04experiences that you can have in this world.
03:06We think we have this really, like, compelling, exciting core, like, nugget of the game at the heart of Marathon.
03:14It's like, how do we show that to more people?
03:17I think we need to provide a place where people can, you know, experience the mystery in a place where
03:25they can kind of learn at their own pace.
03:27There's so much untapped potential with the IP that we haven't been able to really dig into yet.
03:32But, like, we haven't delivered on the promise, and I think it's very important to us that we do do
03:37that and bring the story back to the forefront as we evolve Marathon into its next iteration.
04:01So, this is for our new, kind of, like, onboarding mission.
04:04So, we have our SIAC contracts that onboard.
04:07Part of the contract is you need to go in and destroy this UESC relay communication towers.
04:13And, uh, at the end of that, you get rewarded with big explosions, which are very cool.
04:18So, this is the setup that we use to, like, test out these things before they're placed in the actual
04:22map.
04:22So, we can go in, kick off these explosions, have different variations of them, make sure things...
04:28Ooh, that's a great one!
04:31All the garbage pieces spawn.
04:33So, these will be placed in an array outside of the map, and then we're able to take those.
04:37And then, you know, part of the idea is for those SIAC intro contracts, you do something that impacts Perimeter,
04:43and then now, every time you play the map, because those are your intro missions, every time you play afterwards,
04:48you see those, and you go, I did that.
04:50You know, I was responsible for those things.
04:52But, this is great, because we can just keep resetting it and blowing them up over and over and over
04:56again, you know?
04:57And, you know, make sure everything that's placed next to each other still has the correct amount of chaos and
05:02energy to it.
05:05So, we're looking at our key art.
05:09Um, we've been trying to be consistent with our look, um, especially through seasons, um, but, of course, we wanted
05:17to show the PvE encounter and a lot more of the runner collaboration happening.
05:25So, this is the first time where we still try to keep our more photojournalistic look in our key art.
05:33Um, you know, lower to the ground, caught moment, cinematic, um, but, of course, we really wanted to show off
05:40this, our gnarly, gross, tick queen here.
05:43She's got some drool tendrils coming off of here.
05:46Our artist really went ham and did an amazing job with the textures.
05:51And, I think it's probably one of the coolest ones we've done so far.
05:57The team has really been, uh, putting this together.
06:01You know, it, so many elements have to come together.
06:05Um, you know, almost like an assembly line where each person has their, their skill set and their specialty.
06:12So, it's neat to see every, every night when we get a new build, come in in the morning and
06:16see new things that are updated and improved.
06:20This will be the first time the players have seen, like, a biological attack in the Immobilize, uh, visual effects
06:28suite.
06:28You know, previously is more, uh, technology-based, so it was fun to build the charge-up with, with goo
06:36kind of ramping up around the throat area and then getting spit out.
06:43And, since it's a, a dark effect on visual effects, I want it to have, like, a bright backing to,
06:48to bring those dark elements forward for player readability.
06:52So, even if you're in a darker space, you can still see the mouth light, lighting up, see if I
06:58can get her to attack again.
07:01So, now that the lighting is a little darker, you can, you can see it lighting up the mandibles and
07:05front legs.
07:10Yeah, I'm just working on map five, so, um, yeah, I'm working on all the compositions and gameplay space for
07:16it.
07:16Generally, like, the, the map all up, um, this is really early on, so it's before we're, you know, bringing
07:24everybody else in to, kind of, populate the map and make it look really pretty.
07:29Um, so, like, right now is the time where we're just, you know, play testing it.
07:34And we're also getting some early concept on it and trying to, trying to figure out, like, what the, you
07:39know, final look is going to be eventually.
07:42You've worked on a lot of maps over the years, like, which phase, is this a phase that you, like,
07:47like, are protecting and, like, building those spaces?
07:50This is, this is actually, like, my favorite part, because it's, it's a little blue sky, so you get to,
07:57you get to, kind of, you know, let your mind wander, do whatever you want.
08:00You get to work with concept a lot, so you get to really, like, I don't know, just get to
08:07have a bit of fun before, like, everything gets, like, locked down.
08:11So you're really trying to find the fun, um, and I, yeah, I just really enjoy that phase.
08:16This is a more realistic environment than what I'm testing in.
08:20So here's the big bad boy himself.
08:23As you can tell, he is totally shielded.
08:26And if he sees me, he's going to come over and try to hit me.
08:31He's really aggressive.
08:33He's got, like, a missile firing attack.
08:36And he has some nasty surprises in there for players who are unsuspecting.
08:42Like, if you break one of his shields, that's actually what I'm working on now, is it will actually cascade
08:49into a series of projectiles.
08:51So if you're not careful, you can hit one of your buddies or it can even hit you.
08:56So, yeah, that's kind of what this guy is on.
08:59He's kind of one of those hard tier guys.
09:01And as I said, he's going to take all of his aggression out onto one player, unless somebody else can
09:07distract him.
09:08And he will pretty much wreck your day.
09:12The anomaly is sort of growing over time.
09:14You know, its influence is sort of increasing, changing the world.
09:17You've seen hints of it where we have sort of like the husk.
09:20We have the Praetorian.
09:21As its sort of influence is growing over time, it's kind of like reviving more and more things.
09:26It's sort of evolving.
09:27It's becoming more intelligent.
09:30We've been building up a lot of sort of pieces of things that will pull up from like the depths
09:34of Tau Ceti, right?
09:35I mean, I think it's core to the IP and I think just Bungie gains in general, right?
09:39Of just sort of like, you're kind of like a stranger in a strange land.
09:44You're fighting against these cosmic forces.
09:46I feel like Marathon has a ton of that kind of thing.
09:48There's such like a depth of sort of like variety when it comes to like alien and lore that they
09:52have just in Marathon from like the original trilogy to now.
09:56And I think a big part of it is just paying that off.
09:58Like I think there's so much about the world beyond just the little area that we have in Tau Ceti
10:02that we haven't explored yet, right?
10:03Like I feel like we've just barely started scratching the surface of that kind of universe.
10:09Yeah.
10:09Yeah. How satisfying is it to like really dig in on the aliens?
10:13Oh, super satisfying.
10:14I'm like, I love this.
10:15I feel like there's a lot of one thing I'm super excited about for this idea.
10:20So sort of like, how are we going to define how angels like both in our sort of aesthetic, just
10:25sort of the universe?
10:26There's a lot of things about the art style that is very clean and clinical and sort of like it
10:30sets a certain tone.
10:32But that doesn't mean that's the entire universe.
10:33Like how do aliens live?
10:35And that sort of thing juxtapose next to sort of what we've already kind of presented to the team so
10:40far.
10:51Man, the perimeter looks great.
10:53I don't know.
10:54It's just so incredible to be able to kind of review all this individually.
10:59And then when it all comes together into the build and we're all in the same space playing it together,
11:04like there's a sort of energy in the air that's really electric.
11:08I feel like this is as close as we've gotten to what we want the game to be like.
11:12And it's the step in the direction we're going.
11:16It feels like the game needed something big that you can get all this cool weaponry and get with your
11:23friends and just blast.
11:28The game just needs a lot of big scary monsters that you can get with your friends and go like
11:33blast with flamethrowers and shoot and you got to figure out how to do it.
11:38It's like it's spitting this stuff and it's slowing you down and you got to run in and hide from
11:42it sometimes.
11:48A lot of what we're talking about is evolving the game and making it broader, like bring more people in.
11:54But we don't want to forget the players who have been on the journey through the first year.
12:02And I mean, you said that a lot of the folks on the team really like those sweaty PvP experiences,
12:06but we do have a lot of people on the team, like myself included, who really love PvE and that
12:11are really excited to like sink their teeth into this challenge because they've been wanting to do this for years.
12:15We're playing around with what anomalous beings look like.
12:22I think that's that's a good evolution of where we want to see this go bigger, weirder, stranger and still
12:28cool.
12:29This is my dream game. Like I'm committed to this game.
12:34Every day I wake up and think about how I can make this game better.
12:59We really don't it.