Boy has it been a extremely tough time for Bungie these previous few days. The layoffs, the handing over of employees and tasks to guardian firm Sony, and the query marks over Future 2’s future have all made for fairly depressing studying. Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, isn’t immune both, and new feedback from journalist Jason Schreier recommend that it’s in a “not nice” spot and that it’s state of affairs “jogs my memory of Suicide Squad.”
For anybody actually trying ahead to Bungie’s subsequent FPS sport, that’s after all not what you need to be listening to. There have been already some considerations that Marathon’s improvement was going via a shaky patch after it noticed a giant change in management. It was reported earlier this yr that former sport director Chris Barrett had left with ex-Valorant sport director Joe Ziegler now changing him.
Nevertheless, off the again of Schreier’s latest reporting on the Bungie layoffs, he says that his sources are feeling “pessimistic” in regards to the sport and he wouldn’t be stunned to see the sport miss the present Marathon launch date window of 2025.
“[It’s] not nice from what I’ve heard,” he says on a brand new episode of the Associates Per Second podcast when requested for a temperature test on Marathon. “There’s a cause that it was deliberate for this yr and slipped an entire yr, and folks that I’ve talked to are a little bit pessimistic about it even hitting its present deliberate deadline.”
The unhealthy information retains coming, sadly. In a while in his discussions round Marathon, Schreier likens its journey to that of Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League, one of the infamous flops of the final 12 months. The comparability will not be essentially to do with the standard of the product, however within the similarities of when the 2 video games had been conceived, the developments they’re chasing, and the assets which have gone into them.
“[Suicide Squad] got here out and simply completely flopped and I’m fearful about Marathon being in the same state of affairs the place it’s been in improvement for some time. It entered improvement when extraction shooters had been tremendous scorching, I don’t know if that’s the case anymore, and now as a result of they’ve dedicated a lot cash and since it was the mission that was furthest alongside versus all their different incubation bets, they’re actually placing quite a bit into it and I’m simply unsure there’s a lot of an opportunity that will probably be profitable. However then once more you by no means know you by no means know.”
As a giant Future and Halo fan, I’m past assured that, from a gameplay perspective, Marathon goes to be wonderful. Nevertheless, for an extended whereas I’ve held the identical form of considerations that Schreier and his Bungie sources are actually speaking about. Couple that with the truth that there are a number of different extraction shooters in improvement proper now – ARC Raiders, Area Breakout Infinite, and Exoborne are only a few that spring to thoughts – and I really feel like I’m proper to be a bit fearful.
Whereas 2025 did additionally beforehand seem to be an achievable launch window, the Bungie layoffs and reshuffles will greater than seemingly influence Marathon’s schedule. In fact, proper now that is hypothesis on my finish and even Schreier couldn’t confidently say an extra delay will occur, however slippage into 2026 seems like an actual risk.
I’m actually hoping – each as an FPS fan, and for Bungie’s sake – that Marathon is a success. However whereas we await it to reach, take a look at among the different upcoming PC video games which are on the way in which, or check out the very best multiplayer video games you may play proper now.
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