Ah yes, Bungie — the company that revolutionized shooters and now can’t even schedule a calendar event without detonating shareholder confidence. And, to the surprise of no one, their upcoming game, Marathon, which was critically panned and is full of stolen assets from an artist the Marathon art team followed on Twitter, has been delayed. As for how long, we don’t know, but many hope (and assume) it is forever.
The game, once slated for a September 2025 release, no longer has a window to even suggest a target release date. We assume that will change at some point as Bungie absolutely has to get this game out the door to appease Sony and allow the Bungie C-Suite to stuff their pockets even more before ditching this dumpster fire of a developer. But 2025 seems incredibly unlikely at this point.
Bungie says they’re “taking the time to listen and reflect” — corporate speak for “our alpha was such a flaming disaster that we now need to repaint the entire Titanic while it’s underwater.”
According to Bungie’s PR napkin, they heard the feedback from fans on social media, Discord, and presumably in a board meeting where CEO Pete Parsons ignored said feedback because he was too busy bidding on a 1970 Corvette Stingray. And unfortunately, listening is not the same as understanding, something Parsons and the other leadership staff simply refuse to even acknowledge.
While Marathon is being loosely held together by incompetent management, plagiarized assets, duct tape, and Dollar Store floss, it does not seem like any amount of retooling the existing formula will draw in a larger amount of eager or curious players. The fact is, the game has so many things that aren’t appealing to either hardcore or even casual gamers that we have a hard time believing things will turn around in however long Bungie needs to clean this whole mess up.
It’s also important to remember that Bungie only has one franchise keeping the lights on — Destiny 2 — and they treat it with the same care one might give a fax machine. Marathon was supposed to be their next big pivot into live-service dominance. Instead, it’s shaping up to be the world’s most expensive cautionary tale.
Meanwhile, Sony — who literally owns Bungie now — just told investors that Marathon would ship in fiscal 2025. Bungie responded by saying, “We’ll tell you later.” That’s not just poor communication, that’s full-blown insubordination. If this was a family dinner, Sony just asked what time the turkey would be ready, and Bungie lit the oven on fire and threw it out the window.
Bungie says they’re working on visual improvements, combat pacing, and some kind of “darker tone.” Great, now it’ll be a prettier bad idea with mood lighting. There’s no mention of actual improvements like custom loadouts, solo-friendly playlists, or any reason why anyone should pay $40 for this unless they’re collecting disappointment like NFTs.
Still no pivot to free-to-play, no word on PvE support, and absolutely zero chance of removing the core mechanic that makes this whole thing an unholy mess: a loot-based shooter that actively punishes you for playing. They aren’t rethinking the formula — they’re just spray-painting over the cracks and praying you’re too distracted by non-stolen concept art to notice the smell of rot.
The indefinite delay of Marathon isn’t just a setback — it’s a glowing billboard that says “we don’t know what we’re doing.” And while delays can be good, especially when done to improve quality, this one reeks of a studio flailing through crisis control while its most loyal fans are already halfway out the door.
The tragedy is, Bungie didn’t have to be like this. But over and over, they’ve shown that given a choice between competence and chaos, they’ll trip over their own shoelaces and call it a “bold new direction.”
So no, Marathon isn’t canceled. But at this point, maybe it should be.
