Bungie apparently held a player summit where it brought in several Escape From Tarkov streamers to try out Marathon, but none of them ended up liking it.
The information comes from YouTuber Aztecross, who claims that no Destiny 2 content creator, PvP player, or community member was invited to this event. Apparently, after the aforementioned Escape From Tarkov players had tried out Marathon, Bungie asked them whether they would buy the game if it were hypothetically released the next day. As per the source, none of the invited Escape From Tarkov players raised their hand.
The YouTuber further mentioned that this discouraging feedback from the Escape From Tarkov players is what has led to Marathon’s delay to the year 2025. He took to Twitter to share some further details regarding the projects Bungie has been working on over the past few years. He mentioned that Marathon was always an Extraction Looter Shooter, and Bungie only briefly entertained the idea of making a Battle Royale ame.
According to Aztecross, Marathon had its first playable build back in January, 2020. Bungie’s original goal was to have 4 games i.e. Marathon, Destiny, Matter, & another unknown project that would come from the studio’s incubation team. However, Matter was canceled in December 2020. Additionally, most members of the development team currently working on Marathon are those who were previously burned out from working on Destiny 2.
If the information is indeed true, the Sony Interactive Entertainment owned Bungie currently appears to be in a tight spot, especially with recent reports of layoffs at the studio. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier had reported that Bungie laid off an undisclosed number of staff a few days ago as part of ongoing job cuts across PlayStation. In addition to delaying Marathon to 2025, the studio has delayed the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion, titled The Final Shape, to June, 2024.
