Marathon Gets A September Release Date During Its Big Gameplay Reveal

Developer Bungie has announced that its first-person extraction shooter Marathon will release on September 23 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

During this morning’s mammoth gameplay reveal showcase, Bungie finally gave us a solid release date and our first proper look at the studio’s take on the extraction shooter genre. In what turned out to be a throwback panel reminiscent of the E3 days, the gameplay reveal showcase ran for over an hour and included various extended looks at Marathon in action.

The first trailer set the scene, showing brief clips of team-based firefights in various locations. It was the Gameplay Overview trailer that properly got the ball rolling. Set on Tau Ceti IV, teams of three players take on the role of Runners. These synthetic mercenaries enter the areas locked down by the United Earth Space Council (UESC) to collect and escape with resources and valuables.

This gameplay trailer showed three-person teams battling against the AI-controlled UESC to gather valuables and other teams to keep them. The trailer, narrated by Ben Starr, lays out what a round of Marathon will look like, from choosing from one of six Runners to gathering gear and fighting against some of the other teams vying for dominance.

You can watch the Marathon Gameplay Overview trailer here:

We were told during the showcase that there would be six runners to choose from at launch, each with unique abilities that would allow for a different approach to exploration and combat. While the dev team mentioned that each map will feature a different player cap, the max seems to be 18, comprised of six teams of three. If you’re a lone ranger, you’re in luck, as it was mentioned that an option will be present that disables backfill, letting you land on Tau Ceti IV solo.

Showing a solid slice of actual gameplay, the showcase turned to a lengthy look at gameplay captured during a recent press/influencer event. Focusing on two trios, we see the teams looting, exploring and engaging in some tense battles with other players and some surprisingly deadly AI opponents. These moments are hand-picked by Bungie to show the best bits of the game, but even with that said, the moment-to-moment gameplay looked tight.

You can watch the Marathon Creator Highlights here:

The showcase was already threatening to be an hour long, but Bungie wasn’t out of juice yet. Despite being a continuation of the Marathon IP from 1994, the narrative details are few and far between. That said, the showcase closed out with a cinematic trailer that makes to most of the game’s impeccable aesthetic while also hinting at some more prominent themes that could hopefully be explored in the full game.

You can watch the Marathon Cinematic trailer here:

Does Marathon look different enough to the raft of available extraction shooters to interest you? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.