Bungie Takes Its Second Shot At Revealing Marathon: $40 Price Tag,...

A new vidoc reveals the major changes Bungie has made to its sci-fi extraction shooter since its alpha earlier this year met with mixed results.

I had my doubts when Sony said in November that Bungie's troubled extraction shooter Marathon would be out in March 2026 come hell or high water, but it seems determined to prove me wrong. In a big update released today, Bungie not only recommitted to the March '26 launch but also revealed details on pricing, 'Reward Passes,' and the many ways the game has changed since Arc Raiders came along and completely stole its thunder.

An exact date still hasn't been announced, but Marathon is "targeting" a price of $40/£40/€35, putting it in line with big-time online shooters Helldivers 2 and Arc Raiders. "Purchasing Marathon will give you full access to the game, including a roadmap of free gameplay updates as the year progresses," Bungie said. "This will include new maps, new Runner shells, events, and more, starting with the exploration of UESC Marathon's Cryo Archive in Season 1."

Also like Helldivers, Marathon's reward passes will not expire, and will remain available for purchase even after new passes come out—although to be fair, Helldivers lifted that idea from Halo Infinite.

Marathon's more overt lifts, though, come straight from Arc Raiders. After saying in April that Marathon would not have proximity chat because it'd be too toxic, Marathon will launch with proximity chat; plans to launch without a solo queue have also been jettisoned. Both changes felt pretty much inevitable, given how the hugely successful Arc Raiders has become a machine for both generating hilarious clips of karmic justice and as a fascinating social experiment into player interaction.

Bungie has also added a new Runner shell called Rook, a limited loadout option that enables solo players to drop into matches in progress and scavenge loot without risking anything they've previously earned—and if you think that sounds a lot like Arc's free loadouts, well, yes, that's pretty much exactly what it is, although Marathon had similar "sponsor kits" available in its previous alpha so this is presumably more of an adjustment than a straight lift from Arc.

For the record, I think these are all good ideas, but where Arc Raiders has really separated itself from Marathon is that the AI enemies are both extremely dangerous and worth looting. That wasn't the case last time we played Marathon, but the devs in the video do talk up how their bots are no

Source: PC Gamer