Though it has been inevitable from the get-go, nobody really knew when Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, would make an appearance on Steam. Happily, it's just happened, and to celebrate the occasion, game director Joe Ziegler chimed in on how the development is going and what Marathon is.

Ziegler's vlog comes in at just under 10 minutes' worth of runtime and I recommend it for anyone even remotely interested in Marathon. On top of the obvious boon that is an honest-to-goodness explanation of Marathon's core gameplay loop, Ziegler also said that Bungie's been executing some "aggressive [changes]" on Marathon over the past couple of years. Promising news? Perhaps, but Ziegler also essentially confirmed that Marathon's Runners will be pre-existing character ar?chetypes instead of fully customizable blank slates.

Marathon Game Director provides a new production update, and it's looking good

"There's a variety of different things at different states inside of the game," Ziegler said when discussing the current state of Marathon's development. "Some things are a little more complete, like our environments [which are] starting to come tog??ether in a really, really beautiful way." Enemy models, items, and Runners themselves are progressing well too, Ziegler claims, adding that "it's [still] a little early to show you all of it as one piece."

In other words: no gameplay yet, whatsoever. Ziegler did provide a bit of valuable context on the how and why of some of Marathon's admittedly striking new artworks. If nothing else, we've seen the Thief and Stealth Runners' respective character art, and those are pretty darn sweet in a way that kind of makes me think of Craig Mullins' classic Marathon artwork.

Perhaps most importantly, Ziegler has promised that Bungie will expand Marathon playtesting substantially in 2025. By then, I expect, we should hav??e a better idea of how the game actually plays and perhaps even get to see a crumb of actual gameplay.

Full disclosure, though, is that I am not happy about the direction Bungie's taking Marathon in. Though the franchise has always had a pronounced multiplayer component, that's always been an aside to the game's ridiculously complex campaign narrative. To get a sense of how that worked back in the day, I suggest playing Classic Marathon on Steam, whi?ch was releas??ed for free by the awesome Aleph One community.

It was always a given that Bungie would turn Marathon into a live-service offering if it was ever to be revived. That's modern Bungie's entire schtick, after all, given how successful Destiny has been from da?y one. Yet, I can't help but feel disappointed that it's being remade into an extraction shooter, of all things. Target audiences and all that, I s?uppose.

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Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter Marathon experienced a leadership change in March 2024, with Chris Barrett exiting the company and former Valorant director Joe Ziegler taking over as Marathon's director. However, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier now reports that the move resulte??d from Chris Barrett's firing following internal accusations of inappropriate behavior.

Bloomberg's report comes in the wake of Bungie's July layoffs and further integration into Sony, which also saw Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy leave the studio.

According to Bloomberg's multiple sources, unnamed to pro??tect privacy, Barrett's behaviors extended to multiple women from different roles and disciplines across Bungie. Reported behavior includes a deluge of unwanted text messages, comments on physical appearance, invitations to hang out or play truth-or-dar?e, and even indications that Barrett could use his influence to advance careers.

The Bloomberg report alleges that Barrett was fired from Bungie after an internal investigation. Barrett's departur?e was not made abundantly clear to other e??mployees, with some believing he'd been on a sabbatical until discovering his studio accounts had become inactive. 

Barrett told Bloomberg: "I feel that I have always conducted myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues,?? many of whom I consider my closest friends. I never understood my communications to be unwanted and I would have n??ever thought they could possibly have made anyone feel uncomfortable. If anyone ever felt that way about their interaction with me, I am truly sorry."

Sony also spoke with Bloomberg, noting that it takes "all complaints of misconduct very seriously" and that "it is our policy and practice to i?nvestigate every complaint promptly and take action based on the fin??dings of our investigation," though Sony never references Barrett directly.

Since Bloomberg's report broke, Bungie has seemingly made attempts to distance itself from Barrett, including making a 2023 Marathon announcement Q&A video featuring Barrett and Scott Taylor p??rivate and unavail?able.

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As Bungie continues its problem-ridden development of the extraction shooter Marathon reboot, the classic Marathon trilogy is now completely released on Steam, now that Marathon Infinity is out and about. All thanks to the efforts of the Aleph One team, we now get to enjoy classic Marathon without any fuss.

Whereas Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal at least pretended to be simple, straightforward run-and-gun shooters at face value, Marathon Infinity throws any pretense of common sense right out the window with its ridiculously broad, time-hopping main narrative. It's phenomenally weird, and now that Infinity is properly available on Steam, you, too, get to try to make sense of the game's hard-hitting final screen. It's an absolute hoot, I promise you that.

Download Marathon Infinity for free on Steam

Setting its delightfully insane main story aside for a little bit, the Steam version of Marathon Infinity still plays much like a true Marathon game in the sense that it's an extremely puzzle-heavy Doom-alike. Originally released back in October 1996, Marathon Infinity was revived thanks to the efforts of the Aleph One development team, who keep all three classic Marathon titles up and running on modern machinery.

To that end, playing any of the three Marathon titles is easy as pie now that they're all on Steam. Simply install them much as you would any other Steam title - for free, of course - and hit play. There's a heck of a learning curve in getting accustomed to the games' strange delivery of the story, puzzle and movement intricacies, and the hardcore nature of combat. Is it rewarding, though? Absolutely. For context on what's what in Marathon, I recommend checking out MandaloreGaming's reviews of classic Marathon on Youtube:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9?rMu1XYB98&list=PLfZTtT3IEdDjQTHu3NqLjOUX65d4cDG54

And that's about all there is to it, really. I do recommend installing some of the more recent mods for all three Marathon games to improve assets and whatnot, but aside from that, playing through this surprisingly abstract trilogy of shooters is quite unlike anything else. Oh, and if you're familiar with Destiny's weirdness, you'll feel right at home playing Marathon.

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Following the launch of Bungie's classic shooter, Marathon, on modern platforms, the team behind the project, Aleph One Developers, has released Classic Marathon 2 for free on Steam. The game is compatible with both Windows and MacOS and is?? a great way for fans to dig into the series ahead of Bungie??'s return to it.

While Bungie is working on a completely new Marathon game, a group of savvy fans has come together under the name of Aleph One Developers to drag the original Marathon trilogy onto Steam, where anyone can play it. The first game was released in 1994, followed by Marathon 2: Durandal in 1995. It might have ta??ken almost three decades, but now everyone can see yet another entry in th?e series Bungie believes is worth reviving for the modern era.

Two out of three, and for free no less

Classic Marathon 2 picks up the story of Classic Marathon right where you left off. Your triumph on the colony ship Marathon wasn't enough, and you've now been picked up by the rogue AI Durandal and sent to do its bidding wherever it fancies deploying you in the galaxy. Over the course of the story, you'??ll uncover the secrets of an ancient civilization and battle terrible foes that time has long forgotten using advanced weaponry.

The trailer and images on the Steam page make this game look like Doom 1993 running on, well, anything, but it's had a fair few improvements courtesy of the developer's community. It uses original data files but ??brings the FPS up to 60, includes positional audio, and even has 3D filtering/perspect?ive.

Aleph One Developers explain that all these improvements were made in case the "original is too authentic." I can definitely see some elements being way too retro for many people who are just getting into video games or who didn't grow up playing titles that looked way better, thanks to our imaginations filling ??in the blanks.

With Classic Marathon 2 out of the gate, the developer only has one title left to bring to Steam: Marathon Infinity. This final title in the trilogy takes the story in a wild direction, making use of the dimension-hopping themes we see in the second game to create a narrative arc that's so massive in scope I'm not sure how players took it all in when the game was released in 1??996.

This and all the classic Marathon games definitely aren't for everyone. If you've ever enjoyed a Bungie title such as the early Halo games or Destiny 2, the??y're well?? worth a try just to see where the developer made a name for itself.

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The official Bungie Twitter account has just revealed that Aleph One, Marathon's open-source engine community, has released Classic Marathon to p??lay on Steam completely free of charge. If you have a little over 65 MB of free storage on your PC, you too can now enjoy one of the best and most elusive classic FPS titles of all time.

Readers should know this is not an official Bungie release, but it does have Bungie's seal of approval. It's also a port of the best version of Marathon currently out there.

What's new in Steam's release of Marathon

Though this is a surprise release, it's already a proven title. The quality-of-life updates brought by Aleph One's Classic Marathon are already known, as it's a port of an already existing fan re-tinkering of Marathon. You can expect to find the following impro??vements:

• Widescreen support
• Modernized UI and UX
• Lua scripting support
• Third-party modding
• Online Multiplayer
• OpenGL support

Why Marathon on Steam is a big deal

While FPS fans have had DOOM on PC ever since it came out, the Marathon series, one of the genre's best early outings, was only available for Mac owners during most of its lifetime. Even though Marathon was later ported to the Xbox Live Arcade, it remained unplayable on PC in any quasi-official capacity until now. If you enjoy classic FPS games, Halo, and Destiny, giving Marathon a try might prove a great trip back into the roots o?f this great genre.

An official new take on Marathon as an extraction shooter is also in the works, though Bungie has yet to announce a release date. The remainder of the Marathon trilogy will also make?? its way to Valve's pla?tform at an undisclosed date.

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Bungie's been having a rough time following the release of Destiny 2's Lightfall DLC. Amidst layoffs, the problematic in-house atmosphere, and its final season being perfectly average in most regards comes a new set of corroborated rumours claiming that the upcoming Marathon game has been retrofitted into a hero shooter.

According to a report from IGN, Bungie's shakeup goes further into more than just Destiny. In a leadership change, Marathon's creative leadership, specifically game director Christopher Barret, is being replaced by former Valorant director Joe Ziegler. This has been corroborated further by Ziegler's subsequent Twitter announcement, where he confirmed that he has been the head of Marathon for the past nine months.

The really curious bit, though, is that the nature of Marathon appears to have changed since Ziegler's taken the reigns. According to IGN's report, the new approach for Marat?hon includes a departure from player-created characters "in favor of a selectable cast of heroes."

Up until recently, audiences expected Marathon to be an extraction shooter with custom-built player characters �Runners �not unlike Destiny 2'??s Guardians. This makes the latest revelations potentially problematic in the grand scheme of things.

Marathon may be a hero-based extraction shooter in the end

Notably, there's been a slew of negative comments on the matter left on both the biggest Destiny 2 subreddit and the more general gaming subreddits. It doesn't seem that people are thrilled with this information, generally speaking, and Marathon's shift from being an extremely narrative-heavy DOOM-alike to a hyper-stylized PvPvE Tarkov competitor was already driving a wedge in the commu??nity.

It is still, of course, early days for Marathon, with nary a playable beta in sight. Drawing any concrete conclusions about the quality or, indeed, the core gameplay loop of the upcoming Marathon game is useless at this time, and Bungie may wow ?the audie??nces in the end.

The problem in the interim, though, is that IGN's?? sources claim that Bungie is facing issues internally as well. Notably, Bungie staff harbors a "growing expectation" t??hat the senior company leadership will leave "in droves" in 2026 when Sony's final acquisition payouts come in. There's concern about who will step in and take over after and the push to finish Marathon before that timeframe.

A whole load of unknowns, then, and it's currently impossible to say what may happen with Marathon in the end. For the old franchise veterans, it is a bit of a shame that Bungie's decided not to revive the IP in a more sensible form that's true to the Marathon legacy, but it's not all totally grim.

For one, the team behind Aleph One is about to release Marathon Classic on Steam, which is sure to get more eyes on the franchise in short order. And, of course, Bungie could deliver something truly phenomenal under Ziegler's leadership in due time. Destiny fans, at least, have an honest-to-goodness horde mode to look forward to, which is coming as part of the Into the Light content drop.

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Depending on how big of a classic Bungie enjoyer you are, you may or may not have been horrified upon learning that the revival of Marathon would be... a live-service extraction shooter. Regardless of whether that turns out well, though, there's good news, classic Marathon coming to Steam!

Do note, however, that this is not an official Bungie effort. Indeed, the Destiny developer isn't using this as an opportunity to regain community goodwill ahead of The Final Shape's release. Instead, we're looking at an honest-to-goodness community effort to modernize the original Marathon, as per its Aleph One rendition, and eve??rything points to the game being available completely for free, which would be a hug??e boon for the franchise as a whole.

Classic Marathon is coming to Steam soon, should be free-to-play

Even though Bungie appears to have been totally uninterested in bringing classic Marathon games back into the limelight in a playable state, the same cannot be said about the team behind Aleph One: the open-source continuation of Bungie's Marathon 2 game engine. All three of the mainline Marathon games (Marathon proper, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon: Infinity) have been ported over into Aleph One over the years, and it now seems that t??he original is about to launch on Steam at long last.

Classic Marathon already has a Steam page up on the site, and the really curious bit is that on top of the game's usual suite of single and multi-player features, it also seems to support Cross-Platform Multiplayer, as per its Steam listing. No telling yet what that's about, bu?t the possibilities are very exci?ting indeed.

According to people who are in the know on the Marathon subreddit, Classic Marathon will support Steam Achievements, and even though only the first game is currently being discussed on Steam, the two sequels should?? be dropping onto the ?platform in due time as well.

Everything related to Aleph One will, of course, be totally free due to the project's open-source licensing agreement, but this is incredibly exciting for Marathon fans regardless. Heck, it's possible we might finally be able to play the games on our Steam Decks without fussing?? about at ??????????????????????????long last, which is a big deal all on its own.

We do not yet have an actual release date for Classic Marathon, mind, but as this is supposed to be just an Aleph One re-release for Steam, we do know what its feature set will look like. If you're unfamiliar with the project, the Aleph One version of Marathon games grants you:

• Widescreen support
• (Slightly) modernized UI and UX
• Lua scripting support
• Third-party modding
• Online multiplayer
• OpenGL render support, albeit optional

And more. It's a great way of experiencing the classic Marathon games without totally succumbing to ancient design choices of the yesteryear, and it'd be easy to argue that Aleph One Marathon stands toe-to-toe with Doom or, perhaps, even beats it in many regards. For one, Marathon has got a truly wild narrative that is tangled up with Destiny in way??s you would?? never expect, so it's worth experiencing in that regard at the very least.

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Destiny 2's Season 23 started strong, featuring the new Warlord's Ruin Dungeon and activities like The Coil. But beneath the surface, it's possible Bungie and Destiny have received a blow that's impossible to recover from.

A new report from IGN's Rebekah Valentine alleges that the situation only worsens for the remaining e??mployees at Bungie. Morale and company culture seem like they're taking a backseat, in order to avoid something as drastic as a complete Sony takeover.

Following Bungie's layoffs at the end of October, reports surfaced that the studio was drastically missing revenue targets. A Bloomberg report claimed the company would delay Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion in addition to the upcoming new title Marathon.

Bungie would confirm these delays shortly before Destiny 2 introduced the Season of the Wish. Now, IGN reports that employee morale is at an all-time low and that there's a chance Sony could put a firmer hand ??on Bungi?e's affairs.

IGN reports that since Bungie became a Sony subsidiary, it h?as operated with a split board of directors. While Bungie management makes up half of the board, there's an indication that things can change. IGN's sources allege leadership has stated that Sony can eliminate the exist??ing board and seize control if Bungie underperforms. And with that knowledge in mind, this financial fear likely led to Bungie's layoffs.

In addition to trimming staff, IGN reports that Bungie has implemented other strategi?es to save money. Hiring, holiday bonuses, competitive industry compensation adjustments, and donation matching reportedly all took a hit, just to name a few. Obviously, this has done little to improve the morale of the remaining employees after the layoffs. Many tell IGN they are understandably bitter after seeing their friends and coworkers coldly let go, and this just compounds frustrations.

While Bungie hopes to rebound from its financial losses, employees' enthusiasm has essentially disappeared. IGN's sources note that the in-studio atmosphere has been "soul-crushing." A lot is riding on The Final Shape, a?nd the team knows it, as one source? tells IGN that they know the expansion needs to do well, or else they feel they're "definitely looking at more layoffs."

Another fear rising amon?g studio staff is Bungie's increasing reliance on outsourcing. IGN's sources allege an uptick in conversations about outsourcing since just around the time of the layoffs. Though it's standard enough throughout the game industry, Bungie has employed a sizable internal team for years. Now, employees have to worry about whether their job security is a worthwhile investment for Bungie. "Folks still there are very much feeling' us vs them' between leadership and workers," an IGN source noted. "That trust has been eroded."

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Another dive into Bungie's new shooter

During yesterday's PlayStation Showcase, Bungie revealed it was reviving the Marathon franchise for a new sci-fi extraction shooter. And through an ARG hidden inside the reveal trailer, fans unlocked another look at Marathon though a Bungie ViDoc.

A QR code was hidden in the Marathon teaser from yesterday. And the internet sleuths who found it were quick to work and uncover just what it meant. This spun out into what's usually known as an Alternate Reality Game, or ARG; a series of clues and puzzles that weave in and out of the web, usually leading to some secret information. Destiny YouTuber Skarrow9 has a video up, detailing how the communit??y worked together t??o solve it.

The result was a new ViDoc, Bungie's term for a behind-the-scenes making-of video short. Bungie's created a number of them for Destiny, and it looks like Marathon is getting its own as well, starting with the uncovered video "What is Marathon? | Somewhere In The Heavens."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrv0dpztryY

Space cowboy

Much of the ViDoc covers material from the PlayStation Blog interview. Bungie plans to incorporate every within this PvP, extraction shooter playstyle. If you're unaware, extraction shooters are a handy catch-all for a genre of FPS that's been popularized by games like Escape From Tarkov. You enter an area, collect good?? loot, tussle with other teams, and try to "extract" the loot before ge??tting wiped out.

For Bungie, it looks like they're trying to kindle much of that tension and use it for storytelling. Marathon will be PvP, but the team teases world events? too. The idea of being the "world's first" to unc??over a new area, opening it up for other players. It's intriguing, though I wonder how well it would work on a grander sccale.

What really catches my eye in the ViDoc is the art. The Marathon tease?r had an incredible style to it, and that carries through the art here. The colors and contrast, between future tech and alien flora, is gorgeous.

We'll see more of how Marathon stacks up to its legacy as Bungie shares more details. Otherwise, you can catch up with all the news from yesterday's PlayStation Showcase here.

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Old name, new game

You might just remember that before Destiny, and before Halo, Bungie had Marathon. Almost three decades later, Marathon is back, as B??ungie is reviving the franchise for its new PvP sci-fi extraction s??hooter.

Revealed during today's PlayStation Showcase, Marathon is a com?pletely new project for the team. It will pit players against each other as cybernetic mercenaries called Runners, battling?? for riches and fame.

The question of "how does this relate to the original Marathon" is valid, and a little vague. Over on the PlayStation Blog, game director Christopher Barrett expands on how this relates to the 1994 to 1996 Marathon series.

"We have a tremendous amount of respect for the original Marathon games and, from the very start, we’ve wanted to?? honor that, especially the mythology, story, and themes of the world," Barrett said. "At the same time, our vision for thi??s game is something new. It’s not a direct sequel to the originals, but something that certainly belongs in the same universe and that feels like a Bungie game. Finding those opportunities to nod to the universe’s lore, while also getting to build something different and new has been one of the best parts of developing this game so far."

So it's new, but old; inspired by the classic, but creating something new with it. As Barrett goes on to say, Bungie is making something for both new players and those that have been waiting years for more stories in the Marathon universe. There will appa??rently be references and "deep cuts," too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y-e2krA3uE

It's a marathon

Barrett and general manager Scott Taylor confirm a few more things about Marathon in the PlayStation Blog. It's in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It's a PvP-focused game, and won't have a single-player campaign. However, Marathon will have a opportunities for "player-driven stories" to unfold?. It sounds like these are the sorts of stories that evolve out of tense firefights and extractions, the "share around the water cooler" style of story.

But they also want to have players affect the persistent zones and larger world as a result of their actions. They offer the example of a crew finding an undiscovered artifact, that could open a new area of the map for pla?yers to explore. "In essence, we’re creating a game where the actions of players can have ram?ifications for the world and players with each unfolding season," Barrett says.

There's no details in terms of a launch window or anything like that, though Taylor says that the next time we hear about Marathon, Bungie will be able to show gameplay and be "much closer" to launch. We'll see what Bungie has i??n store for its old-new shooter around then.

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