{"id":49,"date":"2026-02-23T05:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T05:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalwriting.cornellcollege.edu\/framedrop\/?p=49"},"modified":"2026-03-03T02:27:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T02:27:04","slug":"the-state-of-marathon-will-bungies-newest-project-live-up-to-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalwriting.cornellcollege.edu\/framedrop\/the-state-of-marathon-will-bungies-newest-project-live-up-to-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Marathon: Will Bungie\u2019s Newest Project Live up to Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After many ups and downs, how will they land?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Bungie's
Bungie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Popular developer Bungie, known for massive titles like Halo<\/i> and Destiny<\/i>, is slated to release a new tactical extraction shooter this coming March 5th, 2026, titled Marathon<\/i>. It\u2019s no secret that Bungie has had quite the following through their years of game development. The last Halo<\/i> installment they created, Reach<\/i> in 2010, saw a peak of over 1.2 million daily players, and the release of Destiny<\/i> and its sequel only surpassed that. I regrettably wasn\u2019t ever much of a Halo<\/i> player, but Destiny<\/i> was the first MMO that got its teeth into me. With a collective almost 3,000 hours sunk into both titles (rookie numbers for the average Destiny<\/i> player), I\u2019d consider myself a fan of their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marathon<\/i> was officially announced by Bungie at a PlayStation showcase in May of 2023, with a trailer that got generally good reception. Comments like \u201cThe Bungie art team never ceases to amaze me\u201d were a shared sentiment among a substantial portion of fans, while others had their reservations. Like most game developers, Bungie has made some poor money moves<\/a>, and that same year, they laid off around 100 employees<\/a>. This decrease in workforce left a poor taste and made skepticism well-founded.
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The Beginning of the Fall<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Bungie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From there, Bungie continued to talk about the game, sharing plenty of graphics, but still showing no gameplay. Cracks began to form, and the doubt about Marathon<\/i> was building. In the background, they were continuing to nose-dive their company, firing another 220 employees in July 2024 to cut costs<\/a>, saying that they were over-expanding to too many projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few months of silence, instead of cutting their new game, they doubled down and gave fans some big reveals.  In April of 2025, they released an incredible cinematic as well as a gameplay trailer. The cinematic trailer was received with very high praise. From animator and creator Alberto Mielgo, who gained widespread recognition from his work on the Netflix show Love Death + Robots<\/i>, the almost 9-minute short is visually stunning, unique, and gave a new breath of hope to those watching out for this game (I highly recommend you watch it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

False Hope<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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