Bungie has stepped in to disclaim a rumor that it deliberate to merge the Future and Marathon IPs amid continued questions on the way forward for each franchises.
The rumor, which has been doing the rounds on-line this week, was that Bungie was testing transforming Marathon and Future right into a single IP. However, based on Marathon inventive director Julia Nardin, that’s unfaithful.
“As somebody who’s labored on each Future and Marathon, I can affirm that the “leak” about us merging the 2 IPs is pretend,” Nardin said in a submit on Twitter / X. “They share plenty of the identical Bungie DNA, however like siblings they’re additionally their very own unbiased entities. Please don’t consider every part you learn on-line.”
It has in fact been a tumultuous time for Bungie, Future, and Marathon. Marathon started life as an extremely hardcore extraction shooter, however Bungie has been retooling it to play extra like Future since as the sport has struggled for gamers. In the meantime, Bungie stopped work on Future 2 to concentrate on Marathon — upsetting Future followers within the course of. Livestreams from Bungie mum or dad firm Sony Interactive Leisure have been overrun by calls for Bungie to return to the world of Destiny, both to proceed with Future 2 or work on Future 3.
This week, Bungie announced a move away from seasonal content, a concentrate on PvE, and a major delay for Marathon’s subsequent replace. It was slated to launch on September 22, however will now arrive on December 8. An extra vital replace will probably be launched in March. On October 6, Marathon will get a smaller replace that resets development and the in-game economic system to arrange for an overhaul.
In a social media follow-up, Bungie clarified that the December and March updates are free, not paid DLC. “For those who personal Marathon, the December and March updates will probably be obtainable at no further price,” the studio mentioned. “That features gameplay content material comparable to new zones, weapons, and Runners.”
Which begs the query: why difficulty this clarification? Some consider it suggests a transfer to free-to-play supported by paid expansions, and these updates shouldn’t be confused with expansion-type content material. Nonetheless, Bungie hasn’t introduced any expansions for Marathon. Maybe the plan is for various editions of Marathon, some paid, that will sit alongside a free providing. These would possibly provide completely different tiers of content material, permitting gamers to select and select.
The spectre in all that is in fact Sony’s ongoing dedication to Marathon. It backed the sport publicly, however some followers are fearful about its future. Steam concurrents don’t paint the total image of a multiplatform sport, however it’s price noting that Marathon had a 24-hour peak of two,464 on Valve’s platform, down from an all-time peak of 77,358 set when the sport launched in March.
Wesley Yin-Poole
Director, Information
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.