Halo and Destiny developer Bungie is rebooting the classic FPS franchise Marathon

It’s been more than 25 years since the last game in the Marathon first-person shooter series came out, but developer Bungie has returned (sort of) to its roots by rebooting the IP with a new game simply titled marathon.

The game was revealed as a PlayStation 5 title in a short cinematic trailer during Sony’s “PlayStation Showcase” broadcast at E3 on Wednesday afternoon. However, it’s also coming to PC and Xbox Series X/S. Bungie says it will support cross-play and cross-save between those platforms, just like the developer’s current flagship title, Destiny 2.

The cross-platform nature of this was not a foregone conclusion, as Sony finalized its acquisition of Bungie in July 2022.Saucepan title at 13 years old.

According to an interview posted on PlayStation Blogthe new marathon The game will be set in the same universe as the original games, drawing inspiration from its lore, themes, and story. look at me Saucepannot the original Marathon Games, for a hint of what the new game is like marathon It will be, though this will be a multiplayer affair, a game-as-a-service, unlike the franchise’s original single-player campaigns. especially, marathon It will be a shooting game, a genre that has become increasingly popular over the past few years.

Extraction shooters are spin-offs of the winner-take-all battle royale genre (as shown in PlayerUnknown’s BattlegroundsAnd FortniteWell, quite a few imitators over the past few years), but there are some important differences. Like a battle royale, this extraction shooter sees you plunging into a wide, open battlefield with many other players, but the number of players tends to be fewer, the gameplay is slower, and the goal is to leave the battlefield with loot. You’ve gained all other players rather than eliminating them. . It can be said that the most popular game in this genre is Escape from TarkovBut there are many others.

However, the interview on the PlayStation Blog indicates that there will be more intrinsic story components in this game than you’ll see in other extraction games – which makes sense, as story was a huge factor in the game. Destiny 2.

Despite these modern gameplay mechanics, advertising for marathon It is a throwback to an earlier era for Bungie. Marathon games were originally a Mac exclusive and Bungie’s next IP Hello It was planned to be until Microsoft acquired Bungie and made the game a first-party franchise. Later, Bungie and Microsoft split (with Microsoft retaining control of the Halo franchise and making their own titles within a different studio). Then Banji was released Saucepan across platforms in 2014, with Activision publishing, then Destiny 2 with the same order in 2017. In 2019, Bungie ended its relationship with Activision and began self-publishing, but that was short-lived; Sony will acquire Bungie in 2022. Meanwhile, Microsoft (now stalling) has announced its plans to acquire Activision.

It was definitely a complicated journey. Bungie has not announced a release date or monetization model for marathon Until now.

Listing image by Bungie