Sony has just announced a new PlayStation State of Play that will arrive tomorrow with 35+ minutes of reveals and news about PlayStation Studios games. One game that will not be there is Bungie’s Marathon, despite the fact that the game’s original release date was literally today. Sources with knowledge of the situation tell me that:
- Marathon is not at the State of Play. No release date, nothing.
- Marathon is not about to be imminently discussed in some longer Bungie presentation after “going dark.”
- The earliest we will see something more from Marathon is November. And that’s a “maybe,” right now.
If it is November, that does align with what Bungie previously said in its “Marathon Development Update” post in terms of the timeline:
“You’ll hear from us again later this Fall when we can share the progress we’ve made, alongside the game’s new release date. Thank you again for your patience and— much more importantly— your passion. Your continued feedback will help us make Marathon the incredible gaming experience we all know it can be.”
November is still fall, but that would be six months after that post was written, quite a long “going dark” period indeed. Behind the scenes, the game is going through a number of closed, this time NDA-ed Alphas, where Bungie likely regrets doing the very unfinished, limited Alpha before that, which led to a lot of negative feedback. We also don’t know the end result of the “scrubbing” of Marathon from plagiarized assets that were found, nor what resolution was reached with the artist.
A November reveal raises questions about whether the game will be out before Sony’s estimated release window of it coming out in this fiscal year before March 31, 2026. Here’s what Sony told investors back in August:
“First, about Marathon, how we factored it in the forecast, we expect the launch to happen within the fiscal year,” Sony CFO Lin Tao said. “But, having said that, this is not a commitment. No official announcement has been given yet.”
“We are now fixing the problems. So we believe this launch will happen. And if this launch is canceled, we need to do the revision of the valuation. However, as of now, this is not expected.”
The “launch” here is the launch before that date, not the launch of the game at all. Unlike some are saying, there is almost no chance Marathon is cancelled this late in the game, but the specter of the disastrous Concord is no doubt haunting Sony. That said, they have recently expressed confidence in the game.
It does not strike me as particularly necessary that Marathon is released this fiscal year, as it’s not likely to be some huge initial earner for Sony, given how things have progressed so far. But if fans were expecting an update in any regard about the game, it won’t be tomorrow, and it won’t be until at least November. Maybe.
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