Bungie’s Marathon franchise may be making a return

Bungie may be reviving its old franchise Marathon, according to a recent story from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson. The Destiny 2 developer has previously indicated that it was developing a new game,  which could make this rumored revival its first non-Destiny game in nearly a decade. 

The original Marathon released in 1994 on the Apple Macintosh, and was a first-person shooter about fighting aliens in space. In many ways, it’s considered a spiritual predecessor to Halo, and has been ported to various systems over the years, including iOS and Xbox 360. 

Henderson’s report states that the Marathon revival will take the form of a three-player extraction shooter. Extraction shooters, such as Hunt: Showdown, see players choose a mission, arrive on a map, and complete tasks before safely extracting. 

Sources speaking to Insider Gaming continued that the revival is planned as “the ultimate example of a living game.” Live service games are an avenue that Bungie has expertise in and, like Destiny 2, the Marathon game will reportedly feature seasonal rewards and progression. 

Back in 2019, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons explicitly stated his hopes for the studio to be able to run multiple franchises by 2025. And when the studio was acquired by Sony earlier this year, it was made quite clear that it wants Bungie to keep making live service games. 

Game Developer has reached out to Bungie and will update this story when a response is given. 

Marathon is just one of many old franchises back on the rise

If the report of a Marathon revival is true, that’s yet another previously dormant franchise making a comeback. In recent years, franchises that have been on ice for years have made a return, either as remasters and remakes, or full-blown sequels

Just yesterday, Konami revealed it has multiple games in its Silent Hill franchise in development. Before this, the franchise hadn’t seen an entry since 2012’s Silent Hill Downpour.

Back in September, Devolver Games and Terrible Toybox released Return to Monkey Island, a revival of the LucasArts ’90s series developed in part by original creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman.

Following its acquisition of Square Enix Montreal, Eidos Montreal,and Crystal Dynamics from earlier this year, Embracer indicated it would be that remakes and remasters were in the cards for franchises such as Thief, Tomb Raider,  and Legacy of Kain.