Bungie has announced that it will premiere the first Marathon gameplay trailer later this week, following an ARG (alternate reality game) the shooter's community worked together to solve over the weekend.
As revealed in a press release, Marathon's first gameplay trailer will air on Saturday, April 12th at 1pm Eastern (that's 10am Pacific and around 6pm GMT). Bungie says the trailer will contain "gameplay, news, and updates" about Marathon.
Whether or not a release date, or even a release window, for the game will appear remains to be seen. Bungie's Marathon reboot was first revealed all the way back in May 2023, and after explaining the basic concepts of the extraction shooter in a followup video, Bungie said it would go dark for "an extended period" to develop the game.
Setting up an alternate reality game for a Marathon reveal feels particularly appropriate given the esoteric nature of the original games' storytelling, so perhaps this is a signal that the new Marathon intends to keep at least some of the narrative direction of its 90s forebears.
Reportedly, the new Marathon has been experiencing something of a troubled production.
Not only has Bungie been hit by layoffs on more than one occasion over the past couple of years, but Marathon director Christopher Barrett was reportedly fired from the game in spring 2024, a decision Barrett subsequently challenged in a lawsuit aimed at Sony.
Amidst this turmoil, Bungie has always maintained that work on Marathon continues apace, and it looks like we're about to see what the studio has been up to for the last couple of years.
If you're unfamiliar with Marathon, it's an extraction shooter in which players must scour the planet of Tau Ceti IV for loot while "exploring the lost colony that once inhabited the surface".
The game is a pseudo-reboot of the original Marathon series, which Bungie developed in the 90s. In many ways, that series is the precursor to Halo (or perhaps that should be the "forerunner"), as it offers similarly elliptical storytelling based around alien civilizations, AI, and other sci-fi concepts.
In any case, we'll get to see what Bungie has been working on when the first Marathon gameplay trailer debuts on Saturday, April 12th. Stay tuned for more.
