Bungie has stepped in to deny a rumor that it deliberate to merge the Destiny 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 remodeling Marathon and Destiny right into a single IP. However, in accordance to Marathon inventive director Julia Nardin, that’s unfaithful.
“As somebody who’s labored on each Destiny and Marathon, I can verify that the “leak” about us merging the two IPs is faux,” Nardin said in a put up on Twitter / X. “They share quite a lot of the similar Bungie DNA, however like siblings they’re additionally their very own impartial entities. Please don’t imagine all the pieces you learn on-line.”
It has after all been a tumultuous time for Bungie, Destiny, and Marathon. Marathon started life as an extremely hardcore extraction shooter, however Bungie has been retooling it to play extra like Destiny since as the recreation has struggled for gamers. In the meantime, Bungie stopped work on Destiny 2 to give attention to Marathon — upsetting Destiny followers in the course of. Livestreams from Bungie mother or father firm Sony Interactive Leisure have been overrun by requires Bungie to return to the world of Destiny, both to proceed with Destiny 2 or work on Destiny 3.
This week, Bungie introduced a transfer away from seasonal content material, a give attention to PvE, and a big delay for Marathon’s subsequent replace. It was slated to launch on September 22, however will now arrive on December 8. An additional vital replace can be launched in March. On October 6, Marathon will get a smaller replace that resets development and the in-game financial system to put together for an overhaul.
In a social media follow-up, Bungie clarified that the December and March updates are free, not paid DLC. “If you happen to personal Marathon, the December and March updates can be obtainable at no extra price,” the studio stated. “That features gameplay content material reminiscent of new zones, weapons, and Runners.”
Which begs the query: why difficulty this clarification? Some imagine 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 may supply totally different tiers of content material, permitting gamers to decide and select.
The spectre in all that is after all Sony’s ongoing dedication to Marathon. It backed the recreation publicly, however some followers are nervous about its future. Steam concurrents don’t paint the full image of a multiplatform recreation, nevertheless it’s value 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 recreation 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.