Bungie's first post-Destiny game will reportedly revive its oldest FPS as an Escape from Tarkov-style shooter

Destiny 2 Lightfall
(Image credit: Bungie)

Destiny 2 developer Bungie is reportedly working on a modern-day revival of the Marathon series that started in 1994, now billed as a three-player, squad-based extraction shooter in the vein of Escape from Tarkov. 

That's according to a new report from Insider Gaming, which cites sources familiar with the studio's plans and was later corroborated by Jeff Grubb. The report claims Bungie's Marathon revival, which is unannounced and therefore unconfirmed, is currently in pre-alpha as the first post-Destiny game developed at the studio. 

Described as the "ultimate example of a living game," this Marathon revival is said to feature a seasonal progression system which feeds into deeper customization of the cyborg "Runners" players pilot out in the field. The push for a new live game fits with Bungie's Destiny expertise, not to mention comments that Sony made when it acquired the studio for $3.6 billion, largely to help fuel its own live service ambitions. That being said, when and where this unannounced game will be released remains to be seen. 

The alleged loop of the game will sound familiar to fans of Escape from Tarkov and its contemporaries: pick an area, choose an objective, deploy, explore, loot everything you can, and try to get out without dying – or lose everything you have if you do get killed. 

Destiny 2 Lightfall

Lightfall, Destiny 2's next expansion (Image credit: Bungie)

Grubb supported many of these claims in a recent Giant Bomb Twitch stream. He also added that this game is "almost certainly" free-to-play, with the pivotal Runners providing opportunities for microtransactions of some sort. Given Destiny 2's shift to free-to-play (albeit with paid expansions and seasonal content), not to mention the game's Eververse cosmetic shop, this would also come as no surprise. 

Regarding the Runners, Grubb stressed that players "are going to be customizing everything about this." He described the look of the game as "vibrant" but "brutalist," referring to a "boxy" sci-fi aesthetic. Grubb also touched on the bones of the game's tech and multiplayer, mentioning a push for "no load times" and "minimal queue times."

Rumors of new projects at Bungie have been swirling for years, and many of them have been fueled by cryptic job listings and comments from the company. As early as September 2019, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons committed to launching "other franchises" by 2025. In March 2021, design director Jacob Benton commented on Bungie's mystery games, talking up "a new secret world in parallel with Destiny" set to launch in or before 2025. 

New descriptions for this Marathon revival, which some speculate is tied to the Matter trademark Bungie filed in 2018, loosely align with descriptions from several Bungie job listings. Bungie has specified a new "multiplayer action game," seemingly with "MMO, F2P, and mobile" elements as well as in-game purchases. However, whether all of these qualities are related to this neo Marathon, or indeed the same singular game, is unclear. 

For the unaware, the first Marathon game was released back in 1994. Per Bungie's Wikipedia, it started out as a sequel to Pathways into Darkness – the studio's first FPS, made back when it was just Alex Seropian and Jason Jones with assistance from Clin Brent – but evolved into its own franchise and ended up being Bungie's first major IP. Marathon predates the Myth strategy games and had a longer life than the RPG Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, which is generally considered Bungie's first game, albeit not the first game its co-founders worked on.

More recent Bungie patents also hint at a push for mobile games, and recent reports claim it may be partnering with NetEase on a game of its own. 

TOPICS
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

Read more
Marathon key art
Marathon: Everything we know so far
A Titan readies for combat in an animated trailer for Apex Legends Season 19
Yet another Respawn shooter has reportedly been canceled, following the studio's Star Wars FPS and rumored Titanfall Legends game to the grave
A collection of Splitgate 2 screenshots as part of GamesRadar+'s Big in 2025 roundup
"We don't want to just be the 'Halo meets Portal' team": Splitgate 2 wants to to evolve beyond its inspirations
FBC Firebreak hero image for Big in 2025
After Alan Wake 2 and Control, FBC: Firebreak represents a bold new frontier for Remedy: "It's time to expand the Remedy Connected Universe into shared spaces and brave something new"
Key art for La Quimera, showing an exosuitted soldier posing in front of the game's logo
Veteran Metro developers announce a new FPS that has Crysis-like exosuits and drags an acclaimed filmmaker out of a 9-year hiatus
Colorful key art for Wildgate showing spaceships flying towards one another at speed while exchanging laser fire, smaller crew members circling around them - in the background, purple-tinged space warps and distorts
"We have to earn it": Wildgate is a frenzied sci-fi shooter from former Blizzard devs, but this multiplayer isn't riding any coattails
Latest in FPS
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
halflife screenshot showing a headcrab jumping at a player
Half-Life devs worried Gabe Newell "promised things that they couldn't possibly deliver" for the iconic FPS, but "they just didn't know" that they'd be able to do it yet
Former Valve exec recounts the meeting where Half-Life's publisher almost killed the iconic FPS: "Half-Life would quietly die. I was stunned"
FBC Firebreak screenshot for GamesRadar Big Preview showing a character throwing an electric shock grenade in a crowded room
FBC: Firebreak may be Remedy's first live-service game but the Control creators are going about it the right way, confirming that all playable post-launch content "will always be free"
"Valve would never ship another game": Former exec forced Half-Life publisher's hand by saying Gabe Newell and the team would pivot away from game dev
Gordon Freeman
Valve literally gives Half-Life away now, but 27 years ago it was carefully crushing its angry pirates: "None of them had actually bought the game"
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"