In news that has shocked absolutely no one, Bungie has announced a delay of Marathon. This comes after some not-so-favorable alpha reactions and a controversy involving using an artist’s work in the game without their permission.
what’s next for ‘marathon’?
According to Bungie, they will be:
“Using this time to empower the team to create the intense, high-stakes experience that a title like Marathon is built around. This means deepening the relationship between the developers and the game’s most important voices: our players.”
One thing I’ve learned from my time with Destiny? At least Bungie does listen to players. Now, that doesn’t always result in the best gameplay decisions, but I can give them credit for that. I know that much is legit coming from there.
Bungie is also “continuing closed testing (including participants from the Alpha) to deploy gameplay updates and test new features as they come online.”
i hope they can get this right
Bungie has also noted that they will be focusing on these aspects of the game as a priority:
- Upping the Survival Game
- More challenging and engaging AI encounters
- More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events
- Making combat more tense and strategic
- Doubling down on the Marathon Universe
- Increased visual fidelity
- More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with
- A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy
- Adding more social experiences
- A better player experience for solo/duos
- Prox chat, so social stories can come to life
This makes me wonder how much the game will actually be changing. After all, they note later in the announcement that “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.”
That doesn’t sound like a team that doesn’t have a clue where they’re going. We don’t have much time before Fall, and if you’re telling us that you can have a release date then, the delay feels more like “y’all can stop asking us questions now” than anything else. But time will tell just how fast things are moving with Marathon. But hopefully, they’re taking this time to truly slow things down.
The post It’s Not a Sprint, It’s a… Delay. Bungie Has Officially Put ‘Marathon’ on Ice appeared first on VICE.
