Bungie re-reveals Marathon with short film and September release date

Bungie re-revealed its extraction shooter Marathon in a livestream out of its studio in Bellevue, Wash, Saturday. Marathon was officially revealed in May of 2023, and Bungie has been relatively quiet since its announcement. But as the studio gears up for the game’s Sept. 23 release date, it’s opening the floodgates on all things Marathon.

The studio started the event with a quick intro and a flashy trailer, followed by some of its developers discussing the game in more detail. This led into a significantly longer trailer (narrated by Ben Starr of Final Fantasy 16 and Balatro fame) explaining how Marathon works.

The idea is that each player inhabits the shell of a Runner, a bio-cybernetic mercenary body. Players will then group up in teams of three to drop into a variety of maps on the colony of Tau Ceti IV.

Once they arrive, players will search around the environment to find loot and complete contracts for their factions back home. They’ll also encounter other players and be able to kill them to steal their loot. Players who are able to safely extract from Tau Ceti IV will maintain any and all gear they found while exploring and hunting. Death, however, will cause players to drop everything in their inventory — including any items they brought with them into the lobby.

After more discussion, the event ended with a short film set in the Marathon universe, created by Alberto Mielgo, the 2022 Oscar winner for best animated short film (The Windshield Wiper). Mielgo has also worked on Love, Death & Robots and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The short film showcases the life of the Runners, featuring their bodies getting shredded by enemies, intercut with something reminiscent of the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner.

Marathon will come to PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series consoles — despite the fact that Bungie was purchased by Sony in early 2022. Interested players can also sign up to participate in the Marathon alpha test, coming ahead of launch.

The studio did not speak about Marathon’s price during the stream, but a representative from Bungie confirmed to Polygon that Marathon will not be free-to-play, and will have an upfront cost. It’s currently unclear what that cost will be, or how the studio may choose to monetize the game post-launch.

Disclosure: This article is based on a Marathon preview event held at Bungie’s headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. Bungie provided Polygon’s travel and accommodations for the event. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.