Bungie’s Marathon is an incredible extraction shooter with great quests and brilliant combat that is genuinely Game of the Year material. Unfortunately, the game has not sold particularly well, with just 1.2 million copies sold across PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5.
In a recent report by Forbes, it was revealed that Bungie has spent around $200 million on developing Marathon since 2019. However, while the game has not made a profit, the studio is still dedicated to continued development, hoping to garner a larger audience over time.
In a prior statement from the Marathon development team, it was stated that Bungie is prepared to create “years” of additional content for the extraction shooter despite its underwhelming launch.
In the Forbes report, it was claimed that there is “less panic” surrounding Marathon internally than prior to launch. Last year, the game suffered from a number of controversies, but those have since passed. While low player counts are a concern, the development team is still focused on creating additional content for the future.
“They [Bungie] are mostly heads-down,” the report reads, “working on new content, and whatever the case may be, this is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown.”
Alongside continued discussion surrounding Marathon player counts, Bungie is also continuing to create new content for Destiny 2, another game that has been continually doomed-and-gloomed due to its low public player numbers.
For now, it seems that Marathon is in a stable place, even if it’s not in a particularly great position. While the game is not pulling in the same numbers as Arc Raiders, it has a devout core audience that loves it, which is more than you can say about a lot of live-service games that launch these days.
Marathon’s next major content drop should be coming soon as Season 1 comes to a close. The first large-scale update for the game will be adding the title’s first new Runner Shell, adding even more variety to the game’s fantastic FPS sandbox.
