Bungie Finally Ready to Show Us Marathon Gameplay, Confirms Livestream Date

Bungie is finally ready to show us more of its upcoming PvP extraction shooter, Marathon, with an all-new gameplay livestream slated for this Saturday, April 12 (or 13, depending where you are in the world).

Last week, the Destiny developer dropped a mysterious tweet that included a bizarre 15-second video that immediately set fans sleuthing as part of an “extensive alternative reality game.”

Players realized that within the ASCII art was “a snippet of footage from the initial trailer,” and if they looked closely, they “notice[d] it’s the runner sprinting down a hall from the trailer.”

Another added: “WHEN WILL HE RETURN ERROR ERROR ERROR HAS OCCURRED THE ENEMY RETURNED SYSTEM WARNING: PROTOCOL BREACH EVACUATE THE BASE IMMEDIATELY ALL UNITS REPORT TO STATION INITIATE EMERGENCY PROTOCOL 7 DATA LOSS IMMINENT GOOD LUCK, COMMANDER.”

“Thousands of community members across the world worked together to unlock the gameplay reveal date for Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon,” Bungie said in a statement, before revealing this weekend’s livestream is set for 10 am PDT (San Francisco) / 1 pm EDT (New York) / 6 pm BST (London) / 7 pm CEST (Berlin/Paris) / 9 pm GST (Dubai) pr Sunday, April 13 at 2 am JST (Tokyo) / 3 am AEST (Sydney) / 5 pm NZST (Auckland).

Marathon was revealed in May 2023 as a reboot of the classic Bungie franchise, but with all its themes of “mysteries, eeriness, and psychological creepiness.” Set on the mysterious planet of Tau Ceti IV, Marathon will see players inhabit the bodies of Runners, cybernetic mercenaries who have been designed to survive the planet’s harsh environments. While exploring the lost colony that once inhabited the surface, players will search for valuable loot, including new weapons and gear.

Since the initial reveal, however, we’ve seen very little else. We did get a development update video in October that shed light on Marathon’s mechanics, but the studio stressed how early in development the game was.

Since then, however, and the abrupt cancelation of live-service shooter Concord, Sony is rethinking its focus on live-service games. In November 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki revealed the company was committed to launching just six of the 12 live service games it was working on by March 2026, with the shift signaling the cancelation of the The Last of Us multiplayer game.

Bungie itself is not without controversy, too. It laid off 220 staff — that’s 17% of its entire workforce — in July 2024, less than a year after 100 other layoffs at Bungie. Just a few weeks later, we learned former Marathon director Chris Barrett was allegedly fired after an internal misconduct investigation at Bungie. Barrett subsequently sued Sony Interactive Entertainment and Bungie for more than $200 million.

To watch the Marathon reveal live, head on over to the official Marathon Twitch channel on April 12.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.