Marathon Launches: Bungie's New Shooter Hits 85K Players in First Hour
The release of Marathon — the long-awaited extraction shooter from Bungie, known as the creator of Destiny and Halo, has occurred. Essentially, it was for this game that Sony acquired Bungie in early 2022, and the coming months will show whether this investment was justified.
What is known
The service game is already available on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC, offering gameplay familiar from projects of a similar genre — the player chooses a “Shell” (Class), goes out on a raid with one or two partners, encounters opponents (PvP and PvE), searches for valuable items and equipment, takes as much as they can carry, and tries to evacuate. In the case of success, all loot goes into storage, while in death, everything brought along is lost.
In Marathon, events unfold on the planet Tau Ceti IV, which is divided into four zones — they have different difficulty levels, and the greatest challenge awaits gamers on the UESC Marathon spaceship. Players will receive assignments from representatives of various factions, with valuable rewards and bonuses provided upon completion, and characters will further reveal the nuances of the Marathon universe.
In the game, the most accurate shooter isn't always the winner; for successful raids, one needs to accurately assess the situation and their capabilities, know the landscape, understand the potential of their equipment, and, of course, a coordinated team effort increases the chance of survival.
The game has launched its first season, which will run until June.
An hour after release, the peak online of Marathon on Steam approached 85 thousand people.
The game is sold for $40 on all platforms.
Source: SteamDB
