Bungie has finally broken its silence on Marathon, but without the promised gameplay and practically

After "going dark" over a year ago, Bungie is again talking about Marathon—the PvP extraction shooter based on its '90s classic—although it hasn't brought along the gameplay footage it promised, and is being about as vague as you can be while still technically using words in an order that conveys meaning.

In the development update video embedded below, game director Joe Ziegler—who we has replaced Marathon's previous director—embraces the Halloween spirit by vamping for 10 minutes, first describing what an extraction shooter is, then describing the concept of loot and gear and loadouts, and later revealing that Marathon will feature "objectives."

YouTube

We do technically learn one detail: If you fail to extract, you'll lose "the things you have on you," which isn't always the case in more casual extraction shooters. Ziegler also reveals some character art: The first is a runner codenamed "Thief," whose abilities Ziegler says have resulted in "hilarious" and "crazy" moments—which he declines to describe—and the second character is codenamed "Stealth." That one's stealthy. (I assume the thief character is stealthy too, but who can say?)

The most substantial part of the update is Ziegler's impression of where Marathon's development is at right now. Back in May 2023, that it would resurface when it had gameplay to show, but alas, there is no gameplay to show. Ziegler says that Bungie has been testing (including with players from outside of Bungie) and iterating heavily over the past two years, and that while the environments are "starting to come together in a really really beautiful way," player and enemy models are less refined, and Bungie isn't ready to show everything together.

This could all be all yono app a smoke screen for a surprise Game Awards reveal in December, but it seems more likely that we won't hear anything more until sometime next year. Ziegler says that Marathon's ongoing playtests will be expanded in 2025, and for now, you can wishlist the game if you want.

Although Destiny 2's latest expansion , Bungie had been having a rough time since its acquisition by Sony, facing declining revenue, mass layoffs, and . A Destiny spin-off was to direct go rummy more resources to Marathon.

It's a little concerning that there's no gameplay to show, but at least it sounds like there's lots of holy rummy community playtesting and feedback going on behind the scenes. Sony's still feeling the hurt from Concord, which appeared out of nowhere, got just a couple brief playtests, and then It's probably reasonable to expect Sony and Bungie to steer the other way for Marathon, with some extended public test period before it's deemed ready to go. Maybe next year.