Once hailed as a titan of the gaming world, Bungie, best known for creating the likes of Halo, Myth and Destiny has officially revealed gameplay for Marathon, a revival of its long-dormant sci-fi franchise.
However, the Bungie of 2025 is a far cry from its former glory. Much of the original creative talent have long since departed, replaced by a team more focused on progressive ideals and social agendas. The new Marathon has shifted from its roots as a gritty, humanoid cyborgs versus aliens to an online-only, PvP extraction hero shooter, packed with generic, diversity-centric robotic characters that lack the grit and soul of the original.
Marathon was officially revealed through a gameplay trailer, but the reception has been overwhelmingly negative. Critics and fans alike have dismissed it as generic and lacking any real soul, citing its live-service structure and a design that prioritizes corporate trends and ideological box-checking over actual gameplay enjoyment and compelling designs.
This story might sound familiar. Sony’s Concord, a $40 hero shooter released in 2024, quickly became an industry cautionary tale after its record-breaking flop, reportedly losing between $200 and $400 million. It stands as a stark reminder of the dangers of chasing fleeting trends, fixating upon inclusive tone-deaf design decisions, and overestimating the commercial pull of niche, marginalized audiences.
Bungie’s unveiling of Marathon appears to be treading a similar path. Social media reactions have been overwhelmingly negative, citing a lackluster art direction, uninspired gameplay mechanics, and aesthetically challenged character models. Despite being positioned as a $40 online-only title, the game has failed to impress.
To compound the criticism, Bungie’s controversial decision to exclude proximity voice chat, a feature critical to immersion in games like Escape from Tarkov and Lethal Company, has drawn further ire.
Proximity chat, or VOIP, allows players to communicate based on their in-game distance, adding a layer of realism and intensity. From muffled cries as teammates scatter to unexpected, hilarious encounters with strangers, it’s a feature that enriches multiplayer immersion. However, Bungie’s Game Director, Joe Ziegler, told PC Gamer that proximity chat won’t be included in Marathon, a decision made to preserve a “safe space” for players.
“Because we’re so dedicated to making sure that we’re creating a safe space where we don’t have players just flaming each other or doing terrible things to one another, I think we’re not ready to invest in prox chat until we have a solution.” Ziegler said, admitting the studio hasn’t found a “solution” to prevent unmoderated voice interactions. “I don’t think anyone really has a good solution to that just yet.”
Translation: Bungie fears players might let loose some steam by hurling racial slurs and other insults that will offend the sensitive snowflakes they’ve placed on a pedestal via inclusivity groups like Black at Bungie, Women at Bungie, and Latinx at Bungie.
However, this justification has drawn criticism. The vast majority of multiplayer games, including extraction shooters such as Hunt: Showdown, offer practical tools like mute buttons and voice chat toggles to manage disruptive behavior. Notably, Lethal Company, a recent indie sensation, thrives on the unpredictability of proximity chat, with audio design choices like reverb and muffling that enhance its horror-comedy charm.
Bungie’s claim that there’s “no solution” rings hollow especially considering players in Destiny 2 already have the ability to block or mute others. The reality is, Bungie seems more focused on building a sterile, corporate-controlled environment that not only discourages trash talk but actively suppresses social interaction even in a game that’s entirely online and meant to be enjoyed with friends and randoms.
A Franchise Fossil Reanimated as a Woke Smorgasbord
While Marathon never achieved mainstream acclaim, it earned a dedicated following for its narrative-driven, single-player campaigns. Unfortunately, that foundation appears to have been discarded in favor of a generic, loot-centric PvP format. While the series’ lore and alien antagonists like the Pfhor technically remain, the game’s thematic core, the sense of isolation and existential dread has been replaced with a focus on showcasing a range of “diverse” robotic character designs.
The decision to set the game 82 years after Marathon 2: Durandal feels less like a meaningful continuation and more like a branding tactic for what is, in essence, a live-service title. Players are no longer survivors or explorers; they are now “Runners,” competing in repetitive PvP matches devoid of narrative consequence. In many ways, this feels like Concord all over again, an expensive miscalculation that resonates with nobody and will result in severe financial losses.
Unsurprisingly, Marathon’s gameplay reveal has drawn comparisons to Concord, thanks to its colorful, stylized visuals and emphasis on diverse character design. It’s hard to ignore that Bungie, now a shadow of its former self has seemingly created a project destined to flop, plagued by an uninspired art style and character designs that feel more like corporate checkbox exercises than creative vision.
The inclusion of diverse robotic “female” models, in particular, comes off less as meaningful representation and more as shallow pandering.
Bungie’s fixation on DEI, highlighted by its Latinx pandering and the internal defense of a former community manager expressing anti-White racism has distanced fans who long for the gritty, unfiltered sci-fi experiences of the past.
The 2022 acquisition by Sony for $3.6 billion was supposed to signal a new era, but Marathon’s protracted development now an online-only title with no campaign mode feels like a repeat of Sony’s failed Concord strategy. With Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion flopping and regular layoffs at Bungie since 2023, the studio’s emphasis on achieving “ultimate live-service” goals rather than focusing on gameplay suggests that Sony’s mistakes are being repeated.
The upcoming Fairgame$ release will likely be yet another blockbuster failure for Sony in due time as well.
Sony and Bungie seem to believe Marathon is poised to be a premium online experience, but in a market flooded with free-to-play options, their decision to charge players for a woke, online-only game is clearly driven by the enormous costs associated with its development, estimated to have begun over three years ago.
What we’re witnessing is the corporate sterilization of online gaming. Sony and Bungie aren’t just looking to make money, they’re now reshaping how players interact, replacing organic, spontaneous experiences with sanitized, controlled ones. A multiplayer shooter without proximity chat isn’t just tone-deaf; it’s anti-fun that spits in the face of immersion and protects the ideologically inept.
Gamers aren’t rejecting Marathon because they’re afraid of change. They’re rejecting it because it’s creatively empty, visually off-putting, and drenched in progressive overtones. It’s not a game, it’s a product, designed as a “safe space simulator” for people who want the facade of an edgy experience without any of the real risk, fun, or freedom.
This fits perfectly with Bungie’s current trajectory, as the studio has lost the very talent responsible for making Halo’s campaigns iconic, replaced by a team hemorrhaging both creative talent and goodwill.
Layoffs, revenue shortfalls (with 2023 numbers coming in 45% below projections), and what former employees have described to IGN as a “soul-crushing” atmosphere paint a bleak picture for Bungie. Sony’s decision to redistribute 155 Bungie roles across its other divisions, along with the spin-off of a new sci-fi project, signals a loss of not just independence but relevance as everything in this day and age seemingly has to be politically correct and sexually/racially inclusive.
Instead of ushering in a new era with Marathon, the reveal highlights a studio adrift, prioritizing trends and inclusivity over its storied legacy. With Concord’s failure looming large, Bungie’s latest gamble seems doomed to fall short before it even has a chance to launch. If this is how Bungie envisions the future of online shooters, perhaps it’s time to pull the plug and let Marathon rest in peace once more.
