• Bungie sent players on a scavenger hunt around the web for its forthcoming extraction shooter, Marathon.
• Having been radio-silent about the game for months, the ARG brought the conversation about the game to the fore.
• As a reward, players were given a teaser and the promise of a gameplay reveal at the weekend.

One thing Bungie loves more than a first-person shooter (see Halo and Destiny) is an alternate reality game (ARG). In these games, Bungie uses the real world and the internet to get its players working together to achieve a common goal.

Bungie’s most recent ARG revolved around its forthcoming game, Marathon, and as is the tradition, the developer’s fans washed the game quicker than you can say “whether we wanted it or not”.

The ARG involved Twitch streamers and multiple websites hiding different cyphers and codes. We believe that this is one of the more involved ARG’s Bungie has crafted over the years. Yes, we’re factoring the absurd Corridors of Time into this opinion.

Twitch streamer MrRoflWaffles detailed the madness on his stream at the weekend. You can watch it here. Eventually, the bright sparks in the Destiny community, who tend to solve puzzles before players even know they exist, solved this ARG.

The reward? A trailer, or rather, a save the date trailer.

Marathon has been billed as an extraction shooter, but since we haven’t heard much about the game for a good few months, it’s unclear if this is still the tack Bungie is taking with this revival of its decades-old game. It does seem to still be an extraction shooter, but given the turmoil within the videogame sector – and Bungie in particular – we wouldn’t be surprised to learn this has changed.

We’re not seeing much in this trailer that we didn’t already see in the announcement trailer. Actually, no, wait, we lie, there is now a pink catbot in the trailer above, which wasn’t there last time. From the brief glimpse of the game, we see that what appears to be a Runner, the cybernetically enhanced mercenaries in the game, downed by something or someone. There is also a beam that shoots into the sky before disappearing, which we suspect will be a gameplay element similar to the circle in the likes of PUBG and Fortnite.

The reveal is set for 10AM PDT on 12th April, which is 19:00 on Saturday here in South Africa. We’re not expecting much aside from a look at the gameplay of Marathon and a vague release date, which will likely be later this year or early 2026.

It has to be good

Behind the scenes, Bungie has reportedly been hosting play tests with folks who play Escape from Tarkov, Rainbow Six, Deadlock and of course, Destiny. Players who have participated in these tests haven’t been able to comment on the game specifically, so we don’t know what to expect, really.

What we do know is that Marathon is really make or break for Bungie.

For the last decade, the developer has poured its heart and soul into Destiny, but interest in the game has waned since The Final Shape reached a satisfactory conclusion. For many players, the allure and lustre of Destiny has eroded, and that’s bad news for Bungie, which has relied on a steady stream of spenders looking to dive into the next phase of the game.

Speaking of Destiny, the next phase of the game is meant to be around the corner but there has been no word on what or even when players can expect what is still being dubbed as Destiny: Frontiers.

A roadmap suggests we’ll be getting another expansion in “Summer 2025”, but that’s around the corner, and Bungie traditionally gives players months to prepare for a new expansion.

There is a lot riding on Marathon then, and while we hate to say it, the future of Bungie appears to hinge on whether this game is good or not.

The gameplay reveal will be live on Twitch this Saturday, so bookmark this link to head there when the stream begins.