While Bungie revealed part of the content planned for Destiny 2: Into the Light last night, it was on the side ofIGN as unofficial news regarding Marathon fell, with the confirmation of one of these elements. If you ever missed it when it was announced last May, Marathon was then presented as a extraction shooter PvP taking place on the planet Tau Ceti IV, making us embody a Runner having to collect artifacts alone or in groups of three. Christopher Barrett was then its directora fun ARG had been organized (in particular via an account Twitter / X which doesn’t even exist anymore) and the team explained their vision in video. That was about ten months ago. Since then, Jason Schreier reported a postponement of the game to 2025, which was never really confirmed since no date had been given anyway. To go back to the article ofIGNhe mentions changes which do not necessarily bode well and which have made the players react, especially since the image of the studio has taken a hit since the layoffs at the end of last year.
First, Rebekah Valentine reported that according to several sources, the creative leadership on Marathon would be in full change, starting with the replacement of Christopher Barrett as game director in favor of Joe Ziegler. Yes, this is the former director of Valorant and its designer for Riot Gamespoached by Bungie in 2022. Christopher Barrett is a veteran of the studio, having worked there since 1999. If the journalist contacted the firm to find out what it was, the two interested parties themselves communicated in their own way on Twitter.
Hey everyone! Fun update: for the last 9
Months I’ve been working on Marathon as the game director. We’re still baking, but I’m excited to share with you more info on the game as we get closer and closer to bringing it to all of you.— Ziegler (@Ziegler_Dev) March 19, 2024
Joe Ziegler tweeted that he had been working as director on Marathon for 9 months. He would therefore have reached this position only about a month after the project was made official, which is quite curious. As for Christopher Barrett, His profile now states that he is executive creative director at Bungiewithout mention of Marathon. This is a position identical to that of Luke Smithof which we have no idea what it actually does…
Where this is even less reassuring is that apparently, this Marathon supervised by Joe Ziegler would ultimately not make us embody a customizable character, but a selection of heroes. The former director of hero shooter Valorant would therefore reproduce its recipe on this license launched in 1994… Suffice to say that the interest of many players literally soared when reading this. We can easily see such a change in direction for the game in an effort to sell skins and everything that goes with it. In addition, this turnaround would explain the internal postponement. With examples of destiny first of the name at the head (rebooted partly a year and a half before its launch) and Destiny 2 (same, 16 months before its release), this is not reassuring.
The rest of the article discusses internal fears and rumors of further layoffs following the launch of Destiny 2: Final Form, because “something will have to happen to reduce costs unless The Final Form is so successful in making up the deficit and people can upgrade to Marathon.” This is scary and doesn’t bode well for the future either. destinybecause why separate members of the team if a new saga must see the light of day even though there are clearly difficulties in releasing the content already announced on time.
THE MOBA-like Gummy Bears was reportedly put on hold due to internal unrest, while matter (of which we only saw a logo) would have simply been canceled in 2020. His team would have continued to work on a similar project which also fell by the wayside, this time at the end of 2022. Bungie can clearly consider himself lucky to have the license destiny active since 2014 to keep the studio afloat. We are a long way from the 2019 declarations wishing to make the entity “one of the best entertainment companies in the world” by 2025…
Finally, there are reportedly growing expectations within the studio that former members of the management team (including Pete Parsons?) will leave the entity in the summer of 2026 when they would have received their last compensation following the acquisition by Sony… The launch of Marathon would therefore be subject to pressure for a release before that, before letting the replacements manage to feed it over time. This is clearly not reassuring.
Marathon is expected on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The various paid content of Destiny 2 can for their part be found at the house of Gamesplanet.
| Alexandre SAMSON (Omega Law) Responsible Proofreader – Editor | ||
| Addicted to Assassin’s Creed and Destiny, big fan of RPGs and passionate about video game experiences in general. Reader of comics (DC) and various mangas (One Piece!). Chemist by training and Whovian at heart. | ||
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