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Does Bungie still plan to reboot Marathon?

T

Traumnovelle

Member
Marathon-Development-by-Bungie-882x1024.jpg


In 2012 due to the West/Zampella trial against Activision, documents revealed not only Activision's dealings with Infinity Ward but also Bungie. Apparently a prototype for a new Marathon game was being developed and it would increase in resources depending on the success of Destiny. Destiny was a huge success but I haven't heard anything about this Marathon project since and a bunch of high profile people have left Bungie, some which seem to have been working on a non Destiny project like Marcus Lehto.

The Marathon franchise is my favorite thing done by Bungie and I would love to see a return to it (even if it doesn't have the writing of the great Greg Kirkpatrick). I'd imagine it would be an atmospheric single-player focused game which seems less and less trendy these days.

While I like Destiny, I'd hate for Bungie to be stuck with a single franchise for a decade like it was with Halo. I was optimistic after they left Microsoft (which cancelled non Halo projects like Phoenix) that they would move on to a variety of new things and now it doesn't really look like that. Bungie has upwards of 750 employees, making it one of the largest single development houses in the industry. They could totally afford to do new projects, sadly I don't know if Bungie's current management and Activision feel the same way.
 
C

Coulis

Neo Member
That would be boss, Marathon is still one of my fave FPS series.
I wish they could get the Myth licence back too.
 
P

Pepin

Member
I wonder how far off Bungie are from hitting that $375,000,000 target. Because if I read this right (not sure that I have...) they can only commit 10% of their workforce to Marathon once Destiny has lifetime turnover of $375,000,000?

Then when they make $750,000,000, they can dedicate up to 25% staff? That right?
 
Flying Toaster

Flying Toaster

Member
Pepin said:
I wonder how far off Bungie are from hitting that $375,000,000 target. Because if I read this right (not sure that I have...) they can only commit 10% of their workforce to Marathon once Destiny has lifetime turnover of $375,000,000?

Then when they make $750,000,000, they can dedicate up to 25% staff? That right?
Click to expand...

Wow. Okay GAF you have one job and that is buying micro transaction items from Destiny.

We need Marathon.
 
S

Steel

Banned
Halo was pretty much a marathon spiritual successor already. But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in a reboot, regardless.
 
M

MythicReclaimer

Member
The number of folks still at Bungie who were there during the Marathon days has dwindled drastically. That doesn't mean it can't happen but seems weird if it does nonetheless.
 
S

Shalashaska161

Member
Marathon is awesome but Destiny is so huge I imagine they don't have time to have more than a small team dedicated to anything else. I'd love to play it if it happened though.
 
K

krang

Member
I hope so. As long as it goes back to a more traditional FPS format, none of this MMO-lite business.
 
P

Pepin

Member
Shalashaska161 said:
Marathon is awesome but Destiny is so huge I imagine they don't have time to have more than a small team dedicated to anything else. I'd love to play it if it happened though.
Click to expand...

Well, Bungie is ~750 staffers big, according to this article, and in theory Acti would let 75 of those work on Marathon now Destiny hit $375,000,000

Worse games have been made with bigger teams? And if Bungie use their own (admittedly weird) engine for Marathon, with some Halo-like modifications to gunplay/speed to get rid of that chug-chug-chug Destiny heaviness, I can see a pretty solid Marathon game coming out of Bungie Team B in two years, tops?

Also, once the game hits $750,000,000, Bungie could commit another 50 staffers to the roster. With tools like Substance Painter now incredibly popular in game dev cycles, you can minimise the art team and move the coders etc that built Destiny over to Team B, meaning you've got a lean, tight workflow at your command that could perfectly time little episodic Marathon games in between the big ol' Destiny drops?
 
deriks

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Halo is kinda a reboot of Marathon
The guy even uses an advanced version of the armor
 
ToyMachine228

ToyMachine228

Member
Honestly, Bungie needs to focus their attention on Destiny. They've made colossal promises about the universe and even as someone who has played over a thousand hours of the game, I still think they've fallen massively short. They need to keep focusing on Destiny. It really is a game that requires a lot of attention and I think they don't have the resources needed to guide it forward and maintain it as is. They need more help.
 
J

JonathanNemo

Member
Leave it be, yo.

Most of the key staff behind the three Marathon games have moved on, had families, taught classes, lived fuller lives. Jason's never seemed the type to do the same thing for long, unless he has to.

I'd be happier with a new Myth. I haven't seen anything quite like Soulblighter or The Fallen Lords since Bungie got out of RTS games.
 
P

Pepin

Member
ToyMachine228 said:
Honestly, Bungie needs to focus their attention on Destiny. They've made colossal promises about the universe and even as someone who has played over a thousand hours of the game, I still think they've fallen massively short. They need to keep focusing on Destiny. It really is a game that requires a lot of attention and I think they don't have the resources needed to guide it forward and maintain it as is. They need more help.
Click to expand...

They've hired High Moon Studios to do some of the light lifting for Destiny 2, at least? (I imagine this will be asset creation etc?)
 
S

SoundPulse

Banned
I wouldn't even know where to follow Infinity, so I guess it would be a reboot.

Only interested if I can still vidmaster.
 
A

Alric

Member
Coulis said:
That would be boss, Marathon is still one of my fave FPS series.
I wish they could get the Myth licence back too.
Click to expand...

This, after the MumboJumbo Myth 3, I need a return to Bungie, or at least the original people involved.
 
M

MythicReclaimer

Member
Lostconfused said:
Except for all of the ones that quit because of how fine it turned out.
Click to expand...

This is for another discussion/thread but I'll divulge...

Destiny is going to be an ever-evolving experience, love-it, hate-it or somewhere in-between. Vanilla Destiny, TDB Destiny, HoW Destiny, TTK Destiny, and Spring Update 2016 Destiny are very different Destiny experiences from the game's economy, mats, weapons, armor, upgrading, player and light level, gameplay, quality of life improvements etc, etc, etc.

I assume when you say "ones that quit" you are referring to players of the Vanilla version. The game has changed many times since then and will continue to change in the future, that much is certain. Players can choose to quit/play whatever they choose but this genre (specifically with The Division and Destiny) is a a very volatile and evolving experience that a player may not like/grow tired of now but will like in 3-6 months from now.

Personally I'm not in love with Destiny at the moment after the Spring Update which I have found lackluster but I expect that to change soon enough and I'll be right back pouring hours into the game of which I've already spent 2500+ in.
 
ToyMachine228

ToyMachine228

Member
Pepin said:
They've hired High Moon Studios to do some of the light lifting for Destiny 2, at least? (I imagine this will be asset creation etc?)
Click to expand...

There are rumors about what High Moon is doing exactly but yes, they are assisting in some way. Some believe High Moon is doing the heavy lifting on Destiny's fall update so Bungie can focus on Destiny 2. But in general, I still think Bungie needs more help. They have been fairly slow to respond to and update their own changing game world and correct balance issues. They've also made quite a few misguided decisions. They usually correct them in time, but it takes too long.

Bungie really needs to dedicate the kind of attention to Destiny as Blizzard does to World of WarCraft if they want to fulfill their vision for the game and universe.
 
C

Complicated

Banned
They fucked destiny up so bad I'm guessing they don't have the leverage to be able to do this side project they wanted. Activision gave them a few extensions to finish the base game, and then they couldn't maintain the post-launch support to make up for how little was in the game at launch even as Activision was charging a premium for every bit of "content".
 
P

pantsmith

Member
I always saw Destiny as the spiritual sequel to the very end of Marathon. I mean the last line is "I know who you are. You are destiny"

The same motiff is destined to repeat over and over, a la the Souls series. I love it.
 
H

HiredN00bs

Member
I want the Marathon reboot to be a modern adversarial multiplayer game like the Bungie Halo games. I love so much about Destiny, but I was never a fan of the fast kill times.
 
M

m23

Member
I thought Marcus Lehto was working on it but he left a while back. I assume the project was cancelled so he left.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
seriously it's hilarious that a 4 year old contract is still held up as if it's relevant anymore.

So many things have changed and been proven out of date in that thing, but people keep holding it up
 
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