Joe Ziegler, Director of Bungie’s Upcoming Live Service Extraction Shooter Marathonsay there’s fully of room for growth in the genre partly fueled by the immense success of sandbox shooters and battle royale games.
GamesRadar+ recently had the chance to sit down with ziegler to talk all things marathon, and we asked him why the team at bungie is confident that it’ll become “the next hit pvp experience” Given the relatively niche popularity of the extraction shoeoter genre. Turns out, bungie is hoping to siphon some of the success from big sandbox games with deeper, more meaningful stories.
“I do think that the ceiling could rise from where it’s at currently,” Ziegler said. “And part of that is I think that we have a whole generation of people who are growing up in sandbox experiences. We have [battle royale] Players, we have players who are playing other sandbox shooters as their main game as they were growing up. And for them, they’re creating a lot of these stories, but a lot of the stories that they’re creating are framed by the systems that those games embrace, right?
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“And what we’re trying to do is like, what if we took that to the next layer?
With a survival extract game, players are thrust into critically dangerous situations usually in search of loot that’s crucial to their survival, and it sounds like ziegler and co. Are hoping sandbox players become more emotional invested because of the stakes at hand in Marathon.
“For us, when we’re talking about extraction, we’re really talking about the session-based survival experience that leads to chain storytelling. The next session.
For What It’s Worth, Gr+ writer Austin Wood Recently Went Hands On With Marathon and Came Away With A Measured and Cautiously Optimistic Take, Writing, “After playing Marathon for 8 hours, I don’t think bungie’s extraction shooter will be the next heldivers 2 hit, but I don’t think it will be the next concord bust either. “
Marathon is second to launch across PS5, Xbox series X, and PC on September 23, 2025, Complete with full crossplay and cross save compatibility. A closed alpha test is planned to start April 23. We don’t yet know the price, but Bungie has said it won’t be a “full-priced title.”
