September 23rd might seem like it’s a long way away, but it gets closer one day at a time, and it was getting closer than the developers at Bungie would have liked. So it turns out that Marathon, the PvPvE extraction shooter that is supposedly based on the original FPS trilogy made by Bungie long ago, is being delayed from its September 23rd launch date to an unspecified time in the future. The announcement promises that this extra time will be used to provide more narrative and environmental storytelling for the Marathon universe, more rewarding runs and smarter enemy AI, and a better player experience for solo or duo players.
Marathon is, as mentioned, based on a series of heavily story-focused FPS titles released in the 90s (they are currently available in a modernized port on Steam for free), but the new PvPvE extraction game had been called out for a plagiarism incident that crushed developer morale. Fans of the original have generally been less than enthusiastic about the in-name-only adaptation, and the feedback from early tests had been less than positive even as Sony (Bungie’s owner) promised to give the game a chance at success, unlike its prior shooter project, Concord. It remains to be seen whether this delay is enough to turn these factors around.
