Bungie Confirms Marathon's Release Date After Xbox Store Leak

1 week ago 3

Murillo Zerbinatto is a contributor from Brazil. He's an RPG enthusiast (with a focus on JRPGs) who has been around the world of games and content creation for more than five years now. He has a particular love for Final Fantasy and has absorbed all the content this long-running series offers, including its obscure spinoffs such as Dimension I & II, Explorers, and My Life as a King. While playing RPGs is already a time-sinking endeavor, Murillo doubles down by being a platinum hunter as well.

Back in December, the official Marathon Twitter account announced that the title would launch in March, though it did not give a definitive date. Well, earlier today, the Xbox Store apparently leaked a launch day for Marathon, which has now been confirmed by Bungie itself.

Bungie's Marathon Reboot Gets A New Release Date

After months of rocky playtests and refinements, Marathon is finally slated to launch next spring.

A Reddit user, TheJuiceBaba, spotted a now-deleted advertisement on the Xbox Store that revealed Marathon's release date as March 5 of this year. The teaser trailer reportedly ended with the message: "Coming March 5, 2026. Pre-order now." This teaser has since been posted to Marathon's official YouTube channel, solidifying the game's release date.

Marathon is Releasing on March 5, 2026

Marathon has had a bit of a rocky roadmap, perhaps less due to Bungie's performance and more because of the volatile live-service market and Sony's high-pressure search for its own golden goose title. The game has been in production for 4 years, which aligns with Sony's acquisition of Bungie.

After an Alpha test received lukewarm feedback and a plagiarism controversy, the developer pushed back Marathon's initial launch — slated for September 2025 — to March 5 of this year. They committed to refining and polishing every aspect of the live-service shooter, from visuals and narrative to core game design.

10 Best Extraction Shooters, Ranked

A genre defined by unforgiving gameplay is entering a new era.

Is six months enough to turn the tide of public reception and deliver a live-service game with the kind of long-run success Sony is hungry for? Well, only time will tell. Marathon will be marketed as a premium game, meaning it won't be free-to-play like most live services out there. It will also feature Reward Passes, but unlike its peers, these passes won't expire — much like Helldivers 2's Warbonds.

"Coming March 5, 2026. Pre-order now."

If we need a testament to this model, Helldivers 2 is a massive success and operates much like Marathon promises to. It is undoubtedly a solid benchmark for a live-service game. However, at the end of the day, what hooks players and keeps them entertained long-term isn't just monetization and rewards. It's engaging, fun gameplay that, ideally, offers something totally different from the rest of the pack.

Marathon is positioned as an extraction shooter, a genre that has seen a huge surge lately. The biggest hurdle might not be proving that Marathon is a good game, but showing it can hold its own against Arc Raiders — an extraction shooter currently enjoying a major hype train with no signs of slowing down. No monetization strategy can compete with a player's most valuable asset: their time. If Bungie doesn't give them a reason to invest that time in an extraction shooter worth their while, Raiders they shall remain.