A trailer and release date for Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon has leaked online, with an official reveal planned for this week.
Bungie may have built a storied reputation following their work on Halo and Destiny, but things haven’t gone quite so smoothly with its latest game, Marathon.
The extraction shooter met a lukewarm response during playtests, and found itself embroiled in a plagiarism controversy over unauthorised assets, which has since been resolved. As a result, Bungie delayed the game indefinitely, from its original release date of September 23, 2025.
The developer previously confirmed the shooter was on track for March 2026, but now an exact release date has leaked from an unlikely place.
As first spotted by Redditor TheJuiceBaba, a now-deleted Marathon trailer popped up on the Xbox Store, which ended with: ‘Coming March 5, 2026. Pre-order now.’ Marathon is set to launch across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC, but Bungie is owned by Sony.
While the clip has been duplicated elsewhere, Bungie has been very active in taking it down – inadvertently confirming that the trailer, and the March 5 date, are legitimate.
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This has been corroborated by Forbes, who claim the trailer will be officially revealed tomorrow (Tuesday, January 20). Pre-orders are expected to go live at the same time, priced at £34.99.
According to the report, a free open beta is planned for late February in a bid to generate interest. Marathon has stiff competition right now, from Arc Raiders, another extraction shooter which recently surpassed 12 million copies sold worldwide.
Marathon is part of Sony’s pursuit for a live service hit, many of which have failed (like Concord) or been cancelled beforehand. One of the last remaining projects we know about is heist shooter Fairgames, but several executive members of staff, including studio founder Jade Raymond, have departed the studio over the past year.
For Bungie itself, Marathon is a pivotal game. The developer has been impacted by various rounds of layoffs over recent years, after it failed to hit financial targets, with Marathon’s success looking fundamental to the future of the rumoured Destiny 3.
If the March 5 date is true, Marathon will go up against Pokémon Pokopia, which is set to launch on the same day on Nintendo Switch 2.
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