Marathon is in a peculiar situation. It is not a failure, but it is also not a great success, with a tremendously loyal audience that loves the game. This has led to a reevaluation of the value of acquiring Bungie, the developer studio of both games, at Sony, considering they have lost 765 million dollars in the process. Something they want to address by trying to give Marathon a boost with a week of free play.
A free week coinciding with its second season
From June 2 to 9, you will be able to play Marathon completely free on both PC and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. This will coincide with the launch of Season 2 of the game, titled NIGHTFALL, in which the game maps will take a dark turn towards the survival horror genre. Something that was already present in the first season, but will be reinforced in this second one.
All of this will be accompanied by certain systems and modes designed for new players. The first of these will be the Cradle progression system, with which we will be able to customize the attributes of our Hunter. The other includes two PvE modes, which will free the game from any kind of combat against players, removing the tension of potentially losing everything we have achieved at any moment, with the hope of attracting a larger audience that may be intimidated by the harshness of the game’s basic premise.
The idea at Bungie is to continue refining the experience of Marathon. For the third season, they want to ensure that the experience for new players is the best possible, and for the fourth, to add depth to the extraction system and its consequences. It seems that, although Marathon is not performing as expected at Sony, we still have a lot of gameplay ahead.