A string of text has been found in Destiny 2's files that points to Marathon, Bungie's next game, potentially coming early next year. Destiny 2's most recent expansion, The Final Shape, was released this past summer to very high praise. Recently, Bungie announced that instead of one big new expansion, Destiny 2 will receive two smaller ones in 2025, leading fans to speculate about its upcoming project, Marathon.

It's been just about a year and a half since Bungie revealed its Marathon reboot at PlayStation's May 2023 showcase. Classified as a multiplayer extraction shooter, the game's cinematic reveal trailer stunned with its striking sci-fi art direction. Bungie fans have been itching to see and learn more about Marathon ever since, though some are disappointed with Bungie's decision to make an extraction shooter when there are already so many other games like Escape from Tarkov, Vigor, and others that dominate that multiplayer subgenre.

As reported by The Game Post, Destiny 2 players have come across a particular string of text in the game's files that hints at Marathon's release possibly being closer than anticipated. The string of text in question, "v820.offers.entitlement.d2.marathon.preorder" uses "v820" to reference Episode: Heresy, The Final Shape's third and final episode, which is due out on February 4, 2025. Episode: Heresy and Marathon's pre-orders occupying the same line of text could mean that Marathon pre-orders may go live around the same time Heresy releases in February. While Marathon could hog the spotlight for Destiny 2's conclusion to The Final Shape, Destiny 2's core playerbase is still likely to be all in for Episode: Heresy.

If it's true that Bungie is planning on putting Marathon up for pre-order in February, it's possible it may also have a big gameplay reveal ready to go for Geoff Keighley's 2024 Game Awards, which is being held on December 12. Then, fans would have enough time to pre-order the game in February, which would likely pin Marathon's launch sometime in Spring 2025 or early Summer. Bungie did recently invite steamers and influencers to the studio to play Marathon, so a Q1 or Q2 launch wouldn't seem out of the question, although reports of Marathon's tumultuous development cycle might foreshadow a delay.

It's important to keep in mind that this is all speculation, and that nothing concrete has been confirmed by Bungie thus far. Even if the line of text in Destiny 2 is a true indicator of Marathon's pre-order window, Bungie's plans could still change. With that said, it would be wise for Bungie fans to keep an eye on the studio's social media for any Marathon news over the next few months.

Posted: 7 hours, 59 minutes ago
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/destiny-2-datamine-marathon-announcement-rumor/