Future being reborn inside Marathon feels like a type of ridiculous concepts followers give you to maintain their hope alive, nevertheless it’s one in all a number of “leaked” plans Bungie supposedly has, which just lately made their method on-line. Bungie has now responded, capturing down what could be the most outlandish a part of the leak.
“As somebody who’s labored on each Future and Marathon, I can affirm that the ‘leak’ about us merging the 2 IPs is faux,” Bungie veteran and Marathon inventive director Julia Nardin wrote on X. “They share plenty of the identical Bungie DNA, however like siblings they’re additionally their very own impartial entities. Please do not imagine every thing you learn on-line.”
In response to the leak, Bungie is outwardly “testing the waters” to merge Marathon and Future right into a single franchise “with Marathon representing the start of mankind’s Golden Age and to foreshadow extra threats for use in a future Future venture.”
The wide-ranging leak apparently originated from 4Chan, and was later collated on Reddit. Although it primarily entails Marathon, it does contact on Future in some key methods. Nardin did not instantly tackle any of the myriad different leaked particulars, nevertheless.
That merger seemingly is not restricted to narrative and lore, the submit mentioned “a number of” former Future 2 builders have been rehired to hitch the Marathon staff. A few of what these Future 2 veterans are engaged on is implementing concepts – initially deliberate for the sport’s cancelled expansions and sequel, into Marathon.
Bungie delivered the ultimate main Future 2 replace in June after saying all improvement on the sport had ceased. The studio mentioned Future 2 would not get any any extra expansions, and that Future 3 just isn’t in improvement. Bungie laid off a whole bunch of staff later in the identical month.
The leak claimed Marathon will ‘borrow’ concepts from Future, reminiscent of the primary sport’s status and faction methods, in addition to the addition of a social area. It additionally mentioned Bungie will entice Future 2 gamers to strive Marathon by providing in-game rewards to those that accomplished sure Triumphs within the sport’s ultimate replace – which is probably the most plausible a part of the leak.
Elsewhere within the submit, it is revealed that Bungie is making Marathon free-to-play in December. That, apparently, was the rationale behind the latest delay of Marathon’s subsequent main replace, which is introducing a everlasting PvE mode. On the topic, the leak mentioned the mode – known as Investigations – is “seen as a mix of Monster Hunter and Salmon Run from Splatoon”.
“Drop in and hit the bottom working with you and one-five mates clearing targets round maps, exfilling to the subsequent to get all of the items collectively to struggle giant Future raid-style bosses,” it went on.
There’s extra there about adjustments coming to sure Marathon options, the arrival of latest Shells and the transforming of maps. Marathon has struggled to make an affect, having bought solely an estimated 1.2 million copies at launch. On Steam, the place the sport’s largest viewers lies, participant numbers have dropped to their lowest level since launch, peaking at beneath 3,000 concurrent gamers every day (by way of SteamDB).