Have you heard the rumor that Bungie is looking to somehow merge Destiny and Marathon into a single series? I’ll admit that I hadn’t, until Marathon creative director Julia Nardin took to X to say flat-out that it’s not true.
“As someone who’s worked on both Destiny and Marathon, I can confirm that the ‘leak’ about us merging the two IPs is fake,” Nardin wrote. “They share a lot of the same Bungie DNA, but like siblings they’re also their own independent entities. Please don’t believe everything you read online.”
Nardin should know: Prior to taking up the creative director mantle on Marathon earlier this year, she worked on the narrative for multiple Destiny 2 expansions, and served as associate narrative director on the free-to-play mobile shooter Destiny: Rising. Nardin’s message was also reposted by Bungie comms lead Dylan Gafner, better known to the community as dmg04.
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The message appeared to be in response to a lengthy “leaks” post on 4chan, subsequently posted on the Marathon subreddit, which makes claims ranging from basic gameplay changes to a move to a free to play—and, of course, the merge: “There has been some vague testing the waters internally to rework Marathon and Destiny into a single IP with Marathon representing the beginning of Mankind’s Golden Age and to foreshadow more threats to be used in a future Destiny project.”
I suppose that would be workable—it’s not too much of a chore to mash up disparate properties via the passage of time and weird shit happening in the background—but the obvious question is, why would Bungie bother? What’s the payoff?
Lots of Destiny 2 fans are unhappy that their favorite game has reached its end, but I don’t think they’re suddenly going to come trucking to Marathon because of some meaningless narrative twist. And that’s Bungie’s real problem: Marathon numbers are sagging badly and efforts to turn that around haven’t gone anywhere.
That’s a concern with caveats because Marathon, unlike Destiny 2, isn’t free to play, but Bungie’s been going hard since the game’s launch to find its footing: With the Destiny 2 team gone and no new projects imminent, Bungie needs Marathon to work. The studio recently delayed the game’s planned September content update into December, preceded by a smaller seasonal refresh in October, and also abandoned its “strict seasonal schedule,” as part of its plan to turn Marathon “into a more alien and dynamic survival experience.”
Relentless optimists may note that Nardin didn’t address any of the other leaks in her post: The free-to-play transition, for instance, or that K-pop crossover skins are happening. And who knows? Maybe some of the predictions it makes will come true. Personally, though, I think Nardin’s final bit of advice is good: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. (And my own personal addendum: especially if it comes from 4chan.)