Marathon – at least the logo is still the same (Picture: Bungie)

The creators of Halo and Destiny are reviving one of their earliest franchises but the new entry won’t have a single-player campaign.

The Apple Mac has never been much of a force in the gaming world (apparently Steve Jobs disapproved of games) but it does have one classic franchise to call its own: Marathon.

The trilogy of first person shooters were an early hit for Destiny 2 developer Bungie and went on to be a major influence on Halo, including in terms of things like how AI is portrayed.

It’s not clear that that’s going to have any influence on the new game though which, as rumours last year already predicted, Bungie is reviving it as an extraction based multiplayer shooter.

Why they’re using the name Marathon when so few people have heard of the original games, and given the new one doesn’t look or play anything like them, is a bit of a mystery but it is, after all, only a name.

There might not be a single-player mode but according to Bungie there will be nods to its lore and that while it’s ‘not a direct sequel to the originals’ it is apparently ‘something that certainly belongs in the same universe and that feels like a Bungie game.’

‘We’re creating opportunities for player-driven stories to unfold, stories that are integrated with the overarching game narrative,’ said director Christopher Barrett on the PlayStation Blog.

Marathon – the colour palette is very reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge (Picture: Bungie)

‘We’re building a world full of persistent, evolving zones, where players create their own journey with every run they take.’

In other words, it’s a live service game, much like Destiny 2. Sony is very keen on live service games at the moment and seemed to announce at least three during the PlayStation Showcase: Fairgame$, Helldivers 2, and Concord.

They never confirmed they’re live service though so, like Marathon, we’ll have to wait for more information.

What we do know is that the game will be coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC, as well as PlayStation 5, as Sony pledged to make all future Bungie games multiformat when they bought them.

That’s a fact Xbox, who used to own Bungie, were crowing about the second the game was announced, pointing out that, actually, most of the titles featured in the showcase would also be on Xbox.

According to Bungie, Marathon has ‘a long way to go before release’, so it definitely won’t be out this year and, by the sound of it, probably not next year either.

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The creators of Halo and Destiny are reviving one of their earliest franchises but the new entry won’t have a single-player campaign.