Marathon is now available on Steam! But wait, I don’t mean the Marathon revival that Bungie is currently working on. I mean the original Marathon from 1994. The studio announced the shadow drop on X (formerly Twitter) on May 10 with one extra bit of good news—It’s free!
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Officially listed as Classic Marathon on Steam, the game revives the original title thirty years after its release for new players. Marathon puts you in the shoes of a security officer aboard the titular colony ship as you fight off alien forces. The game was a pivotal sci-fi FPS, one that influenced the genre and helped pave the way for Bungie’s most popular franchise, Halo.
The arrival of Classic Marathon is thanks in large part to the community of devoted fans it still has. ”Thank you to the Marathon community for your support over the years,” Bungie said in its official announcement. “We couldn’t do it without you.” And while developers often give thanks to players and fans in situations like this, it’s particularly true in this case, as the game is credited on Steam to the developers of Aleph One, an open-source continuation of the original Marathon trilogy that has kept the game alive.
So that’s the original Marathon sorted, but Bungie isn’t going to leave fans of the series hanging by only releasing the first game in the trilogy. The studio also announced that Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity will be coming to Steam for free soon.
As for Bungie’s own in-house Marathon revival, the game is still in development with no official release window. The game was reportedly delayed to 2025 late last year following layoffs at Bungie. In addition, the game has apparently faced a change in direction, with Christopher Barrett being replaced as game director by former Valorant head Joe Ziegler, as reported by IGN. That shift in leadership coincides with a shift towards a hero-based cast, similar to Valorant. But until we learn more from Bungie, players can at least get a taste of what inspired the new Marathon by loading up Classic.
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