Bungie Confirm Final Marathon Playtest, Arc Raiders Could Be in Trouble

The extraction shooter genre is already pretty scarce with titles such as Escape from Tarkov leading the charge since its launch.

However, with ARC Raiders becoming an instant success after its launch back in October 2025, it is safe to say that the extraction shooter is now dominated by the Embark Studios release.

With the goal to gather as many resources and materials as possible and, most importantly, getting out alive in a map laden with enemies, the extraction shooter genre adds even more high stakes to your standard FPS.

However, it now seems as though another contender has entered the field.

Marathon.

Developed by Bungie and set to be the latest instalment in the classic Marathon franchise, this will mark the first time in the series that the genre has switched from a standard FPS to an extraction shooter.

Bungie

A Second Chance At a First Impression

Earlier this week saw Bungie reveal the release date for Marathon and although it is set to launch on March 5, a free playtest is on the way.

It is worth noting that Marathon hosted a free public playtest last year.

However, due to some questionable choices and the ongoing success of ARC Raiders, it was not received well.

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On top of this, Marathon was forced to go back to the drawing board last year after it was revealed that its development team had plagiarised some art work.

Put simply, it has been a long road but it seems as though Bungie is dedicated to making Marathon a success with a second public playtest.

“Yes,” an official Tweet read in response to a fan asking about another playtest.

“We'll have an open preview weekend before launch, and everyone will be able to try Marathon out!”

We also know that the playtest will be “available” for all players so we can assume that this means across all platforms but we do not have the exact release date yet.

That being said, we can assume that it will be the last weekend before 5 March.

It is safe to say that this is Bungie’s second chance when it comes to Marathon, or maybe even third if you count the plagiarised art work, so all eyes are on this upcoming playtest.

However, with pre-orders of Marathon already topping the PlayStation Store charts, it is clear to see that the audience is there and waiting with bated breath.