Though it wasn't quite the wall-to-wall event fans were hoping for, the latest PlayStation Showcase did bring some exciting new announcements to the table, with the first gameplay trailer for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake being two of the biggest highlights. But by far one of the more interesting reveals of the PlayStation Showcase was Bungie's brand-new project, Marathon.
Taking its long-dormant IP and reviving it in a completely different way, Bungie's Marathon is set to be one of the first games in PlayStation's next multiplayer-focused phase. Unlike its three-decade-old predecessors, this Marathon reboot will be an online multiplayer extraction FPS in a similar vein to Escape From Tarkov and Call of Duty: Warzone 2's DMZ mode. But despite being a first-party studio, Bungie's Marathon reboot will also be heading to Xbox as well, putting Microsoft in an interesting position.
Marathon's Multi-Platform Approach Puts the Ball in Microsoft's Court
Over the last few years, Sony has been gradually acquiring more and more first-party studios. While these studio acquisitions didn't often raise an eyebrow, that all changed with Sony's acquisition of Bungie back in January 2022. In its official statement following the acquisition announcement, Sony made it expressly clear that Bungie would still be free to develop whatever new IP it wanted, and that its games would continue to come to other platforms even despite its new position as a first-party PlayStation studio.
True to its word, over the last year and a bit, any content that Bungie has produced has continued to come to both PlayStation and Xbox, as well as PC. However, all of this content has been Destiny 2 related, and with that game already having a player-base across all platforms, it only made good business sense to keep producing content for all platforms. Some gamers believed that when it came to Bungie's next big IP, Sony might walk back its previous promises. But despite conjecture, Bungie's next big AAA game, Marathon, is coming to both Xbox and PC as well as PS5, just like Sony said it would over a year ago.
This decision has put Microsoft in a bit of an interesting position. For the last year or so, Microsoft has been attempting to acquire Activision-Blizzard, and PlayStation has been one of the biggest objectors, citing that it would grant Microsoft a monopoly over the games market. Microsoft has repeatedly tried to refute PlayStation's claims by making a slew of different promises to all parties, ranging from the promise to put Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles for the next decade, to promising that most titles will come to PlayStation as well as Xbox. With Sony staying true to its word with Bungie's Marathon, the ball is now in Microsoft's court to do the same for its own future first-party projects.
But unlike Sony, Xbox is in desperate need of new and exclusive first-party IPs right now. Starfield is currently one of the biggest games of the year, and it being exclusive to Xbox and PC has the potential to boost the sales of Microsoft's hardware exponentially, as long as its reception is as good as fans expect. But on the other hand, if Microsoft doesn't continue to port beloved franchises like Call of Duty to PlayStation if the acquisition goes through, then it will reflect very poorly on Xbox's brand. It's a double-edged sword for Microsoft right now; either it sticks with its promise to port most first-party titles and potentially loses hardware sales, or it rescinds on its promises and the brand is damaged. Either way, the ball is now in Microsoft's court.
Marathon is currently in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
