Bungie's 'Marathon' returning to Xbox 360

[diskoboy]

Looks like I beat the DP servbot ;)

Bungie's Macintosh classic will be getting a sequel on the 360 - Marathon: Durandal.


http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/12/bungies-marathon-for-360-makes-the-grade-in-germany/

[heybtbm]

I always thought Halo was a trilogy. Hence, after Halo 3 it would be the end of "Halo" and the beginning of something new (yet obviously related).

Of course who am I kidding...there will be Halo 4 through whatever if it keeps selling.

[monkeysuit]

I really don't know how Bungie is going to make a dent without slapping "Halo" on the box somewhere. Marathon definitely has a hard act to follow.

[agbulls]

I really don't know how Bungie is going to make a dent without slapping "Halo" on the box somewhere. Marathon definitely has a hard act to follow.

You seriously don't think putting "Bungie" and "makers of Halo" on the box will sell a Marathon sequel, regardless of it being any good? You make it sound as if Bungie will never - and should never - do anything BUT Halo. If anything, I'm curious to see what else they can do. I think they're a good studio, but have personally questioned the superstar status that has been thrown upon them.

Also, this type of marketing has been happening for years with movies -- and already some games. A few examples:

"From the legendary director of the LOTR trilogy, Peter Jackson brings you King Kong."

"From John Carmack and the creators of Wolfenstein, Doom and Doom II comes .... DOOM 3!"

"From the production team that brought you Barbie Horse Adventures and Barbie Horse Adventures II, comes Playboy the Mansion 2"

[monkeysuit]

You seriously don't think putting "Bungie" and "makers of Halo" on the box will sell a Marathon sequel, regardless of it being any good? You make it sound as if Bungie will never - and should never - do anything BUT Halo. If anything, I'm curious to see what else they can do. I think they're a good studio, but have personally questioned the superstar status that has been thrown upon them.

Also, this type of marketing has been happening for years with movies -- and already some games. A few examples:

"From the legendary director of the LOTR trilogy, Peter Jackson brings you King Kong."

"From John Carmack and the creators of Wolfenstein, Doom and Doom II comes .... DOOM 3!"

"From the production team that brought you Barbie Horse Adventures and Barbie Horse Adventures II, comes Playboy the Mansion 2"

Not at all. I believe putting "from the makers of Halo" or "from the genius minds that brought you the Halo franchise" on the box will certainly increase the sales of Marathon. But do you really think the average consumer has ever even heard of Marathon? Let alone, that it was made by the guys that brought them Halo? I'm simply stating that it is going to be an uphill battle for Bungie to equal the success that Halo brought to them. There is no doubt in my mind though that they will be using every last "we brought you Halo" marketing ploy to increase the hype.

I'm not hating on Bungie. We just haven't seen much of what else they can do outside of the Halo universe. Obviously they don't have to prove themselves as a great studio. They do have to prove that they can step outside of the comfort zone and enter into other genres and titles. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Marathon will do that for them.

[PSXferrari]

I always thought Halo was a trilogy. Hence, after Halo 3 it would be the end of "Halo" and the beginning of something new (yet obviously related).

Of course who am I kidding...there will be Halo 4 through whatever if it keeps selling.


Yeah, whether it's for better or for worse, there will definitely be many more Halo's after H3. Microsoft just can't turn down that opportunity-- it's their highest-rated, most recognizable, and most profitable game! Heck, IMO, Halo 3 is the most hyped game we've seen since Metal Gear Solid 2 on the PS2 close to 7 years ago. Unless they want to stop selling Xboxes, their ain't no way it stops. I think Halo 3 ON ITS OWN will be enough to allow the 360 to keep its slight lead over the competition, at least through Christmas. Now I'm not a big FPS fan so I'm not into all the hype, but let's face it, it's the most anticipated and hyped game right now by the gaming media and gamers in general.

As for the trilogy, yes this will be the end, but all that means is that it ends this storyline that has evolved over the 3 games. As with movies (Star Wars) and games (Onimusha comes immediately to mind, but there are many others), even when the trilogy ends it doesn't preclude a popular franchise from continuing with more games. It just begins a new storyline, maybe in a different setting or a later/earlier time period. Halo will be around for as long as the FPS genre remains popular (i.e. awhile).

That being said, hopefully Bungie does take a break (even with a great series like Halo, you must get sick of designing them for this many years straight). On the other hand, with how long it takes to develop a great game these days, it might be difficult for Microsoft to allow them too long of a break.

[heybtbm]

As with movies (Star Wars) and games (Onimusha comes immediately to mind, but there are many others), even when the trilogy ends it doesn't preclude a popular franchise from continuing with more games. It just begins a new storyline

Good point. That's probably what they'll do.

[agbulls]

Good point. That's probably what they'll do.

I can see it now:

Master Chief: The Early Years or

Halo: The Geriatric Period

[Lady Jaye]

That reminds me that I should install Classic on my Mac to play the Bungie Action Sack games (which includes the Marathon series)...

[Push Upstairs]

"Durandal" was available for Windows.

I thought "Halo" was somewhat related to Marathon. Master Chief
looks similar to the character in "Marathon" and the Marathon symbol is even inside Halo somewhere (title screen or something).

[Overbite]

AHHHH HOLY SHIT MARATHON!!!!!!!

I LOVED Marathon as a kid (still do)! Even if they just package up the trilogy and put it on Live Arcade I'd buy the hell out of it.

[Overbite]

"Durandal" was available for Windows.

I thought "Halo" was somewhat related to Marathon. Master Chief
looks similar to the character in "Marathon" and the Marathon symbol is even inside Halo somewhere (title screen or something).


Off the top of my head, here are the similarities between Halo and Marathon

Marathon logo shows up on Commander Keyes uniform (on the shoulder), on the side of the Pillar of Autumn, on the difficulty select screen, in the logo for the original Halo, and you can choose to have the marathon logo as your multiplayer logo.

The rocket launcher has the same name in Halo and Marathon (SPNKr)

The suit Master Chief wears is a very very early model of the one the Marathon guy wears.

Some of the "level names" (the titles that appear during Halo cut scenes) are taken from Marathon.

On the Pillar of Autumn in Halo 1 there is a notice on one of the bulletin boards that says " Colony Ship for sale, cheap!" which is the name of a Marathon level.

Also, I do believe they mention a Cortana in one of the Marathon games, though I could be wrong.

[Steve W]

The Marathon Trilogy is one of my favorite game series of all time, so this is really going to be fun for me. I bought Marathon 2: Durandal not too long after I bought my first Mac, and it holds many happy memories for me. And it's storyline was the best out of the three, in my opinion. Dammit, this and Space Giraffe are going to force me to sign up with Xbox Live now.

It doesn't shock me that Marathon 2 is coming for the Xbox 360, since the 360 is based on the Power PC platform like the Mac was when Marathon was developed. It would need a lot of tweaking, but the groundwork's already there. Xbox Live already has Doom, so why not Marathon? I say bring it on. "Frog blast the vent core!"

[Lady Jaye]

But that's the detail that's not mentioned: would Durandal be ported as is to the 360 (like via XBLA) or actually remade? Since Durandal did come out for Windows back in the day, either possibility could happen (obviously, if it were a XBLA port, they'd still need to add controller support).

[Push Upstairs]

Now I have that awesome Marathon 2 opening music in my head.

[ubersaurus]

I honestly am pretty sure there's enough people who would buy Marathon simply on the notion that Bungie made it. Like me!

Halo is a trilogy. The Haloverse isn't done yet, which I'm pretty sure the existence of Halo Wars shows.