One of the most unexpected announcements at Sony’s recent PlayStation Showcase 2023 was the debut trailer for a reimagined version of Bungie’s long-dormantMarathonseries.Although details remain scarce about the sci-fi shooter’s gameplay,Marathon’s futuristic settingopens the door to establishing connections between it and Bungie’s wildly popularDestiny 2. While the duo might seem like an odd pairing, tying these two universes together even tangentially could be a great idea and help deepen the lore of both franchises.
If Bungie wanted to establish links between theMarathonandDestiny 2universes, one developer it could look to for inspiration is Remedy Entertainment. Establishing a name for itself with 2001’s seminal third-person shooter,Max Payne, Remedy-developed titles likeAlan WakeandControlare regarded as classics by many gamers and critics. Seizing upon the similarly supernatural storylines of the latter titles, Remedy filledControlwith numerous Easter eggs referencingAlan Wakethat could be spotted by eagle-eyed players. A more definitive link between the two franchises was established withControl’sAWEDLC, marking the official start ofRemedy’s connected universe.
RELATED:Bungie Has Kickstarted a New Marathon ARG With a Creepy Image
Remedy’s Connected Universe Establishes a Model Bungie Could Follow
Similarly to how Remedy Entertainment tied together theworld ofAlan WakeandControl, showing how the former series was indirectly responsible for some events in the latter, the universes ofMarathonandDestiny 2could have some impact on one another. While it would likely be more than a bit jarring to seeDestiny 2’s armor-clad combatants squaring off againstMarathon’s decidedly more cyberpunk fighters, that doesn’t mean that the two franchises can’t overlap in other, more indirect ways.
Crossing over the two franchises would make financial sense for Bungie, incentivizing players of each title to give the other a shot in order to get the whole experience, and could make for an intriguing narrative choice. WithDestiny 2’s current, decade-long story arc coming to an end with the release ofThe Final Shapeexpansionin 2024, it’s the perfect time for Bungie to do something bold with the franchise and tie it intoMarathon’s far-future setting. If Bungie does decide to blend the worlds of its two sci-fi shooters,Destiny 2even has pre-established lore that could help explain the connection.
Destiny’s Past May Hold the Key to a Future Bungie Connected Universe
One way that Bungie could tieMarathonandDestiny2 together is by revisiting a concept introduced when the origins ofDestiny 2’s Awoken specieswere revealed in the game’sForsakenexpansion. Making their first appearance in the originalDestiny, the Awoken are an advanced species of aliens descended from the crew of a human colony ship, theYang Liwei, that became trapped inside a pocket universe. Expanding on this idea by placingMarathoninside a previously unknown pocket universe located within the world ofDestiny 2would let Bungie link the two franchises while also helping to explain their drastically different settings.
Rather than being a consciously-shaped creation like the Awoken’s home, the Distributary,Marathon’s settingcould reflect a world where humanity followed a dramatically different path than the inhabitants ofDestiny 2. Set in 2850 on the planet Tau Ceti IV, the dystopian, cyberpunk-inspiredMarathoncould be introduced as a pocket universe resulting from a timeline where humanity never met The Traveler, instead expanding out into the galaxy of its own accord. The relative timelines of the two games even match up surprisingly well. ManyDestiny 2fans speculate that Bungie’s popular shooter takes place somewhere around 1,000 years in the future depending on how long each ofDestiny 2’s historical Ages lasted.
Bungie could choose to simply scatter someDestiny 2Easter eggs across Tau Ceti IV forMarathonplayers to find and call it a day, but providing a deeper connection between the two franchises could help both grow going forward. If handled well, it could even sew the seeds for a future Bungie connected universe that could entertain gamers for years to come.
Marathonis currently in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
