Over the weekend, a rumor sprouted up from Colin Moriarty in the Sacred Symbols podcast about Marathon’s marketing. However, it looks like Moriarty’s story was entirely misquoted, as Sony’s plans for Marathon may not have changed that much after all.
Moriarty made this statement on Twitter:
During an hour-long discussion about Marathon on Sacred Symbols Episode 360, I said, verbatim: “I was told by someone familiar with marketing plans in a key overseas market that there are now no plans to do paid marketing for Marathon at all.
I don’t know if those plans were affected by what has recently happened or if that was always the plan or whatever, but it is considered a fairly unusual move for a game of this high profile.”
Me talking about immediately-known plans in a single territory doesn’t equate to “Sony has cancelled all its paid marketing plans for Marathon.” Maybe they have, I have no idea. It actually wouldn’t surprise me; the game is clearly in enormous peril and should be delayed.
But that’s not what I said, and it’s not what I reported. There’s a big difference. I just personally don’t think it’s too much to ask that when one uses our content, what was actually said is relayed — quote, spirit, context — and nothing more.
We apologize to Moriarty and the Sacred Symbols podcast for misreporting this news. When the rumor started spreading, it’s clear that some of the sources who got it from the podcast did not do the due diligence to share the full quote or at least explain it. It’s certainly a lesson to qualify any information that’s coming from a source with limited access.
Independent of Moriarty’s story, however, there’s reason to believe that Sony’s and Bungie’s plans for Marathon remain unchanged. A month ago, when Bungie officially revealed Marathon, they announced the official release date of September 23. As shared by Twitter user Marathon Bulletin, Sony has released a new trailer that still shows the same release date.
You’ve seen that we made our own screenshot from that trailer as this article’s main image. The trailer, titled “Play The Unmissable”, showcases first party and third party games that can be played on the PlayStation 5. Most of the games in the trailer are published by Sony. The few third party games that do appear, including Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Marvel Rivals, are particularly popular among Sony gamers for various reasons.
Marathon appears smack dab in the middle of the trailer, and Sony frontloads the trailer with Ghost of Yōtei and Helldivers 2 first. If we were to guess, Sony didn’t make any changes to this trailer even after the fallout of Marathon’s plagiarism scandal. It also doesn’t mean that Sony and Bungie isn’t making any changes that they’ll reveal much later. At least for now, it appears that Marathon’s release is still right on schedule. We’re not so sure that that’s good news for Bungie and Marathon, but Sony certainly has time to turn the story around for Bungie’s next original title.
You can watch Sony’s “Play The Unmissable” trailer below.
