‘Marathon’ Release Date Seemingly Accidentally Leaked on Xbox

The release date for the upcoming extraction shooter video game “Marathon” seems to have been accidentally leaked on the Xbox interface, according to gamers on Reddit.
A now-deleted post from user TheJuiceBaba in the “Marathon” subreddit revealed a trick to seemingly reveal the release date of the upcoming game, which has yet to have its release date officially revealed. According to the user, Xbox gamers can visit the “Marathon” store page on the Xbox store, then add it to their home screen. Doing so will add a video advertisement to the “Marathon” panel on the home screen, which reveals a release date of March 5, 2026.
The date lines up with player expectations, as the game was previously announced to be launching at some point in March 2026.
What is ‘Marathon’?
“Marathon” is an upcoming first-person multiplayer extraction shooter from Bungie, the developer best known for creating the “Halo” and “Destiny” series, and whose most recent game was Destiny 2.
The extraction shooter genre, as seen in games like Escape from Tarkov and ARC Raiders, has players dropping into a map and fighting to find equipment, weapons, and valuables, and then escaping unharmed. Players who die before extracting will lose not only the equipment they found during the match, but any equipment they brought with them, making it a high risk, high reward style of gameplay.
“Marathon” was initially set to be released on September 23, 2025, but was delayed following poor reception to the game’s alpha playtest in late April of the same year. The game also suffered from a plagiarism controversy in May 2025, shortly before its delay, when independent artist Fern Hook – better known as Antireal – alleged that some of the assets in “Marathon” were identical to that of her own designs from as far back as 2017.
Bungie confirmed at the time that a former artist for the company had included Antireal’s designs without its knowledge and without the artist’s permission, and Bungie, as well as parent company Sony Interactive Entertainment, reached out to the artist to settle the matter.