Bungie trademarks Marathon name News • News • Eurogamer.net

News Xbox 360

Old IP ready for a comeback?

Bungie's filed a new trademark to secure the name Marathon for a videogame.

Marathon, remember, was Bungie's game for Mac from a million years ago. There's no other evidence of a remake, but the name alone should start people talking.

Marathon: Durandal - a bit like Doom but with colour - was ported to Xbox Live Arcade in August 2007. It wasn't as good as Halo.

Bungie is currently hard at work on new game Halo: Reach, which will be released this autumn. Catch-up with coverage on our Halo: Reach gamepage.

About Marathon: Durandal
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- Release date 31/07/2007
- Publisher Microsoft
- Developer Bungie
More about Marathon: Durandal
Related game pages
- Marathon: Durandal on Xbox 360

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

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X3Entente #1 2 years ago

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no, make ONI 2 instead
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ecureuil #2 2 years ago

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No, make the crossover game - Marathoni.
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clearblue #3 2 years ago

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Gaudy.
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Raya #4 2 years ago

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halo - multiplayer = marathon
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CaptainQuint #5 2 years ago

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I wish they'd trademark the Aliens vs Predator name instead.
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chrisjm #6 2 years ago

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Snickers?
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woodnotes #7 2 years ago

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I was hoping for a new IP for their next project.
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mull #8 2 years ago

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It wasn't as good as Halo. Haha!
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Xnoybis Verified Senior Software Engineer, Holition #9 2 years ago

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Sweet. IMO Bungie has yet to top Marathon:Infinity, which featured one of the most brilliantly mental narratives ever. Also the editing tools they shipped with that game played a pretty large part in getting me into game development.

Marathon was loosly tied onto the Halo universe IIRC. Shouldn't be too hard to bridge the gaps between the two franchises.
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altitude2k #10 2 years ago

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They've been working on their non-Halo game for quite a while now. If it were to be a Marathon remake, it's pretty risky to wait until now to secure the name Marathon again.

To me this just seems like sensible forward planning rather than an indication of what they're upto at Bungie HQ.
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NegativeZero #11 2 years ago

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This is probably just them renewing their rights to the name and stuff so that they can make sure that the map-making community etc can still be supported.

Though if they did make a new Marathon game I'd be all over it like a bad rash. The Marathon trilogy are still some of my absolute favourite games.
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Optyk #12 2 years ago

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They better not go for the Marathon-Is-Halo-3s-Sequel route.
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Bealsy #13 2 years ago

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Maybe it will start Mr T? Get some nuts.
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StooMonster #14 2 years ago

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Used to love Marathon on my Mac back in 1994.

OK cool, Bungie give the trilogy away for free on their website. http://trilogyrelea se.bungie.org/ Now all I have to do is make it work in OSX.
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rudedudejude #15 2 years ago

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IS IT SAAAAFE?!?!?!
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Stomp224 #16 2 years ago

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Seriously? After 10 years or thereabouts of Halo, they just slink back to an older ip? One that is a Sci-fi first person shooter? That can be accurately described as being " A bit like Doom but with colour"? Does this sound familiar?

Where are the new ideas? after 10 years, surely someone in that company had one?
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AphoticCosmos #17 2 years ago

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I've always meant to pick up Marathon and see what Bungie did before Halo. Might have to do that now.

Perhaps they could bridge the two universes? From what I understand they aren't all that dissimilar, and I don't want to wait until 2013+ to see a resolution to the legendary ending of Halo 3.
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Ignatius_Cheese #18 2 years ago

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I would welcome the return of Marathon assuming they don't bring back the trademark motion-sickness-inducing gameplay...

/HRAP!
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crazyhorse174 #19 2 years ago

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I'd much prefer a game about Snickers...
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Quint2020 #20 2 years ago

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I'd seriously doubt this will be another shooter, surely they wouldn't have done everything they did to get free of Microsoft to work on a franchise which was basically the prequel to Halo anyway?
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crazyhorse174 #21 2 years ago

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I'd seriously doubt this will be another shooter, surely they wouldn't have done everything they did to get free of Microsoft to work on a franchise which was basically the prequel to Halo anyway?

But they're doing the prequel to Halo just now - its called halo Reach...
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Batfink #22 2 years ago

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Almost certainly just a staking out of old ground. The "Bungie Aerospace" logo and trademark, as seen on Joe Staten's jumper at a recent GDC panel, is far more interesting.
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Les #23 2 years ago

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Loved it back in the day. Much more fun than Quake and Unreal IMHO.
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metalangel #24 2 years ago

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So long as they stop trying to associate Halo and Ringworld, that's fine. Saying that, a Known Space game with Bungie's budget...
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