"Nobody's reinventing the wheel" with Marathon's mechanics, says former art boss, so the visual design needed to take risks

Shooter reboot's simplified look discussed by departed franchise creation director

Marathon's franchise creation manager Joseph Cross near Bungie successful December, soon aft the Destiny developers announced a March 2026 merchandise model for the sci-fi shooter reboot. Now, he’s talking astir what it was similar to enactment connected the game, which has a just spot of lingering antagonistic property to contend with – extended delays, wide workplace layoffs and restructuring, repeated accusations of plagiarism, wealth troubles owing to Bungie’s ailing shooter Destiny 2, and apathy astir blockbuster unrecorded work games astatine large, epitomised by the cancelling of Sony’s once-touted Concord.

Many would hold that nu-Marathon’s creation is its strongest suite, accusations of plagiarism notwithstanding. It’s surely the happening I similar champion astir the game. Or astatine least, find the astir intriguing. For privation of a amended analogy astatine this dismally precocious signifier successful the UK moving day, everything successful Marathon’s satellite looks similar it’s made of precise costly cybernetic crystal cream, sold successful a subdivision of IKEA that appears connected nary Earthly map. As 1 mightiness expect from his erstwhile occupation description, Cross has thing but bully things to accidental astir Marathon’s art. Indeed, helium thinks the creation absorption has “more of a work for creating interest” than is usual, due to the fact that the crippled beneath is much astir “compelling spins connected established mechanics”.

“I believed instantly successful the simplified benignant — but the simplified benignant was the risk,” Cross explains successful a generous chat with Mikhail Klimentov for the latest ReaderGrev newsletter. “This look that we went for and that you spot an improvement of contiguous successful the game, it clicked for maine close away. I was like: This is the equine I’m betting on. And I cognize it's challenging. That's a large portion of the point. I knew precise aboriginal on, it should marque radical nervous. Anything caller similar this, astatine this scale, by explanation almost, should beryllium a small spot nerve-racking to fund.

“My instinctive mode of approaching that situation was to truly attack the creation broadside of it similar accumulation creation — similar we were doing merchandise design, whether it was a limb oregon a loot container oregon a character’s helmet,” helium goes on. “Product design, by nature, lends itself to production, careless of the industry, wherever you're reasoning astir however worldly works and fits together, and signifier connection and colour and each this stuff. We didn't walk a batch of clip trying to merchantability the fantasy, if that makes sense, and astatine slightest aboriginal on, we didn't put a batch of clip successful creating illustrations, for example. In hindsight, I would person commissioned much illustration work. Famously, that's what George Lucas did to get Star Wars sold, is these Ralph McQuarrie illustrations.”

There’s a batch much successful the afloat chat, including debts to graffiti, comparisons with the ocular connection of Roblox, and an ode to 1 peculiar character’s sneakers. There’s besides immoderate cagey speech astir Marathon’s choppy pre-release fortunes, and the rigours of making the crippled tally successful Bungie’s Tiger motor without looking similar a “first relative of Destiny”. And past determination is the beneath conception connected wherefore Cross feels the creation absorption needs to spell peculiarly hard for Marathon.

“There's besides thing astir the plan of the game, wherever astatine a definite constituent I truly did judge that creation had perchance much of a work for creating involvement than it would if we were moving connected a antithetic benignant of game,” helium says. “The crippled design, nobody's reinventing the instrumentality here. We're putting compelling spins connected established mechanics. The communicative is besides not reinventing the wheel. It's an abandoned abstraction colony wherever thing mysterious happened. We've seen this a lot. It's astir however you rotation it, and astatine immoderate point, for amended oregon for worse, I told myself that this is an accidental for creation to benignant of measurement up and supply a level of newness to this world.”

To intercept the evident disapproval here, I don’t deliberation this is Cross throwing his aged colleagues successful Marathon’s crippled plan squad nether a bus. I don’t deliberation anybody astatine Bungie tin reasonably contradict that nu-Marathon is simply a acquainted taxon of shooter. Still, I ideate Bungie would similar that it some look astonishing and stroke your puny quality encephalon astatine the level of the gunshoots and loot-getting. We’ll beryllium capable to determine for ourselves successful not excessively agelong – arsenic of yesterday, the crippled is owed to motorboat connected 5th March.