Bungie launched Marathon as its next big game earlier this year. Now, it’s been nearly six months, and it appears keeping players around has become a much bigger problem than getting them through the door.
Recent player numbers showed Marathon had lost more than 96% of its peak Steam player count, dropping from an all-time high of 88,337 concurrent players to a 24-hour peak of 3,507. The decline has been steady outside one Season 2 bump.
That puts extra weight on Season 3, due September 22. Bungie has confirmed a full PvE mode and a major Perimeter rework, while a new leak this week claimed that Season 3 features a four-run PvE mode, four boss-level encounters, a large underground Perimeter section, Flash Boost upgrades, and much more.
Now, another leak from a recent Bungie player survey shows the studio testing ideas for future Runner skins, including a full K-pop-themed set. (yes, really!)
Marathon Leak Shows K-Pop Runner Skins and Experimental Cosmetics
The images come from several Reddit posts shared by players who took part in Bungie’s survey. The questionnaire showed off a range of concept art for potential Runner cosmetics, covering themes such as K-pop, Ascendant Space Gods, and Decora Protocol, alongside several unnamed and more experimental designs.
The K-pop concept appears to be for Vandal. It uses black and gold clothing, bright pink gadgets, large ear pieces, and a segmented pink-and-gold cybernetic ponytail. The survey directly called it a “K-pop theme.”
Skin description: “Lights up, camera live, and the stage is everywhere, but a sharper edge lurks beneath the spectacle. Every entrance is rehearsed, precise, and built to feel like a controlled takeover.”
Check it out below.
Ascendant Space Gods contains three white-and-chrome concepts. This set features skins for, Triage, Thief, and Assassin. The apparent Triage design has skirt-like panels and one oversized boot(?), a middle skin appears to be for Thief which uses exposed metallic limbs, and last one in this set is for Assassin, featuring a very clean front.
Skin description: “Runway couture built by an orbital fashion house that has fused its aesthetic with the visual language of cold, clinical deep-space R&D. The result is wealth and weaponry worn as art.”
You can check this set out below.
Decora Protocol goes much louder. This set features skins for Vandal, Thief, and Assassin. Vandal’s skin features an oversized white jersey marked 22 with blue limbs and a cross-body bag. Thief’s skin features lime and purple clothing, while Assassin’s skin uses a hooded offwhite/cream top, black shorts, and teal accessories.
Skin description: “Harajuku maximalism as load-bearing architecture, fused with kimo-kawaii’s psychological undertow and game language worn as cultural artifact, using cute as a destabilization tactic. Oversized tees, tactical vests, knee-highs, and pure chromatic chaos.”
Check this set out below.
An unnamed darker set shows a red-and-white skin for Vandal, a blue hooded Assassind skin, and a red marionette Thief/Vandal(?) skin. The final very rough concept sheet features a Recon skin beside a blue-and-purple Assassin skin.
The concepts shown across the leaked images are:
- One K-pop Vandal skin
- Three Ascendant Space Gods skins
- Three Decora Protocol skins
- Three unnamed skins
- Two early Recon/Assassin concepts
None are confirmed for release. Bungie is asking players to rate cosmetic directions, so some could turn up in Season 3, a later season, or never leave concept art. Surveying them this early is basically Bungie asking players which fashion experiment is worth turning into something sellable.
Would you want these K-pop and Decora skins in Marathon, or should future Runner cosmetics stay closer to the game’s current style? Let us know in the comments.
