We already knew that Bungie’s delayed extraction shooter revival, Marathon, was toying with a March 2026 release window and a $39.99 price point, but it seems as though an advertisement on the Xbox Store has prematurely announced the big day: March 5, 2026.

It was Redditor TheJuiceBaba who spotted it first, providing a recording of a now-deleted Marathon teaser trailer on Xbox, which ended with: “Coming March 5, 2026. Pre-order now.”

In news unlikely to surprise you, shortly thereafter the trailer was yanked from Xbox, and TheJuiceBaba’s post is nowhere to be seen (if not quite before people were able to rip and mirror it), giving us our strongest hint yet that the trailer could be authentic.

Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development and has suffered multiple delays. At the end of last year, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge, and the studio found itself battling yet more accusations of plagiarism back in May after an artist accused Bungie of lifting aspects of her artwork for Marathon (the issue has since been resolved).

Last June Marathon was delayed into 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to feedback from playtests. Things went dark until Marathon re-emerged in October, when Bungie announced the extraction shooter was ready for a limited, invite-only playtest for players in North America and Europe across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.