The director of the upcoming Marathan, Joe Ziegler, has said that the game isn't free-to-play because it has enough content to justify a price tag. 

Speaking to the Friends Per Second podcast, the developer said that looking at titles that have released in the shooter space, their success doesn't appear to be tied to whether they were a premium launch or free-to-play. Ziegler added that the Bungie has a lot of post-launch content prepared for Marathon that also contribute to it being worth the cost of entry. 

"I think for this particular genre there's a variety of different entrants that I've come at like either a box price or not," he explained. 

"I don't think it's really massively influenced either side of it. Now obviously we're hoping and we are aspiring that what we're showing is going to be exciting enough that somebody's going to take the leap with us, but we are also committed to delivering on seasons past this that will continuously offer to evolve the game without an increase in the box price. 

"What we're hoping everyone understands about the game is that we're really focused on committing to making this a game that's really awesome and we feel like that starting point is really strong at the current time. Obviously everyone's got their own definition of what's the right price of anything, of course, and as we deliver that information we're hoping we hit the right price that makes you feel it's worth your value." 

Marathon is set to launch on September 23rd. It is set to have a "premium" price tag but there's no indication as to how much it will cost at launch. Bungie has said that this doesn't mean it will be a full price product.