Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

[Oliver Onions]

Either that or it Looks like the PS store has an error where it's treating the free trial as the full game and allowing people to upgrade into the cosmetics for an additional $14.

This is eminently possible because the PS Store is full of shit like this. For example, it won't let me buy the Megaman X Legacy Collection when it's on sale because I already own Megaman X, even if it would still be cheaper for me to buy the collection than buying the games I don't already own individually.

This isn't a problem on Steam (although it does annoy me that I can't gift the second copy to someone).

 

[Tanner Glass]

i was going to post that because i saw on marathon plebbit a cope post that sony won't shut down marathon, like nigger do you really think sony will take their millions or L's and not try to recoup a single cent?

There's no actual scenario where Sony shuts down Marathon - it's already made, and already shipped.

They're going to milk it for all it's worth and the only way it'll ever be shut down for good is if they can't make a profit on it. They're drastically more likely to simply put Marathon on a skeleton crew which might actually help it (as a smaller team makes better changes than a big one) or even ship it off to a "support studio" - but the idea that it would be better to shut it down is something that would almost never make sense.

Now if you want to say Sony shuts down Bungie, that's more possible, but depends on what they're currently working on and how happy Sony is with it. It may simply be a Obsidian situation where they had to rush out a pile of dogshit as per contractual obligations and Sony's real play is whatever is after Marathon.

 

[creaturestorm]

I’m still trapped in a pve jail playing with the most obnoxious dipshits on the planet. Everyone thinks they are the main character in their own little adventure game. Runner stats wise I’m almost back to where I was when S1 ended.

I refuse to PvP until I can zoom around the map and stab people to death with my knife.

So far though the changes they’ve made in S2 are what the game should have launched with. The night map absolutely fucks.

It’s hard to explain, but there are all these ways to detect and spot other players in the dark.

-sound
-sensors
-radar
-detection systems
-flash lights
-flares
-Thermals
-echo location type stuff
-LIDAR

There is no one stop solution like Tarkov where to strap on a pair of NVGs or thermal goggles. Usually a combination all this stuff will be brought out during a fight, it throws my mentally map and abstraction skills into over drive. Feels good man.

Also feels like there is finally loot on the map and that POIs actually have real interest to them. We’re not quite there yet, but it would of been a good base line to start with.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

Marty O Donnell did an interview a week or two ago where he mentioned that the idea of a new Marathon title had been present at Bungie since the late 2000s, and that for as long as he was with the company the plan was always for a classic Singleplayer and Multiplayer experience like Halo.

It was an interview with mongoloid Smash JT.

Basically says he would've preferred Destiny and a Marathon reboot be traditional games rather than live service slop. (Probably another reason he was pushed out tbh)

Marty is a real one and is too good for this shithole of an industry.

 

[Rodeo Roadrunner]

Apparently the deluxe edition is on sale for 14 dollars during the trial period.
People are buying it. Only to find out it only contains cosmetics and not the actual game.

The description on the store for the deluxe edition specifically included the text that the base game was included. This is Sony retroactively trying to claim it isn't the full game. They are trying to scam people.

 

[Pod 042]

There's no actual scenario where Sony shuts down Marathon - it's already made, and already shipped.

Bold statement and a terrible argument. Concord, Highborn, and The Cube all were "made n' shipped" titles that had extremely short lifespans with development costs/budgets that far outweighed their worth. I'll toss Hyenas out there too, because it had a ludicrous budget as well, then got shot in the crib one week before release. Remember the Ack'? Marathon's shutdown is inevitable, it's a question of will it drag on for months or years at this point.

They're going to milk it for all it's worth and the only way it'll ever be shut down for good is if they can't make a profit on it.

It's made the majority it's going to make. There's no blood in this stone to squeeze and this game is never going to make a ROI considering poor initial sales and recurring costs that come with maintaining a live service. I did the math earlier and if 15% of the games population bought every current MTX(above industry average) the total plus units sold doesn't even cover marketing. The game itself is fine, even if most don't care for it, but it's development is a financial blunder to put it lightly.

Now if you want to say Sony shuts down Bungie, that's more possible, but depends on what they're currently working on and how happy Sony is with it.

Won't happen, and doesn't need to. There's a presumed absorption clause in the contract between Sony and Bungie. If they fail to meet certain milestones then Sony starts implanting Sony employees to replace Bungie leadership(this has been happening already). More likely is that Bungie's leadership is mostly gone in 2 years after being replaced and it becomes a Sony satellite skin walking the name/reputation.

It may simply be a Obsidian situation where they had to rush out a pile of dogshit as per contractual obligations

Nah, we've done this song and dance before. First with Microsoft, then Activision/Blizz, and now with Sony. Despite changing publishers many times the fuck ups continue and the constant remains. That constant being Bungie's inability to not burn money for fun. What has saved them in the past has always just been luck or as some might call it "Bioware magic". Well, lucks gone and Sony called their infinite money glitch bluff by not greenlighting Destiny infinite/D3 until after Marathon launched. Ergo, no cash injection to fork half into Marathon and the other into their next project like they always did. Now it's sink or swim with Marathon and it looks like they are going to DROWNDROWNDROWNDROWNDROWN.

Sony's real play is whatever is after Marathon.

 

[SCV]

There's no actual scenario where Sony shuts down Marathon - it's already made, and already shipped.

They're going to milk it for all it's worth and the only way it'll ever be shut down for good is if they can't make a profit on it. They're drastically more likely to simply put Marathon on a skeleton crew which might actually help it (as a smaller team makes better changes than a big one) or even ship it off to a "support studio" - but the idea that it would be better to shut it down is something that would almost never make sense.

Now if you want to say Sony shuts down Bungie, that's more possible, but depends on what they're currently working on and how happy Sony is with it. It may simply be a Obsidian situation where they had to rush out a pile of dogshit as per contractual obligations and Sony's real play is whatever is after Marathon.

By this same logic they would not have shutdown Destiny 2. And it's not just a Sony thing, look at Hyenas and Concord.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

I'll toss Hyenas out there too, because it had a ludicrous budget as well, then got shot in the crib one week before release

It still baffles me that Sega were somehow the smartest fuckers in the Live Service Gold Rush and just ate the tax write off.

Which considering how this Gold Rush is coming after the Live Service mareket is already at saturation and people are entrenched in their game of choice, just means they're at least the least stupid of everyone involved in this stupid race.

 

[moocow]

OSR is made by Jagex a company that is badly fucking up and making terrible decisions on a weekly basis and their game still has three times as many players and it's not even peak hours yet.

It can't be overstated how much OSRS's community hates Jagex. It's practically a rite of passage in that community to join the daily "two minutes of hate" chants against those assholes (they do genuinely seem to spent half their working hours thinking up new ways to fuck up the game and piss off their customers; it's very impressive).

So yeah, the fact that OSRS has such a high player count despite literally everyone fucking hating the developer/publisher, compared to this trash heap with its endless supply of ballwashers, is very telling.

They're going to milk it for all it's worth and the only way it'll ever be shut down for good is if they can't make a profit on it.

There is no way in hell this game is profitable or ever will be.

 

[Tanner Glass]

Bold statement and a terrible argument. Concord, Highborn, and The Cube all were "made n' shipped" titles that had extremely short lifespans with development costs/budgets that far outweighed their worth. I'll toss Hyenas out there too, because it had a ludicrous budget as well, then got shot in the crib one week before release. Remember the Ack'? Marathon's shutdown is inevitable, it's a question of will it drag on for months or years at this point.

Concord and Highguard were made by unknown studios and quite literally ran out of money to continue, or else they would be in some type of operation trying to make the lost money back.

The games were released in a piss poor state early in a response to running out of money and just blatantly hoping to find an audience to get enough money to fix the games enough to attract and actual audience and just died on the vine for being half baked. Bungie (and by extension Sony who valued Bungie at several billion) has some cash to run in the red a bit longer than a regular startup studio.

Hyenas was such a mess that Sega saw what it was, did the math on how much more it would take to finish, and then ran the odds of what that finished product would be able to do against Apex Legends/Fortnite/etc and said "let's quit while we're way behind and not dig deeper" which takes some real discipline. Hats off to them.

By this same logic they would not have shutdown Destiny 2. And it's not just a Sony thing, look at Hyenas and Concord.

Destiny 2 isn't shut down, it's in the same skeleton-crew mode that Marathon is going to find itself in - the game is still up, they had a send off and you can still buy it/play it and I'm certain the cosmetic store will still get small updates as well to generate some revenue periodically.

There is no way in hell this game is profitable or ever will be.

I mean simply making more money by running then it loses, not that it's ever going to make a Trillion dollars. It can still generate some profit, there's still between 9,000 and 30,000 people that are having a blast - and might make more on sales/the eventual full free-to-play.

 

[Zenos Yae Viator]

I mean simply making more money by running then it loses, not that it's ever going to make a Trillion dollars. It can still generate some profit, there's still between 9,000 and 30,000 people that are having a blast - and might make more on sales/the eventual full free-to-play.

them playing the game doesn't generate revenue unless they buy cosmetics, the game hasn't even recouped like 15% of its cost.

mind you, its cost is always going up, its a live service game, the salaries of all the employee's the servers, the cost of new content.. always adding millions on, this game CANNOT make a profit because its user base is too small, to make new content costs more than all the users in the game's potential cosmetic buying, and always will essentially forever.

 

[SCV]

Destiny 2 isn't shut down, it's in the same skeleton-crew mode that Marathon is going to find itself in - the game is still up, they had a send off and you can still buy it/play it and I'm certain the cosmetic store will still get small updates as well to generate some revenue periodically.

What is wrong with you?

 

[creaturestorm]

it's a good game for 6 weekends, the fuck are you supposed to do after season 1? it has even less shit to do than FAG raiders, although I spent more time on in than in PREGMATA, there's some players under heavy pignosis, that's for sure.

Yeah its in a bad spot.

They could increase the grind, but that would just kill the casual audience. Instead they chose to reduced the grind, but in doing so all there is to do is pvp (which will kill the casual audience).

From what I've played of s2, I think i know what their plan was. They think the extraction shooter part was what was scaring people away given the non stop crying about extraction shooters. So they are leaning harder into the PvP than before. Sure they added a pve game type, but it's absolutely boring as fuck, but it's an amazing spring board to launch a player into the end game pvp. It also serves an onboarding experience. You can safely completely half the quests, experiment with items, gear, weapons, and interactable stuff in a safe environment. There are even new mini pve events that spawn on the map that give people a taste of what is to come.

They keep bending over backwards for casual pve players and it's ruining the game with every update. There is a lot of stuff I used to have to plan for and work with people to accomplish, there were a lot of rough edges and pain points that just got removed for the random casual who doesn't own a mic or refuses to use it. The new enemies either run directly at you or stand absolutely still... Game design for casuals.

They keep hinting that the game is going to last at least a full calendar year and if this holds true I imagine the game is going to get a total pve make over.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

They keep bending over backwards for casual pve players and it's ruining the game with every update. There is a lot of stuff I used to have to plan for and work with people to accomplish, there were a lot of rough edges and pain points that just got removed for the random casual who doesn't own a mic or refuses to use it. The new enemies either run directly at you or stand absolutely still... Game design for casuals.

They keep hinting that the game is going to last at least a full calendar year and if this holds true I imagine the game is going to get a total pve make over.

I mean, realistically casuals make up the larger market, and Marathons numbers outside this Free Week have been dire to say the least - there is a certain sense in trying to broaden the appeal to casuals, even if its only "we need as many people playing as possible to even begin trying to make back the budget before Sony turbo fucks us."

The problem is that doing so will likely piss off the other end of the spectrum of player base, the ones who were there before the casualization, to say nothing of actually retaining the Casual Crowd once the newest Flavor of the Month comes out and takes their attention. And that's before issues re: the games core identity, but that's a whole other topic.

It's a definite rock and a hard place decision, and both options are just as likely to backfire on them, but they have to try something to stop the financial bleed.

 

[I Know 孤独のせい]

It's a definite rock and a hard place decision, and both options are just as likely to backfire on them, but they have to try something to stop the financial bleed.

There is also the question if it is possible to stop the financial bleed at all and if it wouldn't be more reasonable to just drop Marathon altogether and just pivot everything into a new project (Destiny 3).

 

[Kane Lives]

There is also the question if it is possible to stop the financial bleed at all and if it wouldn't be more reasonable to just drop Marathon altogether and just pivot everything into a new project (Destiny 3).

Given how they just gave Destiny players a giant middle finger not a week ago by shuttering Destiny 2 in favour of Marathon, they don't have that off-ramp now.

 

[I Know 孤独のせい]

Given how they just gave Destiny players a giant middle finger not a week ago by shuttering Destiny 2 in favour of Marathon, they don't have that off-ramp now.

I have no stake in this, couldn't give a fuck about Destiny, but do you honestly believe that the modern consumer even has an ounce of backbone ? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people would flock to Destiny 3 just because it is a "beloved" IP and people tend to have Stockholm syndrome when it comes to modern entertainment media.

 

[Konigsberg]

They keep bending over backwards for casual pve players and it's ruining the game with every update.

The problem is that doing so will likely piss off the other end of the spectrum of player base, the ones who were there before the casualization, to say nothing of actually retaining the Casual Crowd once the newest Flavor of the Month comes out and takes their attention. And that's before issues re: the games core identity, but that's a whole other topic.

I find it a little funny the parallels that exist between Bungie/Marathon and Crytek/Hunt Showdown with the course of these games development.

Several examples:

1. Crytek and Bungie both suffer from incredibly out of touch and borderline malicious upper management.
2. Both studios absolutely depend on the health of their respective live-service games to keep their companies above water. Where Crytek can milk residuals from CryEngine for a little breathing room, Bungie is hoping to milk whatever microtransactions and dlc sales from Destiny 2s corpse for extra money.
3. Just like Bungie with Destiny, Crytek abandoned Hunt Showdown at one point to a skeleton crew of new hires to work on a game they assumed was going to be the next big thing for them, Crysis 4. Unlike Bungie however, when the budget of Crysis 4 began to spiral out of control and development progress wasn't going anywhere, they actually halted development on Crysis 4 and moved their senior developers back to Hunt to get it back into shape. This time was one of the worst in the games history for bugs, shit content, and nearly killed the game. The course correction however managed to save their money maker.
4. Crytek managed to fuck up not only the original launch of Hunt, but also its relaunch with the Hunt 1896 update, kneecapping the games growth both times. Bungie managed to fuck up Marathon so much the original launch got postponed half a year, failed to generate the hype they needed to make the full launch into the success the company needed, and then managed to fuck up Marathon's Season 2 launch by pissing off their core fanbase with the aburupt ceasation of Destiny 2 support. The free week is keeping the numbers high now, but I do genuinely wonder how much higher it could have been if Bungie didn't decide to ignite a Retard Civil War in their own fanbase mere weeks before it.
5. Crytek also went through a year long teething period of trying to casualize Hunt to attract a new bigger audience, to the point they actually hired an ex Call of Duty game director to come work for them in casualizing the game and expanding the audience. Bungies in the beginning stages of this right now, and I think they'll likely end up with the same results Crytek got. They'll piss off their old paying audience that liked the game chasing a new audience that doesn't like it and isn't sticking around to buy microtransactions, nothing but wasted time and effort for their trouble. Crytek eventually knocked it off with trying to push Hunt to the casual market, and is still in the proccess of walking the game back to its slower tactical roots. We will see what Bungie decides to do.

The killer difference between these two companies of numbskulls however comes down to the scale and budgets of these games. Hunt Showdown wasn't a massive budget title that Crytek originally planned to stake their entire future on. It had a modest budget and ended up being a runaway success for a company that had been scraping nickles out of couch cushions for years. They have had a lot of fuckups between launch and now, but those fuckups were softened by Hunt making an insane amount of money over its original budget, buying Crytek time to learn from their mistakes. Bungie on the otherhand gambled a ludicrous amount of money on Marathon and does not have the luxury of being able to make repeated fuckups with Marathon for years until finding their stride.

 

[StacticShock]

The artist got cash and a new job at bungie.

imagine being invited to work at a sinking ship, that must feel fucking A all things considered, going from not having a job to having a job at a dying company is good on it's own...

What is wrong with you?

going maintenance mode is not dying, guyse.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

UPDATE:

The kind and generous overlords at Sony have decided to give everyone who bought it a copy of the game along with their in game trinkets.
E:
BUT GOING FORWARD they won't do this anymore.
Holy fuck, how low can you get Sony?