Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

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Jace on ice dijo:
The First Descendant is probably the horniest commercial game that isn't outright porn and it can't maintain a player base.
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"there is.. another, more horny, some say the most horny commercial game"

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Oliver Onions dijo:
Can these morons do anything right.
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They are trying their best, I unironically believe this. Make of that what you will!

Jace on ice dijo:
Even if Marathon didn't look completely repulsive I doubt it would be

An interesting gameplay loop (which Marathon does not have)

And very regular like probably semi weekly content drops.
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It would be. If this was entirely reskinned as a GWOT era shooter people would be tripping over themselves to play it.

Tarkov in 2016 was in such a miserable state when it released and it didn’t bring down the popularity of it.

Do you know how many years it took for Tarkov to implement a “sort all” button in the stash? Marathon started with that by default.

They were charging more for Tarkov a decade ago than Bungo charges for Marathon a few months ago, there weren’t even tasks back then and the maps are a fraction of the size of Marathon.

Guns? I hope you like a dozen different flavors of AK 47.

People love gritty open worlds with a military aesthetic.
 
Jace on ice dijo:
To be successful as a multiplayer shooter you need two things.

An interesting gameplay loop (which Marathon does not have)

And very regular like probably semi weekly content drops.
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I'd argue what you need more than both of those is an element that can be enjoyed by casuals, and nothing I've seen suggests Marathon has that. The sweats get pissed at sharing lobbies with people who don't co-ordinate and casuals get pissed at constantly dying and losing all their stuff.

FYI I noticed Sony have added the Destiny 2 Legacy Collection to the PS+ library. Looks like it includes everything worth playing so that's sure to help Marathon's numbers.
 
creaturestorm dijo:
It would be. If this was entirely reskinned as a GWOT era shooter people would be tripping over themselves to play it.

Tarkov in 2016 was in such a miserable state when it released and it didn’t bring down the popularity of it.
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Marathon wouldn't be much more successful if it were that, because its not a real extraction shooter, there's no exploration or quiet moments to build tension, its just PVP deathmatch where you lose your shit, running into other players isn't a question, you will and you will fight them, simple as, in ARC or Tarkov its always a question "will I" run into them, not "how many SECONDS will the next pvp encounter be", which is Marathon.

they've streamlined away the fun.
 
Zenos Yae Viator dijo:
because its not a real extraction shooter, there's no exploration or quiet moments to build tension
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Do you think Tarkov is some kind of Urban exploration simulator? The only tension in that game is from the sudden and immediate loss of life and gear. It's not Alien Isolation: Russia edition.

At least with Marathon you're moving through other worldly places and as time progresses the enemies increase in difficulty.
 
Resident Bungie Journo Scum Paul Tassi is back again with another Hit Piece (ie cold dose of reality) on Marathon Season 2

‘Marathon’ Season 2 And Free Week Did Not Turn Things Around​

The dust has settled on Marathon’s season 2 launch and free week, which ended up being about 10 days due to initial server problems. It was a dual test to see if players would stay or return for a second season, and how many new players would show up to try the game, hopefully making a $40 purchase if they liked it.

A few days later, it’s clear that there have been no significant turnarounds in the game’s trajectory.

The public-facing numbers for Steam, which is roughly two-thirds of Marathon’s population, saw the game hit a concurrent peak of 40,000 when season 2 hit, less than half of its paid launch. But it lost players each subsequent day, including over the weekend, and by the time the free week ended, it was down to around 18,000 players a night. This past weekend declined from that, and now, the game peaked at 12,753 players last night.

For context, the issue here is that number is nearly identical to what the game was doing at the very tail end of the season before season 2 launched, around 11-12K. So it has returned to that low baseline in two weeks, which previously took the game two months to hit after season 1’s launch.


Outside of player counts, we also have public-facing data that Marathon is outside the top 100 in top sellers on Steam, currently at #116, joining the fact that it’s #157 in daily users. So the free week does not appear to have been some mass driver of sales.

Marathon really pulled out of all the stops to try to get a broader selection of players engaged. It is much easier to progress more quickly and unlock meaningful hero upgrades earlier on in the season now. Balancing was such that newer players were not supposed to go up against veterans right away.

And the game launched with what was more or less a PvE mode on Night Marsh, leaning into the sponsored kit mode that makes the game more accessible but goes against the whole “go in with your good loot you can lose” idea of an extraction shooter. A full PvE mode experiment has yet to happen, but there will be fewer players around to try it when it arrives later in the season.

Destiny fans have very much noted that their “dead game,” which will no longer get new updates, has averaged over 100,000 concurrent Steam players a night after a new update, with a console base twice that big. It has also ranked as high as #3 on Steam’s revenue chart. (It’s still there right now, a week later.)

Granted, there is a big difference between the last update ever of an 11-year-old game, one that costs way more to maintain, and Marathon, but it’s just a fact that Marathon is now the only game that will support Bungie from here, unless some sort of incubation project gets greenlit. As such, there are founded fears that large-scale layoffs are imminent.

Sony has publicly backed Marathon in a recent earnings call (one where they did not mention Destiny at all), and its game director has rolled out a plan for five seasons of content. But it is not clear if there can be “a thing” to turn Marathon around here, as we’re running out of things to try between PvE or even potentially making the game free-to-play, given what we just saw. The road ahead is steep. Almost vertical, at this point.
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Today Bungie implemented rotating map queues, where a specific map is featured for a set period and then rotates out. I lost the ability to pick what version of Dire marsh I want to play. Dire Marsh rotates every 90 minutes, and during that window you're effectively forced to play that featured map until the timer expires and the next map comes up.

It's obvious that this is due to dwindling player count and them trying to get ahead of long queue times.

I think I'm done playing, I can't abide this. I'd rather sit in a que for 10 minutes than wait 90 minutes for a few matches before another 90 minute break.

Tarkov had this and everyone fucking hated it. Why they are repeating this same retarded idea is beyond me.
 
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creaturestorm dijo:
Today Bungie implemented rotating map queues, where a specific map is featured for a set period and then rotates out. I lost the ability to pick what version of Dire marsh I want to play. Dire Marsh rotates every 90 minutes, and during that window you're effectively forced to play that featured map until the timer expires and the next map comes up.

It's obvious that this is due to dwindling player count and them trying to get ahead of long queue times.

I think I'm done playing, I can't abide this. I'd rather sit in a que for 10 minutes than wait 90 minutes for a few matches before another 90 minute break.

Tarkov had this and everyone fucking hated it. Why they are repeating this same retarded idea is beyond me.
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Marathon's strongest soldier has finally reached his limit. RIP.

I really don't see why they couldn't have just added a Random Fill Queue alongside the old system and still kept the ability to select the map you want to play.
Someone wants to play a specific map or version? Normal matchmaking, nothing changes. You're opting into longer queue times for the ability to play exactly what you want.
Someone signs up for Random Fill? You can end up on any map, any version, your queue times are obviously going to be faster because you're thrown into the first available match. If they want to sweeten it to keep queue times down across the board, offer a 10% xp boost for any match you Random Fill into to compensate. This doesn't seem like rocket science.
 
creaturestorm dijo:
Dire Marsh rotates every 90 minutes, and during that window you're effectively forced to play that featured map until the timer expires and the next map comes up.
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That is insane. Obviously yeah they're doing it to fill up lobbies but forcing people to play on one map instead of choosing where they want to play in the game they paid forty bucks for is the kind of thing that will only kill an already dwindling playerbase even faster.

We might not even see Season 3 if they continue doing shit like this for 3 months.
 
Oliver Onions dijo:
That is insane. Obviously yeah they're doing it to fill up lobbies but forcing people to play on one map instead of choosing where they want to play in the game they paid forty bucks for is the kind of thing that will only kill an already dwindling playerbase even faster.

We might not even see Season 3 if they continue doing shit like this for 3 months.
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Its not impossible - splatoon comes to mind - but it's definitely not something to just toss in for the heck of it. You gotta have enough maps that there's still a bit of flex or chance, and have enough maps rotating that 'we're doing this to make sure the playerbase doesn't get scattered' is a believable line.
 
Darktide does this rotating map crap too but it's like 10 (out of 20 some) maps on 20-30 minute timers and they don't all turn over at once. The tradeoff is that there are random modifiers like extra specials, waves of pox hounds, cut power supply, etc. No one likes it and the consensus has been that it's the consequence of shifting from p2p lobbies in past titles to server hosted ones. Queuing into a quickplay lobby gives 20% additional materials/xp but I don't think anyone cares about that.
 
Shower thoughts: There are effectively 4 maps in this game and they are already corralling people into queues to avoid long queue times.

What happens in S3 when they add a 5th map or a 6th map? The game is already bare bones, they just going to stop adding content?

It's fucking over.

Konigsberg dijo:
really don't see why they couldn't have just added a Random Fill Queue alongside the old system and still kept the ability to select the map you want to play.
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This is the best solution, but clearly someone at Bungie thinks they are slick. They thought this could just slide past us, so I imagine.

Disc dijo:
Its not impossible - splatoon comes to mind - but it's definitely not something to just toss in for the heck of it. You gotta have enough maps that there's still a bit of flex or chance, and have enough maps rotating that 'we're doing this to make sure the playerbase doesn't get scattered' is a believable line.
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A lot of multiplayer games have worked this way for decades, going all the way back to Halo 2. You queued for a game mode, got assigned a random map, and maybe the lobby could vote to skip it. If you ended up on a map you didn't like, it wasn't a big deal. Sometimes you got a bad draw and moved on. It was of no consequence.

Extraction shooters are different. They already have a massive amount of RNG built into them. The last thing they need is uncertainty about which map you're actually going to play. As frustrating as it can be to die and return to your stash, that downtime serves a purpose. It gives you a chance to reflect on what went wrong, adjust your strategy, and prepare for the next raid.

Imagine this: you just got cut in half by machine gun fire. You thought you were perfectly positioned on a high perch overlooking the swamp with a sniper rifle, but you failed to account for a ladder or stairwell that gave someone access to your position. Back in the lobby, you rethink your approach. You grab another sniper rifle from your vault. Maybe you pack a few mines or claymores this time. Maybe you bring a secondary weapon that's better suited for close-range fights. You've identified the mistake, learned from it, and built a plan to avoid repeating it.

You're in the right mindset. Your squadmate is back from grabbing a drink or taking a piss. Everyone is ready to go again. Then you hit the launch button and discover the map is on a lockout timer.

Now your only options are maps that don't fit the kit you just assembled or worse, maps where your loadout is completely impractical. Suddenly the group has to stop and figure out what to do. One player needs Dire Marsh for a quest. Another doesn't. Someone has a kit prepared specifically for that map. Someone else hates the map entirely. Instead of jumping back into the game with a clear plan, you're stuck negotiating around an arbitrary restriction.

It's not adding meaningful gameplay. It's just creating friction between matches and making it harder for players to act on the lessons they learned from the previous raid.

I am so unbelievably mad at this change, just thinking about how much this cocks up things.
 
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Bungie Set To Lose Roughly 400 Staff In Summer Layoffs, It’s Claimed​

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Following the sunsetting of Destiny 2 and the generally underwhelming performance of Marathon, it seems that Bungie is set for a wave of layoffs this Summer, with at least 50% of its workforce on the chopping block.

The percentage is significant enough as is, but when you consider the size and scope of Bungie, which has around 800 staff members, that would mean at least 400 employees are at risk of losing their jobs.

The news comes from French journalist Sylvain on X, who shared in a recent tweet that Bungie should ‘expect massive layoffs this Summer.’ He went on to elaborate that, based on what he’s hearing, at least 50% of Bungie’s staff could be affected.

This all stems from the current state of Bungie’s two prominent titles: Destiny 2 and Marathon.

With regards to Destiny 2, it’s been a mess all around. Despite fan outcry, Destiny 2 received its final ever update, and there’s no sign of Destiny 3 in sight. Petitions may have been signed, and fans crashed the Destiny servers on the day of the update, but it doesn’t seem like enough for Sony to give Bungie the green light.

And then there’s Marathon. Critics may have reviewed it well, Insider Gaming included, and players who tried it have generally enjoyed the game, but that hasn’t been enough to stop it from being an underwhelming release.
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Add those two situations together, and unless there’s another game in development, there simply isn’t a need for around 800 staff members to work on an underperforming Marathon and a now-defunct Destiny 2—as has long been the rumor, layoffs could be inevitable.

It seems like it’s only a matter of time until we get the official announcement by Bungie and Sony, and it’s just another studio in what’s lining up to be a torrid Summer; Xbox is supposedly also planning a major wave of layoffs in July, whilst Ubisoft has already let go of hundreds of staff.

A horrible situation all around, but at least Destiny 2 remains playable. Check out the Monument of Triumphs trailer below, as it’s genuinely one of the best times to play the game—even if updates are done for good.
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Marathon chads...this can't be real, right?
 
creaturestorm dijo:
I am so unbelievably mad at this change, just thinking about how much this cocks up things.
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It’s like they’re doing everything possible to not convert players over from Destiny 2.

They made an extraction shooter, which is already niche, then shit up the things that extraction shooter players like which pushed them even further away. They’re not going to get more casual players coming in because it’s just not the kind of game you can play casually, you have to be ‘on’ all the time and that’s just not what some people like myself want after a day at work.

One of the great things that D2 had going for it was that it catered to a wide audience. If you were a filthy casual (like me) would could just pop in and play an hour or so after work, jump around a map, do a few events and shoot some aliens in the face. If you wanted to get sweaty there was PvP and the raids. It had (lots) of issues but there was something there for everyone.

Marathon just doesn’t have that going for it, which would be fine if it was a smaller company, but it’s Bungie, they needed another massive game.

This whole thing has just been a baffling business decision to me.
 
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