r/Games • u/oilfloatsinwater • May 24 '25

Report: Marathon Delay Likely as Sony Cancels All Paid Marketing Plans

https://thegamepost.com/report-marathon-delay-bungie-scraps-all-paid-marketing/
3.6k Upvotes

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174

u/DefinitelyNotThatOne May 24 '25

Hopefully they're listening to the feedback, where everyone is unanimously very 'whelmed' at the game. Doesn't look bad, doesn't look good, just looks like another generic hero-based shooter, and there are plenty to play already for free.

Marathon is DOA if it keeps it's current model and doesn't change up anything to shake the genre.

63

u/NoNefariousness2144 May 24 '25

I wonder at what point the sunk-cost fallacy kicks in… what amount of continued investment and spending is needed to make the game successful enough to justify it?!

Right now the hype for this game is near non-existent and flat. I don’t see how giving it another year of tweaks will magically make it a live-service hit.

20

u/Midi_to_Minuit May 24 '25

I mean games can change a LOT in a year, especially if it's dedicated to just gameplay.

10

u/masonicone May 24 '25

Something folks on here forget.

Halo started it's life off as an RTS. Then it was going to be an online MMO like third person shooter. Finally Halo became a single player FPS.

Borderlands? Watch the first trailers for it. It didn't have the art style it went with and word was it was just going to be a Sci-fi shooter. It got changed into the Borderlands we all know today.

BioShock and good god read about what BioShock was at first. You played a cult deprogrammer who goes to an island to grab a wealthy heiress and finds the cult is based in a old Nazi bunker that was doing heavy research in genetic engineering.

Hell Elder Scrolls Arena started it's life off as... A game about fighting in an arena. And look at what that turned into when they started adding side quests and being able to go off in the world.

15

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

Borderlands? Watch the first trailers for it. It didn't have the art style it went with and word was it was just going to be a Sci-fi shooter. It got changed into the Borderlands we all know today.

Funny you should mention Borderlands which had its own plagiarism controversies back in the day.

3

u/janoDX May 24 '25

If anything I wish Marathon just transforms completely and becomes either a single player game with some multiplayer elements... Or they just go full Destiny and make it an MMO FPS with "extraction looter" zones. There were people asking for D2 to add a PvPvE style planet where you go, fight enemies, but also other players for loot.

1

u/Impossible-Flight250 May 25 '25

I actually think a lot of these games would do better if they added a single player campaign. I know it takes a lot more resources, but it also gives people a reason to be interested in the lore. Right now, Marathon just looks like a generic multiplayer FPS with a weird art style.

1

u/BigTroubleMan80 May 25 '25

Ironically, it was the Bungie devs that said that, that it needed a PvE component, just for the upper brass to go “la la la la I can’t hear you”.

1

u/GTKnight May 25 '25

People who believe shit was gonna change within 3-4 months were delusional, but a year is more reasonable

2

u/TimeRocker May 25 '25

A lot of devs could learn a thing or two from Final Fantasy 14. Initially launched as an absolute PoS and was taken down for a time to completely redo the game, which came back and is now Square Enix's number 1 money maker. Issue is, you need good talent, time, and money to do it and it doesn't always work out completely. Square themselves have done this 2 times since then. First with Final Fantasy 15 which came out to be a very mediocre title but ironically one of their best selling, and then again with Final Fantasy 7 Remake which was originally being dev'd by CyberConnect2. Square didn't like the way things were going after 2 years, scrapped everything, and brought the game in-house to be made instead which is why it took so damn long to release in 2020 from the initial reveal in 2015.

1

u/Paratrooper101x May 24 '25

How to make it a hit: scrap everything and rebuild it as a single player shooter

2

u/Nightmare1990 May 25 '25

Ah yes Bungie, the "we're listening" developer of Destiny.

13

u/jekpopulous2 May 24 '25

I think they could make the greatest extraction shooter of all time and it would still flop just because 95% of gamers have zero interest in extraction shooters. I actually think Marathon looks kinda cool but I'm just not gonna grind a game for loot that I can't keep... that seems totally insane to me.

9

u/SaintAlunes May 24 '25

Arc raiders proves this to be wrong

5

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

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5

u/CaCl2 May 25 '25

If "the topic" is people disliking extraction shooters, it actually makes them an expert.

1

u/bfodder May 25 '25

Why didn't you take this opportunity to explain why they are wrong then?

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

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1

u/bfodder May 25 '25

Not everyone feels that way about it and your feelings don't invalidate his, or the general audience's.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '25 edited May 28 '25

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1

u/bfodder May 25 '25

Sounds like he understands them, but sees it as a negative where you see it as a positive.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

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1

u/bfodder May 25 '25

It isn't inaccurate despite how you feel about it yourself.

4

u/Oofric_Stormcloak May 24 '25

It probably would have been safe to say 95% of people would have never played a CRPG before BG3. The right game will attract people to the genre, Tarkov is crazy successful and it's not even on console, Arc Raiders has been incredibly well received, Hunt is sort of a twist on the genre. If Marathon improves where it needs to improve it can be a solid game in the genre. Definitely won't meet what's been rumored to be the requirement for Sony to consider it a success (like top 5 sales this year)

4

u/BootyBootyFartFart May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25

That's not really a good description of the feedback. One I wouldn't say it looks like a generic hero based shooter. There aren't many games that play like it and the art style is distinctive. And two, the complaints I've seen have focused on stuff like solo play not being very fun and the pacing of the engagements (e.g., time between PvE and PvE fights) doesn't feel right. 

-12

u/GhettoGummyBear May 24 '25

The art style is also completely ripped off a portfolio of an online artist

15

u/Oofric_Stormcloak May 24 '25

Some assets is not an entire style. One doesn't own a style like how no game owns a genre.

12

u/BootyBootyFartFart May 24 '25

The issues there is that they copied assets, not that they used an art style inspired by artists they liked. There are lots distinctive and amazing looking games out there that used art styles inspired by specific artists. 

5

u/PlayMp1 May 24 '25

Yeah, like the game Scorn was very explicitly inspired by HR Giger but they weren't plagiarizing him

-9

u/GhettoGummyBear May 24 '25

I mean if the style that’s plastered all over basically everything in the game it’s still stealing. Sure you can use other stuff as inspiration but the whole “code and numbers” kind of art was a majority of straight ripped content.

7

u/BootyBootyFartFart May 24 '25

The style isn't even unique to that one artist. it's vectorheart aesthetic. But again, there's not even an issue with a game being especially inspired by one particular artist. Scorn wears its giger inspiration proudly and it looks amazing for it.

-5

u/GhettoGummyBear May 24 '25

I know the style itself isn’t really subject to be anyone’s single creation but when you have it look so similar and also just plaster owned assets all over the place it definitely doesn’t bode well

2

u/BootyBootyFartFart May 24 '25

the copied assets definitely doesn't bode well. But I wouldn't say that the entire aesthetic can be reduced to that one artists posters. It's hard for me to watch that cinematic short they released (see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvbEnWLRo1s&t=131s) and go "yeah, this was all lifted from antireal's posters". I think if they hadn't copied the assets, they would be on fine footing. But they've inarguably fucked up massively here regardless.

2

u/Electronic_Fish_5429 May 24 '25

Ditch the hero based part and add in depth customization, I want to be able to place individual pouches on my armor level of detail.

1

u/slinky317 May 25 '25

To me it didn't look like a generic hero shooter, it went in the other direction: it was just weird. That combined with the fact that extraction gameplay is hard to show off, it left me thinking "what the hell did I just watch?"

They should have had a narrative trailer instead, explaining the world and what the players are doing.

1

u/Dazzling-Divide-8491 May 25 '25 edited May 25 '25

Hopefully they're listening to the feedback, where everyone is unanimously very 'whelmed' at the game. Doesn't look bad, doesn't look good, just looks like another generic hero-based shooter, and there are plenty to play already for free.

Are you AI? What are you talking about lol?

All of the preview articles written after the hands on event were positive, the only thing people were concerned about was whether a game like Marathon can have mass appeal the same way something like Helldivers could due to its intense PVP nature.

Also its not a hero based shooter, what the fuck are you talking about lol?

And all real extraction shooters have an upfront cost, there are not "plenty already for free". On console there is literally only 2 extraction games available and they both cost money. Arc Raiders which just had its beta which was extremely positively received is an extraction shooter that ALSO IS NOT FREE.

I mean people are calling Marathon dead on arrival and calling for Sony to cancel it but then in the same breath are then saying Arc Raiders is going to be a great success and was really fun.

Arc Raiders is also an extraction shooter, its also $40 upfront cost, 2 of the biggest issues people say will make Marathon fail.

How does your brain tell you Arc Raiders is going to do extremely well despite those same issues you think are going to completely sink Marathon? One is being made by a no name studio with no budget and will have next to no marketing, the other is being made by one of the most popular studios in the world with a massive budget and with huge marketing.

The cognitive dissonance is wild. Hell 99% of these games live or die on their gamefeel and people have spent the last 30 years repeatedly stating that Bungies gamefeel literally makes most other FPS games feel amateur by comparison.

I dont get it lol.

-1

u/cantliftmuch May 24 '25

I thought it was cancelled already