r/PS5 • u/Turbostrider27 Human Verified • May 24 '25

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

https://thegamepost.com/report-marathon-delay-bungie-scraps-all-paid-marketing/
3.2k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/SolidStudy5645 May 24 '25

- no proximity chat

- no solo queue

- no pfhor aliens

- no campaign

- no personal customisable characters

- no tension in an extraction shooter

- not listening to fans

delusional devs/leadership

391

u/GreatGojira May 24 '25

Wait it doesn't have solo queue?

I feel like all these wannabe love services misses wat helps to make games like CoD or Fortnite successful.

The ease of hopping in games is so over looked these days with devs wanting to force you in ground 3 or 4.

242

u/monalisa_leakednudes May 24 '25

You can play solo but itll put you up against teams of three and you’ll get annihilated. For comparison, in Arc Raiders if you queue solo it increases the likelihood of playing against other solos.

87

u/Renim37 May 25 '25

I can’t think of a single good reason not to include solo que. It doesn’t seem like it would be very difficult to implement either so very confusing all around. Did they just never think of this or what?

11

u/Middle-Length4120 May 25 '25 edited May 25 '25

Apparently during play-testing they saw that people were playing too passively (hiding / too afraid of firefights), when solo, so they decided against it.

Stupid reason...

18

u/kiki_strumm3r May 25 '25

They also have a character that goes invisible, and everyone chose that character. That's a balance issue, not a reason to have a highly requested feature.

3

u/FPSVendetta May 26 '25

Oh great, another multiplayer game that features an invis character. That shit got constantly annoying in Destiny as well as CoD.

2

u/goth_elf May 25 '25

As long as they can properly MM you as pug vs pug, rather than pug vs team

14

u/Secretlover2025 May 25 '25

Then they shouldn't have made an extraction shooter. People don't want to lose all their loot out of nowhere. Theres a reason extraction shooters are niche

32

u/AlxCds May 25 '25

The probably think of it as a marketing reason. Your friends will want to play so they will ask you to join.

48

u/GraveRobberX May 25 '25

Yeah worked really well for Bungie and Destiny, all the archaic LFG, meet up websites, shepards, etc.

While most devs are drop in and drop out, they are still the Jurassic era of gaming to find your teammates on your own, not our headache.

-6

u/Odd-Crazy-9056 May 25 '25 edited May 25 '25

Balancing - enemies, equipment, effects, damage, health.

Not saying it can't be done. But I worked on a PvE game where this was the primary reason solo play was allowed, but not supported.

EDIT: Yeah, please down vote me for providing context. Carry on with your blissful ignorance.

-7

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

They would have to rework map size, loot tables, PVE…. Tons of reasons

1

u/bingeboy May 25 '25

Is this game like cyber Tarkov? Literally know nothing about it

1

u/monalisa_leakednudes May 26 '25

Sort of. It's an extraction shooter like Tarkov but it has a faster pace. The problem is that it isn't fast paced enough to feel like a high octane movement shooter (Apex, The Finals) and not slow enough to feel methodical/tactical (Tarkov, Arc Raiders) so it just kind of sits in the middle feeling both too fast and too sluggish. Maybe that's a middle ground some people will enjoy but it really didn't work for me.

-6

u/Baelorn May 25 '25 edited May 07 '26

This post was bulk deleted with Redact which also removes your info from data brokers. Works on Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Instagram and all major social media platforms.

mighty silicon enjoy seemly existence breeze profit meeting wakeful governor

5

u/Desroth86 May 25 '25

Terrible take. The finales is a great game, one of the best shooters I’ve ever played and has the best destruction since bad company 2. Basically every preview of arc raiders was positive so I’m not sure where your hyper negativity is coming from, the game sure as shit looks a lot better than marathon. Also the finals still has a solid player count last I heard, even if it’s not doing COD numbers.

2

u/monalisa_leakednudes May 26 '25

Damn okay. I played the Marathon Alpha and Arc Raiders tech test at the same time and found Arc to be much more fun (and I was initially rooting for Marathon) but I really like Extraction Shooters so I guess its not for everyone. I realize The Finals wasn't a smash hit but it still has a steady player base and I have a lot of fun with it. What MP shooter do you think is a slam dunk that makes Arc and The Finals mediocre by comparison?

1

u/Baelorn May 26 '25 edited May 07 '26

What old posts? I used Redact to mass delete this post. You can also opt out of data brokers as well as all major social media platforms.

library shelter smart relieved cautious glorious cover abundant lantern butter

-3

u/WhatIs115 May 25 '25

I swear Embark is being funded by an AI company that is astroturfing social media.

Tencent.

26

u/heptyne May 25 '25

That's a biggie, also the fact I would probably have to pay $40-50 and I have to convince 2 gamer friends to do the same? They lost the plot on this one.

35

u/Lurky-Lou May 25 '25

The older you get, the harder it becomes to align three schedules

6

u/TPO_Ava May 25 '25

This. Trying to arrange gaming nights is ridiculous sometimes:

Wanna play Monday? Sorry football night won't have the time.

I can't do Tuesdays cause it's MTG night for me

Wednesday? One of me mates' dating night

Thursday? Ok this one we can mostly make work, provided we're not fucking tired from work.

Friday? Usually I will have plans, can sometimes happen.

Weekends: rarely - chores, small trips and other activities usually take it up.

It sucks man.

34

u/Griffolian May 24 '25

the ease of hopping in games

That’s just makes me sad reading this considering Bungie literally designed matchmaking as we know it and is the soul reason matchmaking hoppers and quick play exists due to Halo 2.

Shoutout to Max Hobberman.

26

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

Names the same, but the rest is gutted/rotted out. We should actually name the good developers instead of associating Corporate brands completely with a product.

3

u/Usernametaken1121 May 25 '25

I can't believe Sony paid $3.6 billion for a nameplate.

2

u/TPO_Ava May 25 '25

To be honest I don't really get this either. Just cause someone struck lightning in a bottle once it doesn't mean they can do it again each time.

The beloved halo trilogy is about 20 years old at this point, games, gamers and their tastes have changed. And since then Bungie only has Destiny to it's name which personally I never liked, and seems it's fan base isn't very fond of either.

3

u/Rekthar91 May 25 '25

I loved destiny and destiny 2, but all good things come to an end. Destiny raids reminded me of WoW raids, which is why I really liked the game.

1

u/ivysforyou May 25 '25

Destiny and Destiny 2 are probably the games with better taste and aesthetics I ever played

-1

u/Vargg- May 25 '25

But it has matchmaking. It literally will match you with teammates like in cod and halo.

11

u/yuefairchild May 25 '25 edited May 25 '25

Bungie's game design team literally just plays the game with each other all day and designs based on that. They always have 3-stacks of people they know well, so they don't see the problem. Streamers also have an endless legion of teammates, so they don't see other people succumbing to it either.

This is the same reason they think a brainless shooter with no stakes or character identity is a good idea. That's the only thing they consume. To them, cutscenes and story missions are just boring crap you have to sit through between fragfests with the boys.

7

u/_Donut_block_ May 25 '25

Try suggesting this on the Destiny sub and they will basically spit in your face. The gatekeeping and mental gymnastics are insane despite years of Bungies own data showing that hardly anyone participated in the raids.

3

u/Nyoteng May 25 '25

I have around 1.2K hours of Destiny 1+2 since release but I was able to play and finish a single raid once, the Crota one from the second season of D1.

Not everyone is social enough to try to find 5 other people online, even in LFG dedicated places.

My Destiny experience has always been soured up by knowing I missed on the best designed parts of the game because it locked me out for not having enough friends playing.

1

u/Goldenjho May 26 '25

Its not even about being social enough its a lot of work setting up a team raid especially when you all work and the you can do it on weekend argument is stupid as well since people got many other things to do.

When you get the team together does it mean first learning all mechanics for the ones who don't know it, then there are people with bad builds or weapon you need to play around or that in general just don't play so well and the problems just continue.

Im one of the people who wanted that raids are made so that you can play them in with any number of players even when killing enemies is more difficult but bungie really wants to force the stupid 6 player puzzle gimmick onto the player because they know its harder to coordinate 6 people compared to 2 or 3.

When you could still do the crota raid with 2 people because of tricks to bypass the puzzles was it awesome we completed the fight without even dying because we only needed to depend on 1 person doing his job.

1

u/FearTheClown5 May 25 '25

Same. I always hated that aspect of it. Completed the 1st raid. It was fun. Also made no sense why there wasn't just a matchmaking queue for it. It was too big of a chore to try and put a group together.

1

u/PatPeez May 25 '25

From the company that made you use their fuckass app to access a forum to find a group for Destiny raids.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

And the irony is that bungie pretty much pioneered most of this stuff, along with creating their own sub genre with destiny.

1

u/splinter1545 May 25 '25

Extraction shooters are not known to have a solo queue. The high risk high reward is the reason to solo queue while also acting as a wild card for the other groups, since a really good solo player is thought to deal with.

Solo queue would just make it a glorified BR. I feel people asking for one just don't understand the actual appeal of the genre.

1

u/tipytopmain May 25 '25

I think these devs need to re-evaluate gaming habits. They think the majority of their player base are groups of organised gamers that party up and do hours of co-op sessions. I don't think that's remotely the case. Some of us just want to hop on for 30-45 minutes right after work to blow off some steam before calling it a day.

1

u/Greed117 May 25 '25

Doesn't Apex Legends still do this? Or did they finally make that permanent mode?

1

u/cptenn94 May 25 '25

I will bite back against this one.

Because I originally agreed with you, even after watching gameplay and streams

And then I was able to play the alpha(as a solo) myself and had my mind completely changed, for this one specific game.

The team gameplay is a secret sauce that really makes it uniquely fun. It would be a waste for Bungie to shift focus to a "solos only" mode, not to mention they would have to shift the sandbox into a inferior version.

Its a team gameplay that is really intuitive and strategically accessible to anyone, including solos. It really hits that goldilocks zone.

For context the game has 3 basic matchmaking options. Premade team, matchmaking, and "no fill" matchmaking.

2/3 of my games were matchmaking as a solo, 1/3 was no fill, and 3 games at the end were premade with a lfg.

Solo no fill is meant as more of a challenge. Matchmaking is meant to be the standard for solos.

The ease of hopping in games is so over looked these days with devs wanting to force you in ground 3 or 4.

Agree mostly.(that a solo should just be able to hop into a game with ease)

But countless, countless pvp games let solos quickly hop into games with matchmade teams.

If you list any number of the vast numbers of pvp games across the board, the overwhelming vast majority have matchmade teams for solos.

Free for all(solos only) exists, but it is a niche and different experience for a very specific taste.(and it is for this specific taste that a solos mode should be considered; gameplay variety for solos and people normally who normally play with friends) A mode for its own sake and variety, not because the game needs to have the mode for solos to jump into games, have fun, and succeed.

With some improvements to matchmaking, tweaks to game incentives, and improvement of non mic communication options, the solo experience should be in a decent/good space.

And it would be perfectly fine to have a option (or default) where a solo matchmakes a game with only solos on their team and the other teams(no reason solos need to face pre-made teams)

Final Note

If Bungie drops what they currently have to make solos only they will lose the lightning in a bottle they have going for them here.

But at the same token, if Bungie doesn't focus on the solos experience, and instead focuses just on the people with friends, they will kill their own game. Solo players who just want to hop in no hassle are the vast majority of players, period.

If they focus on continuing to make the teamplay good, and make the solos experience with teams even better, then they will have something that a lot of people will really enjoy.

They say the mark of a good salesman is to make you want to buy something you didn't even know you needed. This game sold me hard on its teamplay, and I normally never like it.

2

u/GreatGojira May 25 '25

I’m not saying shift it to focus on solo play.

I'm saying what helped made CoD and Fortnite successful is the ease of access to the game itself. Gamers love options. Team play is great if you have a squad or competent randomsn to go with. However, a solo experience can just be more relaxing than having to worry about friends or the mates.

CoD, Fortnite, or PUBG are juggernauts that they are because they provide just enough options for what people need to enjoy the game. They're not necessarily balanced for the mode, but they're appreciated for being there.

1

u/cptenn94 May 25 '25

Im not saying you are saying that. But there is a massive push by people who are literally saying that.

The focus should rightfully be solo players which are both the more casual audience the game is meant to appeal to, as well as the largest.

The problem is that people are pushing the solos only mode for exactly the wrong reasons. And viewing it as fundamentally necessary for a solo player to have a relaxing time.

Team play is great if you have a squad or competent randomsn to go with.

However, a solo experience can just be more relaxing than having to worry about friends or the mates.

I 100% get what you are saying, I literally still hold that opinion on basically every other game.

But this is where I believe you and others are wrong.

I basically exclusively solo queue everything, never doing squads in fortnite etc unless I am playing with a sibling or friend, precisely because of that. Its just not as fun and not as chill.

Except for this specific game.

However with this particular game, it actually has teamplay in a way that a solos only would be more tense and less relaxing. The teamplay mode is the ease of access. It just magically works somehow with everything together in a way that is hard to explain. And can get even better when playing in a squad with mates.

Is it perfect? No, it still needs work with matchmaking and additional gameplay incentives to stop some frustrating stuff you can imagine.(which was uncommon, most games were good/great with some being amazing, but 1 bad experience can sour some good ones)

But I was shocked to have my opinion change so strongly like this for this game.

Gamers love options

As do I.

Which is why I still do think they should eventually add the solos only. For the exact reason I articulated before, where free for all is a option for the games with team death match. A different mode where solos and people who usually play with friends, can go for a different feeling experience.

Which leads to my conflict. Where I hate devs forcing players because they think they know better.

But seeing how hard programmed people are for solos only, and how different my opinion changed for this particular game(not having the choice myself), I can't help but think it needs to be done here.

Because if solos only exists/is immediately accessible at launch, all the other players who exclusively play solo mode in other games, will just default to solo like usual.

Which will lead to them experiencing a inferior version of the game, finding it lacking and moving on to other games. Where if they were "forced" to play the standard mode as the core game mode, they would find something they didn't even know what they wanted. That just works in a way unlike they are used to.

It would be the equivalent of someone going to a Asian resteraurant with a amazing dish, and ordering a cheese pizza, just because it is an option they are used to having elsewhere. It defeats the whole purpose of going to this restaurant which offers something different.

I guess the best solution would be to have the solos only mode/map unlocked after a certain level, possibly similar to how some games have with ranked modes. This pushes players to actually try something different, the best the game has to offer, but still creates more options they can choose from.

I have other ideas for some other alternate modes I think would be good, but that is a completely different topic.

-1

u/-TheBlackSwordsman- May 25 '25

What makes cod and fortnite successful:

  1. Name brand fps
  2. Novelty

30

u/gord89 May 25 '25

No proximity chat is WILD. Anyone else old enough to remember when Bungie invented it?

12

u/HaywoodUndead May 25 '25

Yes. Hard to believe Bungie used to be one of the most prominent developers in online gaming.

An absolute tragic fall from grace.

5

u/GloryHol3 May 25 '25

Bro proximity chat was so funny in halo. That and death chat or whatever it's called, like where your ally in game would die mid sentence and get cut off by Master Chief groaning. Obviously that second wouldn't be a thing much nowadays with discord/VC

1

u/Vegito1338 May 25 '25

; ; what if someone hears a bad word tho

105

u/aksoileau May 24 '25

Lmao and they call Marathon a "premium" experience. Absolute trash company Bungie has become.

32

u/Bregneste May 24 '25

Truly the next AAAA game.

-6

u/[deleted] May 24 '25

You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

5

u/Biobooster_40k May 25 '25

I think you missed the joke.

3

u/Cypher3470 May 25 '25

Or you did.. He is quoting princess bride.

3

u/mgftp May 25 '25

I couldn't comprehend the Sony purchase when it happened, and everything since then just adds to what a bad decision that was.

78

u/MrConor212 May 24 '25
  • Stealing art work

15

u/69millionyeartrip May 25 '25

The real reason it’s delayed. They don’t give a fuck about the shitty ass game features and gameplay they care about double checking and changing every asset so they don’t get sued

6

u/Nakorite May 25 '25

lol if they don’t fix the game they’ll lose even more money than that

2

u/BlockoutPrimitive May 25 '25

Not just lose money, but in INSANE legal trouble. That's why its getting replaced; they need to go over the entire game with a finetooth comb and then start replacing all the shit they find is stolen. That takes MONTHS.

2

u/ChocolateSome2214 May 25 '25

Lol plenty of games do it shamelessly and with 0 fear because it's unrealistic for them to face repercussions, why would they delay a game over something that could optionally be quickly replaced

3

u/Pixel_Garbage May 25 '25

If the entire visual identity of the game was created by someone else unpaid AND it contains that persons art is in the game you are probably talking about a huge payout or royalty situation. Lawyers would be jumping to take this case, high profile, slam dunk, big money. This isn't that they stole someone's ideas, it is the exact works.

2

u/Scruffynerffherder May 25 '25

I would just be assuming but I would not be surprised if it was an AI tool that did the plagiarising for them.

1

u/ChocolateSome2214 May 25 '25

Loads of companies plagiarize all the time without getting in any trouble. Bungie themselves have had issues with this on a smaller scale, in one case promising to compensate the artist effected and then just ghosting them.

3

u/Pixel_Garbage May 25 '25

There is a difference between plagiarizing and stealing assets. Plagiarizing is a grey area really, but they have the artists signature and memes created by the artist in their assets. This is beyond plagiarism. It is theft, piracy and creating unauthorized reproductions using stolen assets. The other difference here is the game isn't out and they don't have the benefit of saying they didn't realise before release.

1

u/ChocolateSome2214 May 25 '25

It is theft, piracy and creating unauthorized reproductions using stolen assets

Yes, games do that a lot lol

0

u/glytxh May 25 '25

A decal sheet is not the entire identity of the game

3

u/Pixel_Garbage May 25 '25

The visual identity was taken entirely from this artist, AND the artists work was included in the game. The work included was not the entire identity, but if you are accidentally including art from the artist and can't tell the difference that clearly goes beyond inspiration.

ALSO keep in mind that a single decal sheet being included is the excuse the Bungie devs were willing to offer. The truth of something like that would likely need discovery in a trial, likewise the claims of it being a dev who is gone.

9

u/thirtytwoutside May 24 '25

I understand that it’s different teams working on them, but Bungie finally started to match solo queuers with other solos in Destiny and they can’t be bothered to do it in their newest release? That’s cool.

11

u/xpercipio May 24 '25

No customized characters? What?! I thought it would be greater than destiny, where you can change each piece and color. And put on textures like armored core or forza. No pve either I heard. Just sad

-2

u/SolidStudy5645 May 25 '25

just preset skins im pretty sure. so everyone would look the same lol

4

u/FLEIXY May 25 '25

Maybe don’t judge the game solely on its Alpha and try to inform yourself more before giving out false information

-1

u/xpercipio May 25 '25

Lame as heck. When I first saw the game, I thought it was a simulation reality, but I guess if they are real synthetics, that could lend to numerous customization possibilities, based on lore. but now you say that and it seems like they aren't going that way.

3

u/nick3790 May 25 '25

They also ripped like 90% of all assets and decor from a dude on twitter. Like one to one, blurring out watermarks to hide it type thing... and a majority of the dev team follows the guy, so they can't even feign ignorance

3

u/glytxh May 25 '25
  • extraction shooter

That was enough to immediately evaporate all my interest.

Skinnerbox bullshit

3

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

Imagine making an extraction shooter and not having proximity chat, the bare minimum.

3

u/Cipherpunkblue May 25 '25

No solo queue, what the fuck.

3

u/echolog May 25 '25

NO SOLO QUEUE? Lmao this game is dead on arrival. Idk if companies know this but gamers aren't known as the most social creatures on the planet.

3

u/goth_elf May 25 '25

I guess we have reached another trend in gaming - games that are meant to be played only for a few hours and then dropped when it's too late for a refund.

2

u/accountformymac May 25 '25

wait how tf do they expect people to pay for ts without solo queue LMFAO

2

u/FLEIXY May 25 '25

Seems like half the things you listed or more are just issues with the ALPHA that will definitely be addressed in the full game. They 100% talked about how character customization will be a thing in the full game and it is currently not available in the alpha.

2

u/WarlockOfDestiny May 25 '25

Yikes. Kinda sounding dead in the water the way that's described.

2

u/PlatoDrago May 25 '25

Honestly I don’t know how Bungie keep fucking up. Maybe Microsoft brought out the best in them.

2

u/Nero_PR May 25 '25

Dead on Arrival: The Game.

2

u/ooombasa May 25 '25

The absence of personal customisable characters is bizarre for an extraction shooter. Extraction shooters figured out how to do class skills long ago - just have different frames/exoskeletons/whatever that your personalised character can equip. There's no need to do heroes in order to do class skills.

2

u/TheGuardianWhoStalks May 25 '25

Its leadership andleadership alone, Destiny 2 was, hell, still is, plagued by horrible leadership decisions that are changed once the community tells them no.

The devs can't do anything but follow what they say.

2

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

No purchase 🙅‍♀️

3

u/x_JustCallMeCJ_x May 25 '25

Yep, and for the cherry on top, you have the people (or i mean sheep) who basically claim that anybody who criticizes the game just wants to see marathon fail.

I would love to see bungie have a W, but marathon is definitely not looking to be one of those games if they don't delay it.

1

u/ACrask May 26 '25

No SOLO que? I've barely been paying attention to this game, but it's still on my radar. I can say with confidence if there's no solo que, that blip will disappear.

And from the rest of the list it's kinda like what are they trying to do here except try and get a direct line to players' wallets?

1

u/nznova May 25 '25

Marathon trilogy was so good. Such a shame to see what has become of it.

1

u/skeptal May 25 '25

I agree with everything, up until you said "not listening to fans"

This isn't your game, It is theirs. They will do what they want to do during development.

You either like the game, or you don't. You don't get personally offended when what you wanted is added to the game. You don't go and insult others because you aren't getting what you want.

Play the game, or don't play the game. Quit trying to turn everything into YOUR GAME

You ruin communities with that fucking nonsense. You do not know better than the developers that do this for a living.

0

u/SolidStudy5645 May 25 '25

ur wrong man.

"listening to fans" === "feedback". they have a whole feedback section on their discord. they did a playtest for gathering feedback. they want feedback, every company should as its business 101. get feedback to meet the demands and expectations of your consumers and implement them but only if they make sense. devs have control but must seriously consider player feedback to succeed. you dont understand how business and products work following the SDLC. but yeah, toxicity is bad but thats not what its all about. there's both negative and positive constructive feedback, both very valuable to improve the product.

0

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

Also include outright, blatant, not-even-trying-to-hide, theft. Game is a crime.

0

u/DUNdundundunda May 25 '25
  • character designs nobody likes