Marathon will be out very soon, but a lot is riding on Bungie for the game to be a big success. Not only did Sony pay nearly $4 billion for the studio, but Bungie decided to make this instead of listening to scores of fans and developing Destiny 3 instead.
Back in the PS4/Xbox One era, developing a live-service video game was not considered a huge gamble. These were the days before Fortnite, and lots of multiplayer-only video games came out were full price.
There were many multiplayer AAA games such as Star Wars Battlefront, the first Titanfall, Evolve, and Overwatch just to name a few. Many of these games did not have a single player campaign, yet they all sold millions of copies. Three out of the four I listed also received successful sequels.
I don’t think it was until the release of Fortnite did the market for multiplayer games change. The biggest thing about Fortnite is that it’s free-to-play and nine years later, the game is still played by millions of players and earning tons of money through microtransactions.
Nowadays, anything that is live service seems like a swear word if it doesn’t involve a huge IP. Marvel Rivals is a live service hero shooter, but the game is successful because people love Marvel characters.
On the flipside of this, we have the failures of Concord and Highguard that prove to us that hero shooters with crappy characters aren’t going to be successful. Concord cost $40 and failed in two weeks, while Highguard died in 45 days despite being free-to-play.
This gets me to Marathon which has a $40 price tag like Concord. Not to mention, Marathon also has ugly characters, and doesn’t have anyone recognizable like Marvel Rivals.
Unlike Destiny or Destiny 2, Marathon also does not have a campaign or story mode whatsoever. This could be seen as a major turnoff for gamers who just want to blast aliens in the face like the original Marathon games in the ’90s.
Unlike Concord, the Marathon Server Slam managed to exceed over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, but the big gamble is the game’s full release which requires a $40 price tag. Can the game be as successful as Arc Raiders, or will players be bored?
We will have to wait until tomorrow to see how many players love Marathon. Until then, let’s hope Bungie is ready for the feedback that’s coming.
