The latest in line for extraction shooters, Bungie’s upcoming Marathon has already garnered quite a bit of hype for itself and despite several minor controversies like stolen art and it’s disappointing Alpha build, it looks like the game could turn out to be a real winner in more ways than one. According to the game’s former art director Joseph Cross, Bungie’s Marathon is part of a dying breed of culture in the industry where a company could pour massive amounts of funds on an unproven project, purely on the basis of it’s sheer potential alone which is a rarity even today.
In a recent interview with ReaderGrev, Cross states that he feels like Marathon belongs to a soon-to-be-extinct category of titles that could actually warrant large scale production value solely based on it’s spec.
“Marathon is such a massive project. The studio took such a risk on this. You know, oftentimes we felt like we were sort of getting away with something,” he said. “I think about that in the big picture, the idea of studios funding unproven, unknown projects for six or eight years, for hundreds of millions of dollars, sort of on spec. How much longer are things like this going to exist? I’ve been part of a couple of them now.”
He also admitted that working in such a way could also lead a studio to eventually lose sight of the bigger picture in many ways:
“It’s not always intuitive to remember that above all of this is this product that’s being funded, and every day that goes by is a day you’re going further into the red. You’re not making money. The studio is not making any money,” he stated.
“So anyway, that’s a big one, especially when you’re really trying to channel creativity and get to the point where you feel like you can’t impose anything that feels like a risk. I mean, what a mind f— that is, right? That’s where you have to sort of put on the armor of art and have faith in your perspective and experience as an artist. All great art, commercial art anyways, it’s doubted, and there’s a level of skepticism–until there’s not.”
Bungie’s Marathon is set to arrive on March 5 for the Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S and the PC platform, you can also check out the game’s newly released official system requirements.
