In case you missed it – and how could you with all the people spamming “We Want Destiny 3” – Destiny 2 had its final content update on June 9th. It’s a substantial addition with brief teases for what could have been, new challenges to tackle, and plenty of new gear to earn. Plus, you can earn some of the snazziest new armor sets by simply playing the game – a bittersweet turnabout, given Bungie’s Eververse fixation over the years.
But one of the more interesting stories out of this whole ordeal is Marathon. When Bungie announced that its flagship looter shooter would no longer receive new content…well, some fans didn’t take it very kindly, and resorted to review-bombing the extraction shooter (which wasn’t enough to really drag down its Steam score but still). A small dispute of sorts broke out as many encouraged boycotting Marathon.
This all made for an awkward launch to its second season, NIGHTFALL, on June 2nd. In terms of new content, it added a night version of Dire Marsh, imaginatively titled Night Marsh. And while it did offer several new additions, from oppressive darkness that required light sources to new enemy types, the real appeal was seemingly in the new limited PvE mode, where a squad with Sponsored Kits could occupy the map for the first several minutes before Rooks, a Runner Shell meant for solos, began backfilling.
Even with all the uproar around Destiny 2, and thanks in part to a free week, Marathon crawled back up to just under 41,000 peak concurrent players on Steam. Of course, this is still a massive drop from nearly 89,000 concurrent players when it launched in March, but surely this momentum—with all these changes, new features, and loot—would hold…right?
“Even with all the uproar around Destiny 2, and thanks in part to a free week, Marathon crawled back up to just under 41,000 peak concurrent players on Steam.”
Well, no. Two weeks later, and Marathon is slowly sliding back down to where it was before Season 2’s launch. Yikes.
There are several ways of looking at this, of course. The market is overly saturated with online games, especially in the free-to-play space where most want to stick with their comfort picks. The season’s release timing – the same day as State of Play – coupled with Destiny 2‘s end of support and preceding several major showcases is just bad timing in terms of exposure and word of mouth. The live-service business model is one that’s seen nothing but losses at this point, particularly earlier this year with Highguard. Marathon also costs $40 – not the highest price of admission but also not enough to beat free. And even when it was free, the number of players willing to check it out, at least on Steam, is disappointing at best.
It would be enough to chalk it up as another live-service failure and move on, but that’s not quite so simple. For starters, Marathon reportedly cost more than $200 million, close to $250 million, and it’s confirmed to have been in development for four years. That budget isn’t too hard to believe considering the pre-launch marketing, the all-star voice cast, and so on (and yet it launched with even fewer PvP maps than Destiny 1, but that’s neither here nor there). But the fact that Bungie was willing to delay it proves that (a) the overall state of the game was nowhere near as polished as it wanted, (b) it needed time to build some positive buzz around it, and (c) Sony clearly has a significant amount riding on it.
I mean, look no further than the company’s statements after its last financial report, where it was revealed to have suffered $765 million in impairment losses because of Bungie. It even admitted outright that the developer’s title portfolio “did not reach our expectations.”
“For starters, Marathon reportedly cost more than $200 million, close to $250 million, and it’s confirmed to have been in development for four years.”
That said, it wasn’t going to pull a Concord and suddenly abandon the game. Sony noted strong reviews, including on Steam, and high player retention. So the goal was to then “improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience, and expansion of the user base.”
However, Bungie has done all these things. Not only could it not reach the heights of the game’s launch, but player numbers have dropped right back down to what they were before.
And that’s a problem for many reasons because that apparent near $250 million budget probably doesn’t account for post-launch content. Or the cost of running servers. Or the cost of additional marketing, like those fancy cinematic trailers.
Sales figures remain unknown – all we have are reports that it had 2.2 million players in March. It’s very much possible that there’s a thriving community on consoles, but even in terms of actual numbers, it appears to be far below the likes of, say, ARC Raiders – another extraction shooter whose Steam player base is nowhere near its peak.
The problem with Marathon is, and always has been, the more hardcore PvP approach. Bungie could take every step possible to mitigate gear losses or pile on the loot, but it was built from day one to be a more ruthless competitive experience. It’s a game where a highly skilled player could absolutely thrive…just as much as a highly skilled team could effectively shut down anyone, and wipe out a good chunk of their progress. Unlike ARC Raiders, the avenues for avoiding other players, much less getting matched with those who aren’t out for blood, are far lower. And I say this as someone who enjoyed my time with it, learning the ins and outs of Tau Ceti IV – its hazardous flora, its mysterious events, and the sheer terror of trying to survive while savoring the gunplay.
“The problem with Marathon is, and always has been, the more hardcore PvP approach.”
The funny thing is that it’s nowhere near as hardcore or realistic as Escape from Tarkov, and yet, even that’s seeing better Steam numbers. Marathon definitely offers a far more polished experience, but it’s also trying to appeal to a wider audience. First impressions matter though, and those who weren’t hooked from the get-go, either because of the messy UI or the punishing gameplay, clearly didn’t want to stick around. Which makes these experimental PvE modes all the more questionable, because Bungie has a PvE-focused game that it’s committed so many resources to over the years, just recently put out to pasture.
I can’t really tell you if there’s a solution to the whole Marathon problem because it may have been doomed from the start. Even with its announcement, the sheer bafflement at the classic FPS trilogy being turned into an extraction shooter was overwhelming. There was hope at the time that Bungie, of all developers, could probably pull it off. Call it a coin toss, because even the most skeptical of Destiny 2 players (read: me) admitted that the studio had its wins here and there.
But for Sony, it’s probably becoming clearer that Marathon won’t become a worthy live-service addition. It may be fine enough for a small hardcore community, but with that budget and given the spending on post-launch content – never mind how much Bungie costs to maintain in general – that’s simply not enough.
And with rumors of layoffs looming large at the studio, Sony may be content to just let Marathon ride out the remainder of its roadmap, offsetting costs by paying fewer salaries. By this time next year, it wouldn’t be surprising if it too gets that tearful end-of-support warning. Such is the nature of the industry, but you would think that Sony would have known better from the start rather than continuing to persist. But such is the siren of live-service, and the fate of those ensnared by its song.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
