Marathon, Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, is currently trudging through its sixth day of Closed Alpha testing. Thousands of players have gotten in. Even more are still waiting. And yet… interest has nosedived to less than a quarter of what it was on day one. Even over the weekend, the sacred temple of gaming activity, couldn’t save it.
In fact, player counts plummeted even further over Saturday and Sunday, despite more invites. The peak, which was on Alpha launch this last Thursday, didn’t break 10K players, which could mean next to nothing considering access code availability and it being during the work week. But the weekend saw a peak of 2500 players on Friday, and even less on Saturday and further still on Sunday.
Think about it. Open Beta is just four months away. Full launch is scheduled right after that. And based on the feedback so far, unless they pull a miracle out of their dedicated server racks, Marathon is going to flop like a beached Magikarp. So, what is the solution here? More time to develop? Not likely, considering insiders are claiming that Sony is breathing down Bungie’s neck harder than… you know what, you get it.
Marathon simply does not have the hook needed to get players locked in for hundreds of hours of gameplay and monetization spending. Instead, it seems to struggle with its core gameplay loop, the genre it’s trying to break through, and a $40 price tag in a free-to-play market while offering nothing overly innovative or intriguing. But that’s not all.
One of Marathon’s biggest issues is its identity crisis. It’s stuck between trying to be a hardcore Tarkov-wannabe and an awkward shooter that many can’t help but compare to Apex Legends. Right now, it’s sort of neither.
The barrier for entry here just isn’t all that friendly, either. You are forced to team play with no options for solo queues. Yes, you can play solo, but you aren’t going to be matched against other solo players. Bungie is forcing you to play against teams that will no doubt take advantage of your loner gamer life.
Marathon also already has content being held back from launch, such as two additional playable classes/heroes and a mysterious fourth map that many streamers and influencers say is the best of the bunch. So, you are going to pay a premium $40 price tag for a game that is in no way going to launch complete when its competition is FREE. TO. PLAY. Gotta love Bungie’s braindead strategy here.
Furthermore, inside sources say Bungie wanted to delay the game (and they probably should from what we have experienced), but Sony said “LOL no” because their live-service portfolio is already a flaming clown car that has veered off road and straight into an oil field. Sure, Marathon likely wont end up like the Concord disaster but the game looks and feels like it is getting rushed out the door prematurely and will almost certainly die going up against a juggernaut like Borderlands 4 that also happens to release on the same day.
This is not to say everything about Marathon looks like hot garbage. Just… too much of it does. And sure, it’s an Alpha. But we are less than 5 months away from release day. How much of this stuff do you actually think is going to get fixed in time for a smooth launch? Because, I hate to break it to you but Bungie may be known to be a lot of things but being capable of a smooth game launch is not one of them. And given the current state and heavy criticism of Marathon at present, there is no chance they make this game more appealing to a wider demographic of players who enjoy the free-to-play extraction genre.
To be clear, none of this is to say Marathon can’t eventually be good. The problem is, Bungie has demonstrated a clear lack of vision, a complete disregard for player feedback despite claiming the contrary (at least as far as Destiny 2 is concerned), and quite frankly, abhorrent leadership who flat-out refuses to learn from past mistakes [Exhibit A-Z: Every single Destiny DLC launch].
At this point, we have no idea how Marathon will go when it releases this fall, nor do we know how Sony is going to handle its expected floundering at launch. Maybe Bungie finally shows us they know what they are doing and knocks it out of the park with some unexpected surprises. But we know better. Because honestly, we expect Marathon will faceplant into launch day, become a meme, and spend the next two years clawing back relevance like so many times we have seen with the Destiny franchise.
But hey, even then, it will still be better off than Concord.
