Bungie's Marathon

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

Another all-in live service risk by Sony and developed by Bungie. Reception has been pretty mixed in the trailers and playtests and this could be another another DOA title. Not quite Concord 2.0 but it could very well be another embarrassment. 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

Great PR once again Bungie as they are at it again

Bungie confirms it stole art once again, will undertake a 'thorough review' of Marathon assets | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Update: Bungie lays the blame on a former artist.

 

What's wrong with these big companies that they have to stoop so low? Maybe they could just move up in the world and use AI instead if they are that starved of basic ideas🤣

[Sennex 1,948]

Yea, this game is a hard pass for me. Bungie rode the fans love from Halo into Destiny, only to start monetizing everything in D2, and I am just done with them.

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

'The vibes have never been worse' Bungie's morale is reportedly in 'free fall' following its art theft fiasco | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Devs also claim they have been often ignored by the studio's "good old boy" leadership regarding the overarching design.

 

I still can't believe Bungie are in this position compared to where they were a decade ago. I always knew leaving Activision would be a monumental mistake when they had it so comfortable there. They were cocky dickheads after the breakaway and were instantly barely sustainable going it alone with all the operating and future development costs to self-fund. Sony were always going to be the final nail in the coffin for them after the shamefully embarrassing takeover especially as their only thought is live service slop and milking dead horses. 

 

If only they turned their attentions to Destiny 3. They will sadly join BioWare. 343 aren't too far behind either as Halo is on its last legs two years into a ten year plan. Greed has crippled so many iconic studios. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,197]

Lots of turnover at Bungie in recent years. Lots of very good trusted people have left. I think they've got caught up in the world of social media too much now and the scales have tipped so much that they didn't realise they were just like most other companies under the hood but they wanted to portray they weren't as such. No one is ever that squeaky clean in this game, we've all seen it too much over and over.

 

That being said, Marathon just won't have that pull that Destiny or Halo will, you can already feel that looking at the gameplay. Id hate it to be another Concord but something tells me it has a chance.

 

Separately though, this won't make me stop going back to Destiny. Not played that in nearly 2 years I feel, but that has a world that has great content still and they are making changes that actually supports many of the casual players we all are now. Buying expansions is better in that game than many others where we all buy battlepasses.

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

Another huge PR blow as Paul Tassi is seen as a huge Bungie supporter and optimist of games like this

It’s Just Over For ‘Marathon’

WWW.FORBES.COM

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Marathon has always been teetered on the edge of future failure, but now that seems set in stone after recent events.

 

[Sennex 1,948]

Yea, when Paul Tassi says its over, then its over, wow.

 

Dude was (is?) a huge D1 & 2 fan.

 

Quote

The entire idea of this game was a mistake. Bungie has said that this came from a bunch of them playing Tarkov a while ago, and I heard among that group, it was one “good old boy” in leadership who pushed to make this Bungie’s biggest non-Destiny project. It was meant to be the birth (well, rebirth) of a strong IP for the studio, now under Sony which assumed it would produce another hit like this.

 

The game attempts to split the difference between casual players who may be new to extraction shooters and existing, hardcore extraction players it would like to pilfer from games like Tarkov. It will do neither.

 

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,197]

Arc Raiders looks the best of this niche market right now. I just can't see how Marathon will be for casual players and by restricting it so, it will be filled with sweats after week one, causing a huge tail off to play the game.

 

I really hope not, but I can't see how it can survive for long term. If they ploughed more PvE stuff into it then you'll see an upturn. This is why The Hunt Showdown has lasted very well - that feels like its tapered towards PvE with a fear factor element of PvP thrown in. Superb game.

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

It'll be very interesting to see what happens with Marathon's plagiarism situation because it seems a lot of the stolen assets make up quite a big portion of the details that compliment the art style. They are supposedly conducting a full asset audit and investigation, and I wouldn't be surprised if this game gets delayed even with it not coming out for another 4 months or so. If they can't find a resolution in this respect then they'll either have to whip up something quick or leave the game looking plain. It'll be shite either way. 

 

What's going to sink this game even more from a community standpoint is the amount of AI slop and contractors involved. Bungie used to be about the craft, innovation, vision and the team but now it's all about cost-cutting, property theft and temp employees to fill in gaps before AI finishes papers over the cracks. At this stage, being creatively bankrupt would be a massive improvement for them. 

 

Not only will they be going toe to toe with Arc Raiders, they are also being branded 'Art Raiders' as the humiliations and bad PR continue. Former staff have begun speaking out against management in the past few years and it's not good hearing that either. 

[Sennex 1,948]

Not only have Bungies attorney's gotten involved here, but also Sony's

 

 

[MrBiron 1,486]

Who asked for this game? Who at Bungie thought "we've had a lot of success with Destiny 1&2. So let's make an extraction shooter next!"? It just seems like a bizarre decision to make this game.

[J4MES OX4D 10,233]

1 hour ago, MrBiron said:

Who asked for this game? Who at Bungie thought "we've had a lot of success with Destiny 1&2. So let's make an extraction shooter next!"? It just seems like a bizarre decision to make this game.

I think it's Sony pulling the strings and calling the shots. Kinda defies belief that they thought Concord and Marathon would be two massive online service hits🤣 It's also weird that they've chose to leech off of Bungie's sci-fi trilogy of the 90's for this guff and not do something original or a stronger classic brand maybe in the Destiny universe. 

 

Also just seen Marathon has an art book in the works - wonder if they will pull this seeing that a large part of their work (including part of the cover art) has been lifted from an 8 year old Twitter post.

 

The game will cost £35-$40 which is the final nail in the coffin.