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Marathon Server Slam CCU Watch
- Thread starter Kacho
- Start date
lifa-cobex
Member
Branded
Member
Yes that's why it objectively has more depth than Arc Raiders, runs at a higher tickrate than Arc, has more stricter anti-cheat measures, has a steeper learning curve (more niche audience), a daring non-mainstream art style, etc.
Feels apt
I mean dislike Marathon all you want, it's perfectly fine if you don't like it. I enjoy both games myself for different reasons. But this whole narrative that is being spun around Marathon is delusional to say the least.
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lifa-cobex
Member
From what I've played the game isn't bad. It does have fun gun play.
Having said that it's not exactly standing out. It's not breaking the mould.
Art-style boils down the preference to the audience. Personally I find it uninspiring and some what larceny-esk.
How do you mean it has a steeper learning curve? In an EVE online sense or just git gd son?
If you believe that it will attract a more niche audience. Then that isn't a good thing. Bungie needs to make bank with this.
It's not some small indie dev.
Destiny 2 had cheaters. Marathon will have cheaters.
That's the nature of the beast.
I don't think the game game will die overnight like Concord but I don't see it having a future past a year.
I say this as a jaded ex Destiny player.
scarlet0pimp
Member
Hunt Showdown still the king of extraction. Game is going from strength to strength since 2.0 came out.
Emmy Ator Best
Member
Dragon Age Veilguard top of the charts and owning the chuds! Reality it sold half of what they were expecting. So if you can be a failure being number one I wouldn't brag too much for being number three
Tobimacoss
Member
Crytek deserves that success.
That would be awesome, 4 of the top 5 are great games. And this is great news for extraction shooters.
Signalis
Member
Forza Horizon 5 and Gran Turismo? You're either trolling or just plain dumb
Branded
Member
Yes exactly so everything you're mentioning highlights how Marathon can't be classified solely as a "business decision" otherwise you'd have something like Horizon Hunters Gathering or FBC Firebreak on your hands. It has a ton of niche elements that don't scream "mainstream audience" or strive to capture it.
From what I've played the game isn't bad. It does have fun gun play.
Having said that it's not exactly standing out. It's not breaking the mould.
Art-style boils down the preference to the audience. Personally I find it uninspiring and some what larceny-esk.
How do you mean it has a steeper learning curve? In an EVE online sense or just git gd son?
If you believe that it will attract a more niche audience. Then that isn't a good thing. Bungie needs to make bank with this.
It's not some small indie dev.
Destiny 2 had cheaters. Marathon will have cheaters.
That's the nature of the beast.
I don't think the game game will die overnight like Concord but I don't see it having a future past a year.
I say this as a jaded ex Destiny player.
Like Hunt Showdown I reckon, with the right support, it could be successful to a smaller but consistent audience. Arc Raiders is fantastic but is losing players. It lacks content, depth and has no endgame (still no new weapon even?). I am personally fine with it as I've played my fair share of it (put in 260 hours since launch) and will dip in every now and then but it is plateauing. It simply needs more if it wants to sustain it's massive playerbase.
Marathon however comes equipped with more weapons, attachments, abilities and other mechanics, at launch, that will have people build-craft for months to come after release. In some ways it is smaller in scope but has more depth in a lot of other areas. That's not to say it is the better game compared to Arc. I am not trying to argue that. I'm simply saying that Marathon does not nearly feel as cynical as some of you make it out to be. A vocal minority wants another Concord situation because... reasons? Perhaps then Bungie will then suddenly make a game YOU want, despite the fact that we've never had more choice as gamers so that entitlement issue seems bizarre to me to begin with.
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ValiantInstance
Member
Dragon Age Veilguard was the highest selling game on Steam the week it came out. This means nothing one way or the other.
GymWolf
Member
We all want cyril out of the hw division after what he did to tom.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
.. How can you talk about losing players when marathon was not able to retain nor gain in this "server slam"....
Like, this literally means the conversion rate to paying customers for the final release will be way lower than Arc.Given that Marathon is catering to a PvP audience, the meta will emerge quite quickly. Bungie will need to deliver updates and content at a faster pace.
Some people are still in denial. But this game has the real possibility to break Bungie for good.
8BiTw0LF
Consoomer
Yes, around 100k on Steam players were placed in a que. I'd imagine player numbers on consoles are same or even higher considering the drought of good extraction shooters on those platforms
Branded
Member
We have not even seen half of what the game has to offer. The full game will have more maps, classes and content overall. It will even have an endgame zone that is akin to a raid complete with puzzles and PVE content along with a ranked system to boot. So I am not worried about content draught for quite some time.
How can you talk about losing players when marathon was not able to retain nor gain in this "server slam"....
Given that Marathon is catering to a PvP audience, the meta will emerge quite quickly. Bungie will need to deliver updates and content at a faster pace.
Some people are still in denial. But this game has the real possibility to break Bungie for good.
Like I said if Marathon can find a small but consistent audience it will be perfectly fine. It was never going to do Arc numbers because that is a game for everyone. Marathon is a game for a specific audience.
And no even if Marathon outright FLOPPED Bungie would be fine lol. Are we somehow forgetting the massive success they've had in the past? Sure the Destiny franchise has been hit and miss in recent times but Bungie, despite not being the studio anymore that it once was, still has tremendous clout and pull (plus I imagine Destiniy still has a steady revenue stream). They're not going anywhere if a title like Marathon does not stick the landing.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
Branded
Member
Evidently, please enlighten!
ChorizoPicozo
Member
They are bleeding money. Is expected that a new round of layoffs will hit the studio regardless after marathon releases.
They have some contractual obligation to sony around the release of this game too. I think tied to bonuses for Bungie executives or something like that. We can could see talent exodus at the top after that.
The Bungie that made Halo and Destiny is basically no more. Sony could "save" the brand of the studio. But if they fail, Sony will kill them.
coachmcguirk91
Member
Who cares if a bunch of Halo or Destiny devs are still there? The talent still is. From a technical perspective, Marathon is near flawless. Elite gun play, animations, cinematics, visual world building and CGI cutscenes. People who don't even like the game acknowledge that
Zero chance Bungie gets shut down. Theoretically, if Marathon bombed like Concord, Bungie would go through layoffs, but Destiny is still a billion dollar IP. They would just start work on that immediately
ChorizoPicozo
Member
"the talent still is"....i mean, they went from the biggest shit in the industrial to people coping arguing their next game is a niche one
They not only already did, the entire studio had to restructure for Sony not to kill it.
coachmcguirk91
Member
You think Sony wants to kill Bungie if they fully takeover? Sony already paid the 3.6bil. That money is gone. You could put Bungie on single player games and they would generate more money than any other Sony studio. Bungie still has one of the biggest brands in gaming. It is why so many cretins online hope the studio fails miserably"the talent still is"....i mean, they went from the biggest shit in the industrial to people coping arguing their next game is a niche one
They not only already did, the entire studio had to restructure for Sony not to kill it.
Branded
Member
Fair enough. Like the previous poster said I hardly think Sony will outright kill a studio such a Bungie regardless of who is still there or not. Even a studio like Bluepoint stuck around for years while having literally nothing to fall back on, apparently.
At the end of the day I think Marathon, despite numerous set backs and mismanagement will actually be fine. It's a genuinely good game so it will find its audience. Now that might turn out to be a much smaller success than Sony had hoped for but numerous games have done so in the past where they started out small and slowly build up a bigger audience (and revenue).
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Could ask the same question for Blue Point?.... Of course not. At they end of the day these companies are run by peope, no one wants to kills studios. But when the business has to business.... Well. Specially for somehting as expansive as Bungie... Companies want ROI. And Sony already admired that they were disappointed by Bungie's acquisition and performance
ContrarianAsshole
Member
The way I see it, these days there are 2 main factions within big entertainment studios, the owners, who only want to make money off the product, and the HR culture within the studio, who mainly wants to subvert the product to remove aspects that audiences they consider to be historically privileged would enjoy. It's the first faction that decide why a product is made and the second faction only gets to do their thing post facto. So if you think about it, the guy's tweet makes sense even in the context of the game having a risky art style.
Cumulus
Member
Lorianus
Member
My personal conspiracy is that publishers can buy their place for a little "fee" on the steam page to generate engagement and marketing.
coachmcguirk91
Member
Bluepoint as a studio was incapable of developing AAA games of their own. They were only 70 people. They remade one great game. Their closure made a ton of sense in that context
Again, Sony execs want the 3.6bil back, but that is already spent. Killing Bungie would be terrible business, unless you stupidly believe they don't have the talent to be in the AAA gaming space
LyricalShrike
Member
I think it's more a matter of the list being based on revenue so any reasonably popular new release can reach the top for a few days with concentrated sales.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Again. Sony already has made the moves to save Bungie and gain somehting back from that failed acquisition.
I think Bungie is publishing Marathon on PC, I don't know if they are on consoles. Bungie will have to sustain themselves. Sony will not paid the bills forever
diffusionx
Gold Member
The game is done. It comes out in a few days. Probably 80% of people interested played it this weekend and will base their decision on what they experienced.
In these terms, I don't know if Bungie is feeling too good right now
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Negotiator101
Member
Is the money coming in from Bungie covering the Studio costs? That's the only metric that matters basically, is it sustainable at it's current size? These are questions that all businesses have to adhere to.
However sometimes losses are acceptable as long as the benefits/profits are reaped later on. In Bungie's case they've got a new game coming out and regardless of the server slam disaster they have a chance of getting this game a decent amount of players but work needs to be done a lot of work actually.
Their pedigree gifts them a certain amount of leeway so there's no immediate danger but they won't be given forever either,
Fake
Member
Angry_Megalodon
Member
Twice as many as Sandfall (E33) and ten more than Asobi.
It's clear they don't have that talent anymore. Since shutting down the whole studio would be a mess, My bet is that Sony will do it quietly in different stages. First, downsize; then, divide it in different teams and ultimately erase those parts that don't bring any value.
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coachmcguirk91
Member
Bungie could go through studio layoffs if Marathon is not a big hit, but it is asinine to say the studio could get shut down. That is all I was disputing
Also, server slam was not a disaster, unless you were expecting Marathon to be the next Helldivers 2 or Arc Raiders
Tarnpanzer
Member
Bought my key from an external retailer. Would this actually show up in this statistic?
I am asking because I see no reason to by this directly in Steam, when keysellers have this cheaper with all bonuses etc. included.
Negotiator101
Member
I don't presume to know Sony's expectations for Marathon but one would think they're expecting big things from the developer of Halo and Destiny and of course a game which has a significant budget (mostly due to a mis-managed dev cycle) needs a payoff at some point, so yes I believe it needs to be to not have Bungie impacted significantly.
Branded
Member
Only directly bought games from Steam are included in those charts.
Roman Empire
Member
Played around 20 hours.
I have mixed feelings. The game isn't bad by any means, but menu readability is rough at points, especially when acquiring items mid-match.
For build variety, at least on release, I think the game will do just fine. Bungie has extensive knowledge when it comes to that with so many years doing Destiny, that despite low level gear all across the board, there were some cool synergy between your frame skills, weapons mods, and character mods.
Combat. As a whole is very good and satisfying. PvE enemies are not pushovers and can down you if you aren't careful enough. PvP happens so little at times that you get disappointed when they happen as they end so quickly. Time-to-kill is considerable fast. It's not uncommon to kill a player without them having any time to react and engage you. Bumping TTK by 0.5 second wouldn't hurt anyone, really.
Maps. I'll be honest here. The first map sucks as an introductory map. Dire Marsh is considerably better.
Well, the game won't be hitting those Arc Raider numbers but it seems to have its own crowd. It certainly is more niche and hardcore than Arc. Oh, and story seems greatly improved than what they had originally planned. Delivering plot relevant info and story beats through audio from Vendors and other cutscenes is a way better alternative than plain text.
I don't know if I'm getting this game, but I can certainly say it won't flop as it'd have if released back in september 2025.
I have mixed feelings. The game isn't bad by any means, but menu readability is rough at points, especially when acquiring items mid-match.
For build variety, at least on release, I think the game will do just fine. Bungie has extensive knowledge when it comes to that with so many years doing Destiny, that despite low level gear all across the board, there were some cool synergy between your frame skills, weapons mods, and character mods.
Combat. As a whole is very good and satisfying. PvE enemies are not pushovers and can down you if you aren't careful enough. PvP happens so little at times that you get disappointed when they happen as they end so quickly. Time-to-kill is considerable fast. It's not uncommon to kill a player without them having any time to react and engage you. Bumping TTK by 0.5 second wouldn't hurt anyone, really.
Maps. I'll be honest here. The first map sucks as an introductory map. Dire Marsh is considerably better.
Well, the game won't be hitting those Arc Raider numbers but it seems to have its own crowd. It certainly is more niche and hardcore than Arc. Oh, and story seems greatly improved than what they had originally planned. Delivering plot relevant info and story beats through audio from Vendors and other cutscenes is a way better alternative than plain text.
I don't know if I'm getting this game, but I can certainly say it won't flop as it'd have if released back in september 2025.
ValiantInstance
Member
No it's just based on revenue over a very short period. I think it might even be as little as 'best selling game in the last 24 hours'.
So if a new big game isn't at the top at launch, it's DOA.
Gamer_By_Proxy
About to beat off
They should probably put out a video on the progression/contracts if they haven't yet.
A lot of complaints I saw, I believe are mitigated via permanent upgrades you earn through the contracts.
I'm not a MP/extraction shooter guy, so I might be off. Didn't really look into it much or play this much.
A lot of complaints I saw, I believe are mitigated via permanent upgrades you earn through the contracts.
I'm not a MP/extraction shooter guy, so I might be off. Didn't really look into it much or play this much.
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Spyxos
Member
I had the same conversation several times. They were all Arc Raiders players who wanted to try something different. But they all said that they probably wouldn't get it. Everyone also asked what they should do. Because they felt lost in the game. They really need to redo the tutorial.
propano
Neo Member
Marathon is objectively a competently and well made game. It works, it delivers. Its problem is being sold as a niche-within-a-niche: an hardcore (niche) extraction shooter (niche). Arc is doing well because it somehow "casualized" the access to the genre.
This isn't bad per-se, we absolutely need games with a strong identity and strong design decisions (both in gameplay and artistic directions) in this dried up and risk averse AAA industry. Point is that this simply does not seem to align with current Sony's business view. It will be interesting to see how numbers align with expectations: I see this game quickly finding a baseline steady player base, but it will hardly grow to gigaboom numbers.
This isn't bad per-se, we absolutely need games with a strong identity and strong design decisions (both in gameplay and artistic directions) in this dried up and risk averse AAA industry. Point is that this simply does not seem to align with current Sony's business view. It will be interesting to see how numbers align with expectations: I see this game quickly finding a baseline steady player base, but it will hardly grow to gigaboom numbers.
Darchaos
Member
I was pretty clear on what Marathon will be after the beta i was in, but i did download it again and tried the Serverslam just to see how it felt this time around. Its an ok-ish exfil-shooter, but for me it has nothing that will make me put it in the rotation of Tarkov and Hunt(Or ARC, but arc is in its own league).
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8BiTw0LF
Consoomer
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Will be fun to put the "niche genre" accusations to bed after Marathon releases. It's definitely not niche.
Darchaos
Member
Yep
It sure is..
Kacho
Gold Member
The Server Slam is over in a couple hours.
Full steam ahead on the release at the end of the week. Can't f'n wait.
