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[BennyBlanco]

Not a flop. Not a success. If Halo Infinite MP is still going with 2k players or whatever I doubt this gets shut down. Probably just scaled back content.

 

[Branded]

Sadly enough this makes sense...

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

It's not slop. It's a better game than Concord or Highguard I'm sure. And I would agree that the game itself isn't particularly woke.
But let's be real.
It's a gaas extraction shooter. It's not new or innovative. It's literally them trying to chase trends to make a bunch of money, throwing in the name Marathon as a little bit of extra insurance to garner interest from people.

Arc Raiders is the same and yet there was no thread keeping hourly tabs of the concurrent players and cheering at its demise.

It's not about chasing trends, it's not about companies trying to earn money, it's about something different.

 

[DrFigs]

Sadly enough this makes sense...

This is always pathetic.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

>sony paid $4B for a dead game and game that's tailspinning on release
>combined player count of <100K

 

[PeteBull]

Not a flop. Not a success. If Halo Infinite MP is still going with 2k players or whatever I doubt this gets shut down. Probably just scaled back content.

So far its confirmed flop, its not some AA game with 20m usd budget from asian or east european newbie studio, it needed to hit big to even break even, and obviously its playerbase looks more like fart in the wind than actual gaming audience, numbers wise

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Maybe the 4th map will help retain buyers from leaving, but i dont see how it affects people who havent bought it yet.

I dont get a sense gamers are itching to buy the game "only when the 4th map is released". I'd bet most gamers havent even followed or know about a 4th map.

It'd be like COD gamers. If you want it, you buy it. If you dont like it, you wont. Dont think too many gamers are like.... "I'll get COD when they add more free maps"

Unless there's a major push that increases CCU, it'll probably creep down slowly and level off at 10-20k after a while. It's no Concord or Highguard zooming to 500 gamers. But it's not lighting the world on fire.

A compelling theory if we didn't have updated data on Steam sales.

Marathon is currently #2 in the US and #4 globally. You shouldn't judge GAAS sales based on the front loaded traditional single player patterns. The sales "tail" of GAAS is a huge reason why these companies make these games.

 

[Portugeezer]

So far its confirmed flop, its not some AA game with 20m usd budget from asian or east european newbie studio, it needed to hit big to even break even, and obviously its playerbase looks more like fart in the wind than actual gaming audience, numbers wise

What's the PS5 numbers looking like? Flops like Highguard had double the numbers on PS than Steam apparently.

 

[PeteBull]

A compelling theory if we didn't have updated data on Steam sales.

Marathon is currently #2 in the US and #4 globally. You shouldn't judge GAAS sales based on the front loaded traditional single player patterns. The sales "tail" of GAAS is a huge reason why these companies make these games.

With all the respect to u, my legendary gaffer-bro, this time in particular:

 

[Zathalus]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

A compelling theory if we didn't have updated data on Steam sales.

Marathon is currently #2 in the US and #4 globally. You shouldn't judge GAAS sales based on the front loaded traditional single player patterns. The sales "tail" of GAAS is a huge reason why these companies make these games.

They probably haven't updated because there's no sales to update

 

[Sakura]

Arc Raiders is the same and yet there was no thread keeping hourly tabs of the concurrent players and cheering at its demise.

It's not about chasing trends, it's not about companies trying to earn money, it's about something different.

I mean, there was a CCU thread for Arc Raiders too. Difference is the game did significantly better and kept going higher and higher, so of course there wasn't people talking about the numbers speculating its demise.
Word of mouth for the game before launch was also pretty good.
People have been iffy on Marathon since the closed alpha, the game was delayed afterwards, then the plagiarism, and also people not interested in Sony's GaaS initiative.
I don't really think it is the same.

 

[Fake]

I don't think GAF servers could sustain this amount of crying.

Go to the OT and be happy.

 

[KimDongHwan]

One thing I appreciate this time around compared to Concord, veilguard, highguard and all the other instances of similar situation is how we haven't seen any Bungie dev going crazy on social media against gamers or the coordinated effort from "established" media to call out gamers. Maybe there has been some progress in this area, maybe humility is starting to set in

 

[Kacho]

The CCU thread surpassed the OT

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

With all the respect to u, my legendary gaffer-bro, this time in particular:

I'm not sure how data can be considered out of touch but kk

 

[Deerock71]

What does the Game have to do with wokeness and incel victories?
God, the "chudsters" are getting as annoying as the "woke" crowd.

Sad about the game though. Always bad for gamers to see a game fail like that. Makes developers and producer more anxious to make something new and innovative. It's become and more risky.

This reaction is overblown. I wasn't paying any attention to this game, and it was an honest question.

 

[Fake]

The CCU thread surpassed the OT

The amount of widows here lol.

 

[PeteBull]

I'm not sure how data can be considered out of touch but kk

Data shows us marathon underperformed big time, gaas extraction shooter thrives on high playerbase which this game doesnt have, it started low and instead of picking up steam ( ) its quickly degrading even lower, by next month this time it wont even be 5'2 invisible by all the girls male, it will be fricken quasimodo

 

[Saber]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

The common denominator is calling everything they disagree hate(which they are doing). Unfortunatelly this isn't going to help in Marathon case because it creates some sort of toxic positivity against people who, despite being in doubt or negative about it, might be willing to give it a chance.
As for the fascination its already explained gazillions of times, so I'm gonna make it short. It has to do with Sony being extremelly obssessed with GaaS, to the point of damaging their own singleplayer portifolio (unless you being out for months and didn't read about Sony giving only incentives to their studios if they were to make GaaS projects, with also leaks of cancelled GaaS games by their studios). Not to mention Bungie weird choice of a game (one that almost doomed them in the past) when they could pretty much create a Destiny 3. Also, as KyoZz posted theres the stealing art drama.

One thing I appreciate this time around compared to Concord, veilguard, highguard and all the other instances of similar situation is how we haven't seen any Bungie dev going crazy on social media against gamers or the coordinated effort from "established" media to call out gamers. Maybe there has been some progress in this area, maybe humility is starting to set in

I'm pretty sure they want that. But I'm guessing after the GoY political fiasco, Sony might be holding them hard this time.

 

[KyoZz]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

Jeez yeah I wonder why, so many mysteries (beside the fact the game is looking like shit of course)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/05/16/bungie-stealing-marathon-art-is-probably-the-last-straw/

A compelling theory if we didn't have updated data on Steam sales.

Marathon is currently #2 in the US and #4 globally. You shouldn't judge GAAS sales based on the front loaded traditional single player patterns. The sales "tail" of GAAS is a huge reason why these companies make these games.

Hard copium, less than 100K CCU is a TOTAL DISASTER for Bungie/Sony no matter how you try to spin it. In a few weeks you'll be hyping the next GAAS shit (Fairgame I think?) and the cycle will repeat himself.

"B-b-b-but the next Mario gaming moment I swear !!!"

 

[yurinka]

Sadly enough this makes sense...

Yes, these fanboys review bombed the server slam in PSN or metacritic, but don't review bomb the final game in PSN or Steam because to do you have to buy it.

And seems that the most people who actually bought and played it are enjoying the game. So far seems to have very good user reviews and user retention.

 

[Zathalus]

Jeez yeah I wonder why, so many mysteries (beside the fact the game is looking like shit of course)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/05/16/bungie-stealing-marathon-art-is-probably-the-last-straw/

Let's be real, nobody really gives a shit about that. It was a flash in the pan "controversy".

I get people pushing back against GaaS, but Bungie has been doing GaaS for well over a decade now, so I'm not sure what people were expecting.

As for the game looking shit, I suppose the art style is probably not for everyone, but the game itself appears to be competently made. I can't say personally as I am no fan of extraction shooters myself.

 

[Kacho]

"B-b-b-but the next Mario gaming moment I swear !!!"

 

[Moridianae]

It was never going to be a Concord level failure. I don't believe that comparison holds any water.

Currently, it seems to have stabilized at around 35k. But it is opening weekend, so we have to see how *much* of that 35k sticks around as the weeks go on.


I don't believe it'll drop into the numbers we saw for Concord or Highguard and not that quickly; far from it, but whether or not it remains acceptable to Sony themselves is another matter entirely.

The game is not for me, as I am not interested in this style of game. I really loved Dark Zone in Division, but maybe I've become more averse at my age.

Coming home from 50+ hour work weeks to get involved in a sweat fest isn't my idea of fun anymore.

Smashing some robots or bugs in Helldivers is actually quite cathartic on the opposite side.

I'm not saying the game is bad, but it is quite niche and I'm not sure if Bungie/Sony *wanted* it to be niche or *expected* it to become niche, but that may be where it is headed.


The question is will that be okay?

 

[Mengy]

I really thought the CCU would go over 150K for the weekend. What it actually got isn't a healthy number at all, I'd bet Bungie is pretty concerned right now.

Real talk, other than good natured ribbing... this exact topic elsewhere and purple is filled with people clashing over whether or not consumers have the right to look at CCU data, conspiracy theories about posting publically available data, threats of moderation, people accusing other people of anting to ruin people's careers, and people getting really nasty to each other.

Basically, us here, be it defenders, detractors, or in between, are actually civil by comparison.

You guys rock at Gaf! And some of you are damn funny as well.

Yeah its nasty over there. Echo chambers reinforced by heavy moderation end up like that. Always trying to force their own beliefs onto everyone different because they feel empowered by like minded enforcers, they end up becoming and acting like the things they claim to hate the most. It's called a bubble for a reason.

 

[PeteBull]

Yup, all those steam reviewers liking game so much they cant stand playing it even for 3 days, even including waves of new audience game is losing ccu on its 3rd day
If actual 87% of players liked game it wouldnt be 88k peak first day to 78k 2nd and 75k 3rd, it would be growing playerbase, not losing, especially durning its 1st weekend

What we see is- sizeable chunks of already small playerbase couldnt stand to play it even for few days, otherwise peak wouldnt get lower, it would increase instead...

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Data shows us marathon underperformed big time, gaas extraction shooter thrives on high playerbase which this game doesnt have, it started low and instead of picking up steam ( ) its quickly degrading even lower, by next month this time it wont even be 5'2 invisible by all the girls male, it will be fricken quasimodo

All that is irrelevant to what's being discussed.

StreetsofBeige made a claim yesterday that everyone who was thinking of buying Marathon already bought it. However, the data today says otherwise.

 

[Mr Moose]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

Yes, and Men_in_Boxes .

 

[pulicat]

People are arguing about whether a marathon is a concord level of failure or not.

Let's be objective here.

Which one cost Sony $3.6bn and started the whole Playstation GAAS initiative?

Which developer was expected to thrive in the GAAS market, Bungie or Firewall?

Marathon actually overtaking Concord as the biggest Playstation game failures of all time.

 

[Darchaos]

 

[down 2 orth]

Glad to see Sony humbled again. A couple more years of this and they might actually get their act together.

 

[Topher]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

A lot of it is wanting live service to fail because folks don't want Sony's focus to stay with live service.

 

[Fake]

Yes, these fanboys review bombed the server slam in PSN or metacritic, but don't review bomb the final game in PSN or Steam because to do you have to buy it.

And seems that the most people who actually bought and played it are enjoying the game. So far seems to have very good user reviews and user retention.

I got curious, are Xbox fanboys doing this review bomb, Nintendo fanboys or Playstation fanboys?

I got little confuse to be honest.

 

[PeteBull]

All that is irrelevant to what's being discussed.

StreetsofBeige made a claim yesterday that everyone who was thinking of buying Marathon already bought it. However, the data today says otherwise.

Im sure more ppl will buy it and try it out, likely hundreds of k's, but thats still peanuts in terms of money needed to sustain AAA veteran western studio like bungie, lets be generous and assume total 500k ppl worldwive bought it on all platforms, half of it on playstation so full 40$ goes to sony, half of it on steam and xbox so only 27$ goes to sony from it.
So u got 250k x 40$= 10m usd from playstation ecosystem and 250k x 27$= 6,75m from steam/xbox thats total under 17m usd of revenue for a game that had 250m usd production budget(and including its humongous marketting likely 400-500m usd total budget).
Lets again be super generous and lets assume durning march bungie doubles amount of ppl who bought the game so total 34m usd + 50m usd from all the mtx so total 84m usd made, thats still crazy total flop assuming best case scenario

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

The CCU thread surpassed the OT

Dead

 

[Topher]

The CCU thread surpassed the OT

GAF has become a metric

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Im sure more ppl will buy it and try it out, likely hundreds of k's, but thats still peanuts in terms of money needed to sustain AAA veteran western studio like bungie, lets be generous and assume total 500k ppl worldwive bought it on all platforms, half of it on playstation so full 40$ goes to sony, half of it on steam and xbox so only 27$ goes to sony from it.
So u got 250k x 40$= 10m usd from playstation ecosystem and 250k x 27$= 6,75m from steam/xbox thats total under 17m usd of revenue for a game that had 250m usd production budget(and including its humongous marketting likely 400-500m usd total budget).
Lets again be super generous and lets assume durning march bungie doubles amount of ppl who bought the game so total 34m usd + 50m usd from all the mtx so total 84m usd made, thats still crazy total flop assuming best case scenario

 

[KyoZz]

Let's be real, nobody really gives a shit about that. It was a flash in the pan "controversy".

I get people pushing back against GaaS, but Bungie has been doing GaaS for well over a decade now, so I'm not sure what people were expecting.

As for the game looking shit, I suppose the art style is probably not for everyone, but the game itself appears to be competently made. I can't say personally as I am no fan of extraction shooters myself.

I don't hate GAAS. Anno 1800 is a GAAS for example and I loved it, played for 650 hours. Same for Wreckfest (400 hours) and Helldivers II (180 hours played).

No, I hate trend chasing games that bring nothing new to the table. I also think that the controversy, even if it wasn't fatal, contributed to what we are seeing now.

I got curious, are Xbox fanboys doing this review bomb, Nintendo fanboys or Playstation fanboys?

I got little confuse to be honest.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Consider that the player count dropped during the first weekend. During the days of the work week it's going to be a blood bath.

I know all about blood baths.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

1. Yes. It's "hate" towards Sony's GaaS initiative

2. Yes, destiny fans are pissed at Bungie for abandoning the game

But also:

3. Bungie's previous anti consumer practices.

4. Bungie's being super mega woke.

5.for some reason marathon retards and media trying to pin Arc Riders vs Marathon.... (guess who lost that battle)

6. Green rats and the usual console warring behavior.

7. The art plagiarism.

What else...?

8. The overall sentiment against GaaS/MTXs, AAA following trends

9. Hate towards media (and some devs) and their scummy behavior (us vs them) always blaming gamers for everything.

So... As you can see. We are dealing with a massive inflection point. Bungie failing will be a massive win for gamers in all fronts

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

No, I hate trend chasing games that bring nothing new to the table.

Did Anno 1800 bring anything new to the table?

Impossible to accuse Marathon of bringing nothing new to the table when you look at it's loot, build crafting, Outpost map, and (likely) Cryo Archive.

That said, I'm being foolish here trying to interact with the hate train.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

I am betting Sony and Bungie give it a year of big updates before reevaluating. The game is so much better than the initial Alpha test last year. Hopefully it can take another leap after community feedback

Also, there was so much bad/disingenuous will towards this game before launch. Gamers are repulsed by Marathon because of the campaign against it. I could see player sentiments changing over time as more people play it

 

[StueyDuck]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

A dormant SP legacy franchise revitalized as a GaaS MP only game in a sea of sloppy bland extraction shooters with nothing new to add to the genre while being helmed by "nu-bungie" whose stopped putting effort into their other GaaS and its fans, to focus on this cashgrab, trendchasing game.

Instead of the old bungie whose bread and butter was mostly their great campaigns we are in an era where Sony was planning on pumping out 100s of failing GaaS games merely for that braindead fortnite crowd of skins and dance paying whales, instead of publishing the types of games they are known for and accel at, sp narrative campaigns.

 

[BennyBlanco]

So far its confirmed flop, its not some AA game with 20m usd budget from asian or east european newbie studio, it needed to hit big to even break even, and obviously its playerbase looks more like fart in the wind than actual gaming audience, numbers wise

I hear you but it's not a Concord level disaster which is what I would really consider a flop. This is underperforming but not a total catastrophe.

 

[ValiantInstance]

Sad to see people want a genuinely good game with a fresh take on the genre to fail so much.

No one cares about trend chasing nonsense. I never fell for the battle royale craze, I don't care about extraction shooters either.

Just like Fortnite, Arc Raiders was lightning in a bottle. We don't need every AAA studio spending the next 5 years making knockoffs.

And yes I'm aware Bungie started making Marathon because of Tarkov, but because of Arc we are going to have years of retarded shareholders pushing this shit.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

I don't think GAF servers could sustain this amount of crying.

Go to the OT and be happy.

They are literally unable to be happy. They must defend Marathon's honor.

Another telltale sign is when defenders try to OT'ify non-OT threads in an attempt to make the appearance that the situation is not that bad.

 

[PeteBull]

I hear you but it's not a Concord level disaster which is what I would really consider a flop. This is underperforming but not a total catastrophe.

Concord sold 25k copies worldwide, games can be flop even if they sell 100x of that.
Logic tells us that if game is flop or not depends solely on publisher expectaction aka game's budget vs actual profit it makes.
It can get skewed and not even a bit in case of true exclusive(to not look far GoY), coz then u gotta count in potential milions (or at leasts hundreds of k's) of new console buyers, but marathon launching everywhere doesnt have that luxury

 

[FoxMcChief]

Same certain haters..

Maybe because this is just more GaaS slop. Posters are consistent, no matter who develops the garbage.

 

[kruis]

I'm curious, why has there been such a fascination about this game failing? It seems a bit run of the mill with the only thing about it that seems offensive being the rather terrible UI design. Rest of the game appears solid, although nothing exceptional. Reviews on Steam appear far more positive than I would have assumed. Is this a hate on Sony or Bungie thing?

Sony GAAS hate.