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Marathon releases to 87,000 players on Steam and 87% Positive Reviews (sponsored by coachmcguirk91)

coachmcguirk91 said:
The weakest part of the game is the somewhat repetitive AI. I don't know why Bungie made practically all enemies Bi-Ped with the same color scheme. It makes sense story wise, but there isn't enough variation of how to approach each enemy

If PvE elements get improved upon, which Bungie should have no problem doing, hopefully that entices more players to try it out. I strongly believe the tail will be long
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They probably did that so there's some consistency. Making bi-ped AI robots makes the world more believable than having aliens, blobs, or giant Helldivers or ARC Raiders enemies.

The AI is going to be a side focus to spice things up, not a PvE focus. Similar to Titanfall. All the AI grunts are similar soldier guys you stomp over. They could had made the enemies all kinds of wacky soldiers, enemy titans, and spaceships. But to simplify the gameplay loop, they made them familiar from game to game.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
They probably did that so there's some consistency. Making bi-ped AI robots makes the world more believable than having aliens, blobs, or giant Helldivers or ARC Raiders enemies.
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The Marathon has pixelated weapons, cosmetics that doesn't make sense, levels look like VR missions.

How the hell is that going to make it more believable.
 
Why people always is saying "subjective" when it comes to liking art ? (Graphics, music, script, etc)

Artistic expressions are quantifiable.

Ugliness to an extreme generates hate. You guys didn't know that? (That to the topic making women uglier)

A convoluted design leads to confusion and that, to losing interest. 📉
 
GermanZepp said:
Why people always is saying "subjective" when it comes to liking art ? (Graphics, music, script, etc)

Artistic expressions are quantifiable.

Ugliness to an extreme generates hate. You guys didn't know that? (That to the topic making women uglier)

A convoluted design leads to confusion and that, to losing interest. 📉
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Flesh won the 2025 Booker prize for best piece of English literature. Its 300 pages of a guy jerking off, fucking, and answering in monosyllables. It's plot is a bare-bones reiterating of a Greek tragic cycle without any morals or messaging. Art is very much subjective.
 
GermanZepp said:
Why people always is saying "subjective" when it comes to liking art ? (Graphics, music, script, etc)

Artistic expressions are quantifiable.
Click to expand...

Because people who say this, especially reviewers, prefer saying "subjective" to "I know shit".

There are multiple indicators, besides metrics, to properly analyze any artistic work.
 
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LyricalShrike said:
Flesh won the 2025 Booker prize for best piece of English literature. Its 300 pages of a guy jerking off, fucking, and answering in monosyllables. It's plot is a bare-bones reiterating of a Greek tragic cycle without any morals or messaging. Art is very much subjective.
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That book is trash, like every other that has won a prize in the last 15 years. That's not art. It's bullshit and the purpose of awarding it is having people like you saying exactly what you posted.

The Mona Lisa is art; a turd splattered on a canvas is not.
 
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Angry_Megalodon said:
That book is trash, like every other that has won a prize in the last 15 years. That's not art. It's bullshit and the purpose of awarding it is having people like you saying exactly what you posted.

The Mona Lisa is art; a shit splattered on a canvas is not.
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The existence of differing views without an empirical way to show which is true further reinforces that art is subjective. You can quantify the effort, time, and technique but the impact of a piece will always be subject to the viewer and their surrounding culture. Nobody's view is ever incorrect.
 
And that was Marathon's first weekend, unable to surpass its launch day peak CCU.
But hey, at least Sunday wasn't its worst performing day of the weekend. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

tkAz2jRdgDqjL7ll.png
 
Pelao said:
And that was Marathon's first weekend, unable to surpass its launch day peak CCU.
But hey, at least Sunday wasn't its worst performing day of the weekend. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

tkAz2jRdgDqjL7ll.png
Click to expand...
If they retain this level of engagement through the next week
Pelao said:
And that was Marathon's first weekend, unable to surpass its launch day peak CCU.
But hey, at least Sunday wasn't its worst performing day of the weekend. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

tkAz2jRdgDqjL7ll.png
Click to expand...
If they manage to sustain this level of engagement all week it will be very impressive.
 
I've been playing fill all night and have stumbled upon a lot of people that seem really bummed out with the game. Whether they're losing alot or simply haven't felt like the fights have been fair. I've been doing my fair share of motivating them and ensuring that the game isn't designed to be sunshine and rainbows but the rewards are huge!

My last game we wiped a squad and I said that we could loot and just exfil out right after but one of our teammates started the exfil with no warning and I ended up leaving the other teammate out of uncertainty. He was super disappointed and mentioned how he couldn't even trust his teammates anymore which lowkey bummed me out too. I made sure to stay with him and talked him through on how to safely exfil, and he did! He was very happy and grateful! I was very satisfied with him getting that big win and hope he continued playing afterwards.

Tldr: support one another whenever possible!







 
Pelao said:
And that was Marathon's first weekend, unable to surpass its launch day peak CCU.
But hey, at least Sunday wasn't its worst performing day of the weekend. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

tkAz2jRdgDqjL7ll.png
Click to expand...
Seems to me that people who bought it dont droped ot after a day, thats not toooooo bad
 
viveks86 said:
Guys, when are we expecting proper reviews?
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Proper reviews are already out, from people actually spending money on it, and serious hours, playing it right now, and not sitting in the lap of a publisher and barely dipping their toes because they have other games to write about or using AI to write a review.

90% on Steam, 12,000+ real people sharing their view on it.

95% if you filter for 10+ hours of playtime.

It's good. Very good even. If it was my type of game I would bite without hesitation. But it's not so I'm just here for the hilarious scenario of "professional" reviewers supposedly waiting for an already released game to be updated before posting their static review for an ever evolving game. It's so dumb. All of it.
 
Pelao said:
And that was Marathon's first weekend, unable to surpass its launch day peak CCU.
But hey, at least Sunday wasn't its worst performing day of the weekend. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

tkAz2jRdgDqjL7ll.png
Click to expand...
Helldivers 2 had its first day a 64.1K CCU peak, and didn't have its all time peak until the third weekend.

Arc Raiders had a way higher day one peak, but again had its all time peak until the third weekend.

Being hardcore PvP focused, its target audience is smaller so it's normal to have less sales than more mainstream PvE focused games.

Bungie is also a company with a bigger audience in console, so maybe their sales are better there. They also asked to release the reviews some time after launch to let the gaming press play the game live with the rest of the players. Great reviews and word of mouth created by popular streamers can amplify the very good impressions seen in the PSN and Steam user reviews, driving extra sales in future weeks.

We'll have to wait and see.

ChorizoPicozo said:
If they manage to sustain this level of engagement all week it will be very impressive.
Click to expand...
In case of this game, I think will have a very good user retention. But almost in all games after the weekend there's a drop in userbase, many people play mostly during weekends.
 
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havoc00 said:
I've been playing fill all night and have stumbled upon a lot of people that seem really bummed out with the game. Whether they're losing alot or simply haven't felt like the fights have been fair. I've been doing my fair share of motivating them and ensuring that the game isn't designed to be sunshine and rainbows but the rewards are huge!

My last game we wiped a squad and I said that we could loot and just exfil out right after but one of our teammates started the exfil with no warning and I ended up leaving the other teammate out of uncertainty. He was super disappointed and mentioned how he couldn't even trust his teammates anymore which lowkey bummed me out too. I made sure to stay with him and talked him through on how to safely exfil, and he did! He was very happy and grateful! I was very satisfied with him getting that big win and hope he continued playing afterwards.

Tldr: support one another whenever possible!







Click to expand...


That's the game loop though, that everyone thinks is gonna hit big. This game is sharks v fish. And you need a population of fish to maintain it. The problem is the fish don't even have a chance. This game is too brutal for matchmaking when paired with the low amount of people who go on open mic. So the fish will scatter. And despite the sharks liking the game/sweatfest they are an endangered species so there aren't as many to sustain a high profile GaaS, or invest in MTX.

We've been repeatedly told this is a PvP game so I'm not surprised though. The alpha/beta was exactly the same. As a strategy it probably makes more sense to eliminate as many other players as you can early so you can focus on better loot and extraction in the final minutes. It plays like a BR right now imo.

The latest patch already gives more health, ammo, and nav guides. The only way this picks up is if the casualisation continues. I know it has a number of dogmatic ultra PvP fans right now, but whether this game survives is largely going to depend on if they are prepared to accept changes that keep casuals around. And they need to be quite large.
 
LyricalShrike said:
The existence of differing views without an empirical way to show which is true further reinforces that art is subjective. You can quantify the effort, time, and technique but the impact of a piece will always be subject to the viewer and their surrounding culture. Nobody's view is ever incorrect.
Click to expand...
Just because there are some loonies who might consider some nonsense is art, doesn't mean it suddenly becomes subjective. Some loonies consider earth as flat. Some consider gender as a social construct. Is that all subjective? Generally, art is considered whatever evocates deep emotion/pleasure through application of high level of skill. It is the OBJECTIVE definition. The mona lisa will always be taken more seriously than most modern 'art'.
 
I honestly don't get it.

This is without a doubt one of the most aggressively ugly and immersion-breaking art styles I've ever seen.
You can easily get more immersed in most games from the 90s.

Marathon looks like someone took a decent/normal looking game, and then vomited neon colors all over the place in random spots.
NOTHING, no thinkable sci-fi scenario would ever look like it. You enter the game and are immediately taken out of it by the sheer nonsense in front of you.
The UI has the same issue, everything is an unreadable explosion of color over your screen.

I was never invested in the original Marathon, so I'm not personally offended by what they did to that legacy - though I have to wonder why even use it at all if you aren't planning to do anything remotely similar?
It's not like a 30 year old name had any meaning to anyone under the age of 30. As if they went out of their way to shit on it :LOL:

I guess the core gameplay is at least decent if it managed to not lose everyone immediately like... other games.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
They probably did that so there's some consistency. Making bi-ped AI robots makes the world more believable than having aliens, blobs, or giant Helldivers or ARC Raiders enemies.

The AI is going to be a side focus to spice things up, not a PvE focus. Similar to Titanfall. All the AI grunts are similar soldier guys you stomp over. They could had made the enemies all kinds of wacky soldiers, enemy titans, and spaceships. But to simplify the gameplay loop, they made them familiar from game to game.
Click to expand...
Marathon is meant to have Aliens. The Cryo section of the ship that the Corporation is securing has a sarcophagus with a sleeping Alien inside. That is likely meant to be the reveal of Season 1 finale.
 
yurinka said:
Helldivers 2 had its first day a 64.1K CCU peak, and didn't have its all time peak until the third weekend.
Click to expand...

Helldivers had almost no marketing, wasn't coming from huge established AAA studio with shitload of fans. It was lighting in the bottle that spread by mouth. Nothing like Marathon where impressions seems to be opposite.

Steam numbers are DIRE for studio that spends shitload of money for DEV. Usually there is 10:1 conversion when it comes to steam. Meaning that if you have 100k players at the same time you sold 1mln copies. If you hit million players then you sold about 10 mln copies. Obviously we don't know how it goes on Playstation as they don't publish numbers but this definitely is not the place where Bungie wanted game to be.

At current rate they didn't even sell 1 mil on PC. Let's say with Playstation they sold 1,5 mil copies or maybe 2. That would be very good numbers for Helldivers with their small team but not for Bungie. Unless they have crazy content pipeline that will introduce something major every month there isn't a pathway for it to survive, not with their size and payroll. And this is supposed to be project for years.


I say good. Fuck them. I was avid fan once and they destroyed a fan with their outright greed in Destiny 2.

TheSHEEEP said:
I honestly don't get it.

This is without a doubt one of the most aggressively ugly and immersion-breaking art styles I've ever seen.
You can easily get more immersed in most games from the 90s.

Marathon looks like someone took a decent/normal looking game, and then vomited neon colors all over the place in random spots.
NOTHING, no thinkable sci-fi scenario would ever look like it. You enter the game and are immediately taken out of it by the sheer nonsense in front of you.
The UI has the same issue, everything is an unreadable explosion of color over your screen.

I was never invested in the original Marathon, so I'm not personally offended by what they did to that legacy - though I have to wonder why even use it at all if you aren't planning to do anything remotely similar?
It's not like a 30 year old name had any meaning to anyone under the age of 30. As if they went out of their way to shit on it :LOL:

I guess the core gameplay is at least decent if it managed to not lose everyone immediately like... other games.
Click to expand...

It's general problem with Sci-fi art, especially these days. And it's not a problem unique to scifi either. Just ton of artists with no real life experience trying to come up with something cool that always feel hollow. Then someone takes that art and makes it center piece rather than being part of world and then you end up with Marathon and other games with similar weird art.

UT99 is great example of how even bad art can function fantastic if you craft art around the game rather than it being the game. UT99 was tournament where you got zombies, humans, robots, ai, skajjr etc. fighting in completely different from each other arenas. In one map you had spaceship flying in space, in other medieval castle. Normally it wouldn't mash at all. But game idea was that it was futuristic death tournament which is why they could come up with various different art and it felt fitting theme.
 
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Angry_Megalodon said:
The Mona Lisa is art; a turd splattered on a canvas is not.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, until about 100 years ago, Mona Lisa was largely an unknown, ignored painting, until one day it was stolen, after which journalists made its theft into international sensation, giving it the reputation it has today. We live in manufactured reality.
But anyway, I do agree the "all art is subjective" take is BS. Someone may like a turd on a canvas and claim it changed their life and it will still be a turd on a canvas.
 
Devils advocate. PvP lovers in Destiny 2 had a hard time getting any updates from Bungie and they still kept playing the mode for literally Years.
Bungie fanbase are hardcore addicts of their hobbies. With Marathon getting constant updates I bet they are gonna stick with this for a very long time.
 
Shubh_C63 said:
Devils advocate. PvP lovers in Destiny 2 had a hard time getting any updates from Bungie and they still kept playing the mode for literally Years.
Bungie fanbase are hardcore addicts of their hobbies. With Marathon getting constant updates I bet they are gonna stick with this for a very long time.
Click to expand...
It sort of proves the point though. PvP was poor in Destiny. It's like they doubled down on all the worst of Gambit, but you're right. Overall, this game will live or die by how many Bungie/Destiny lovers stay on board.

As for art, I used to hang my pictures on the fridge. Now I hang them in museums. With my own blu tak. Limited runs, as janitors take them down within the week.
 
Tobimacoss said:
Marathon is meant to have Aliens. The Cryo section of the ship that the Corporation is securing has a sarcophagus with a sleeping Alien inside. That is likely meant to be the reveal of Season 1 finale.
Click to expand...
If someone picks this up later, say in 6 months, will this 'event' still be available? This kind of shit already worries me, I can't be arsed keeping up on it all and if it's anything like a Destiny it will be a nightmare for people dipping in and out that haven't kept track of everything.
 
Bojanglez said:
If someone picks this up later, say in 6 months, will this 'event' still be available? This kind of shit already worries me, I can't be arsed keeping up on it all and if it's anything like a Destiny it will be a nightmare for people dipping in and out that haven't kept track of everything.
Click to expand...
The content and storyline will be there but you just won't get the excitement of the reveal when it's a collective surprise for the whole community. Just stay away from Marathon spoilers.
 
The game is sitting at 24k now. Crazy

on a real note I think the support on the game is gonna end early to fully work on destiny 3
 
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When you die instead of just spectating and waiting for your team to (probably) die, you should be able to respawn as a UESC bot and mess with people
 
Denton said:
Funnily enough, until about 100 years ago, Mona Lisa was largely an unknown, ignored painting, until one day it was stolen, after which journalists made its theft into international sensation, giving it the reputation it has today. We live in manufactured reality.
But anyway, I do agree the "all art is subjective" take is BS. Someone may like a turd on a canvas and claim it changed their life and it will still be a turd on a canvas.
Click to expand...

Art is subjective. I love marathon's presentation, even the brutalist interface.

Why do you think Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is valuable? Because of the canvas it is painted on? Because of the pigments holding onto the canvas? Because of the wooden stretcher it is mounted on? Or is it valuable because of the economic value of the hours the painter needed to produce it?

The funny thing is you're at least 60+ years late, since an italian artist in the 60s proved that indeed, artist turds are valuable works of art.
 
GermanZepp said:
Why people always is saying "subjective" when it comes to liking art ? (Graphics, music, script, etc)

Artistic expressions are quantifiable.

Ugliness to an extreme generates hate. You guys didn't know that? (That to the topic making women uglier)

A convoluted design leads to confusion and that, to losing interest. 📉
Click to expand...
Subjectivity is the modern defense for the snowflake generation ... nothing I like can be bad or ugly. I cant be bad or ugly.
 
yurinka said:
Helldivers 2 had its first day a 64.1K CCU peak, and didn't have its all time peak until the third weekend.

Arc Raiders had a way higher day one peak, but again had its all time peak until the third weekend.
Click to expand...
Neither trended downwards from their release day though. They always had their weekly peak on the weekend post-launch.

A newly released game having less players on the first weekend than on the weekday it launched is a very bad sign.
 
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I don't know what they expected... Did they expect the millions of Fornite players stopped playing and switched to Marathon?
 
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Cr1ptkeeper said:
I don't know what they expected... Did they expect the millions of Fornite players stopped playing and switched to Marathon?
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Thinking logically their previous gaas, aka destiny2 that launched oct 2019 had 316k alltime peak and it was fully priced game, so ofc if u take into account marathon is only 40, steam grew substantially from 2019 to now and on top bungie progressed as a studio being fully under sony wing now, sony had to expect 400-600k ccu peak with really good player retention too, first time destiny2 peak dropped below to 61k was 3 years after launch nov 2022 only, and game bounced back many times after that.

Marathon tho, we already got 24k lowest ccu here 4th day after launch... :messenger_astonished:
Compared same time yesterday its -11,5k ccu lowest vs lowest, gonna see how is highest vs highest but doesnt look promising at all :pie_thinking:
 
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Game is gorgeous. You prefer the same graphics over and and over again?
 
navii said:
Game is gorgeous. You prefer the same graphics over and and over again?
Click to expand...

Literally saw a review of the game pointing out the weird coloration of game, but I notice that the green on the ground felt like someone droped a bucket on paint on the ground. Which in contrast looks like vomit, because the color of the paint is green.
I honestly dunno what beauty people see in this game. The weapons looks like was design from children with big ass scopes that looks like it was made on Roblox or something.
 
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