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Marathon releases to 87,000 players on Steam and 87% Positive Reviews (sponsored by coachmcguirk91)
Negotiator101
Member
Wouldn't they be better served reigniting interest in Destiny and eventually releasing Destiny 3? For all it's faults at least in has great visual design.
Saber
Newd Member
Could be but only if Destiny was the main objective with aquisition, like many predicted they would.
As it for now, Bungie wasted gods knows the amount of time and resources to make that thing. It has delays and also the controversy that might have damage public perception.
If they had any interest in Destiny this would be their top priority, not Marathon. Marathon would be pushed as a side-project. They even delayed Destiny 2 updates, probably to use all the power and time on Marathon.
Ogbert
Member
Not review bombing at all. In fact, the opposite: willing myself to try and enjoy the game.
The better analogy would be:
I love Tekken. I have spent thousands of hours playing the game. Bandai Namco are my favourite developer. I can't wait to try their new game.
Oh, I don't like it. They've appealed to the niche element of the Tekken player base rather than appealing to the millions that love the game.
Moridianae
Member
Wasn't Battlefield like a 2025 Top Seller and they still had a bunch of people shit canned?
I don't know about how this one fares. It is true that they'll dwindle down through the week, as a lot of games do.
This weekend will truly tell the tale on what kind of legs/retention this game will actually have.
If it doesn't crater and can stabilize at...I dunno...30-50k, the game is going to be niche, so I don't see a way it suddenly blows up.
The issue is, as I said before, I don't think their expectation(Sony/Bungie) was for it *to* be niche, they wanted more than that and expected more than that.
And I don't think that is accepted without consequence.
I don't know about how this one fares. It is true that they'll dwindle down through the week, as a lot of games do.
This weekend will truly tell the tale on what kind of legs/retention this game will actually have.
If it doesn't crater and can stabilize at...I dunno...30-50k, the game is going to be niche, so I don't see a way it suddenly blows up.
The issue is, as I said before, I don't think their expectation(Sony/Bungie) was for it *to* be niche, they wanted more than that and expected more than that.
And I don't think that is accepted without consequence.
coachmcguirk91
Member
A game like Battlefield 6, outside of level design, can't be improved upon nearly as much as Marathon. Many GAAS games go from being relatively niche at launch, to become much bigger after additional updates. This isn't the final form of Marathon. Hell, we don't even know what the endgame is like
Long term, If Marathon can get to the point where it averages peaks of 40k-50k on steam, it will be a billion dollar IP after several years. That is not an impossibility. People are not recognizing the strong word of mouth within the genre. There is a die hard fan base that will no life this game
Sony has no real pipeline of gaas games. They have Horizon Gatherings and Fairgames announced. They would be stupid to not invest heavily in Marathon at this point
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Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
I think in similar fashion I can adapt that a bit that I'm not unemployed enough to play a game where theoretically you could log in and just get fucked endlessly for a few hours if things go bad nonstop and basically come home empty handed.
Life for example and not sure who else played trials in destiny but there's a reason it was the weekend only because while I loved It, it was sweaty as fuck and I wouldn't want my whole gaming experience in destiny being trials.
I got the lighthouse many many times, I enjoyed the sweat but it had to be in doses and Marathon sounds like 24/7 trials... No thanks lol
Saber
Newd Member
All your questions can be answered watching their first trailer.
The guys who made this were probably patting themselves in the back thinking they have created some kind of artistic masterpiece.
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KyoZz
Tag, you're it.
Welp I guess $15 skins are fine in an already paid game because "iT'S nOt GaMEplAy" and we should all pretend that skins aren't a big part of games like this. And that's without mentioning the absolutely wild price for a simple skin, but I guess if some people are ready to pay almost HALF OF WHAT THE GAME COST for one single skin, Bungie would be foolish not to take advantage of it. And the best part? Watch the fanboys quote me to defend this bullshit! No wonder Bungie is milking them with premium battlepass, skins, mtx etc etc all in a paid game. And people think this is absolutely normal.
That's some BULLSHIT and you guys encouraging these practice are ruining gaming, rather you want to hear it or not. Thank fucking God it's limited to shitty studios... for now.
PeteBull
Member
Yup as u can see BF 6 and its 747k alltime ccu peak still didnt prevent layoffs, it launched oct 2025 and still only has 50k 24h ccu so pretty bad retention, its exactly 150 days where game lost 700k ccu, the thing is, marathon doesnt even have those 700k ccu to lose, lets not forget bf6 was fully priced game(it even had deluxe editions), not 40$.
EA gave BF6 team plenty time(almost 150days from launch) to reverse the playerbase leak but it is what it is, quality of the game wasnt enough vs competition- yes games compete vs eachother, especially important for GAAS genre where its not just 1-time buy but continuos spending.
Now is game's quality in marathon's case enough to keep its already small playerbase- we clearly see its not the case, not to mention of growing playerbase ^^
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Antony1992
Member
The sooner people understands this game is about to sink so bad, the better.The mental gymnastics some people are doing in this topic is a joy to see, keep it up pls and thank you
The only cons is people getting fired sooner or later, which is a shame.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Absolutely, games can have hard modes but you need gaming sessions in them that aren't constantly sweaty.
But then again if the game isn't made for you or me, then so be it... But the critique and lack of players has to be worth it for Bungie, which apparently they're happy with the peanuts they've gotten back for this game
Bernardougf
Member
Here's for another 33 pages of dunking on bad games.
KanKamAndNob
Member
Hard agree on this. In fact, I wish gaming as a fucking whole stayed niche and normies/activists didn't start infesting the industry like they do now.
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Activists are absolutely worse than cancer, they're some of the most obnoxious pieces of fuck on the planet
SHAKEZ
Member
Oh sure they should make whatever game they want, but being only a sweaty shooter is hampering their earnings.
But oh well, I'm not the one who needs to prove the relevance of my existence to my corporate overlords.
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Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Exactly, thats why like I mentioned above destiny had trials of Osiris which was sweaty as balls and it was only on the weekends, playing something like that for the full game sounds miserable
KanKamAndNob
Member
And if gaming never reached 'mainstream' appeal then activists would not have bothered us. If gaming stayed niche, then the Queen Cunt Anita Sarkeesian would have never leeched off of the industry and started the snowball effect of making every AAA Western studio chase the nonexistent "modern audience" I really don't think we can overstate how much damage that twat did to the Western game industry. Her, Zoe Quinn, and their legion of white knights.
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Ishma3L
Member
I'll stay on brand here by saying $40 USD for what I've played of Marathon is absolutely worth it.
What I want to add though seeing all this talk of CCU analyzing is that Counter-Strike 2 is absolutely killing it (for sometime now) and nobody on here ever seems to talk about it at all.
What I want to add though seeing all this talk of CCU analyzing is that Counter-Strike 2 is absolutely killing it (for sometime now) and nobody on here ever seems to talk about it at all.
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SHAKEZ
Member
That's why SF6 is the best fg around, there are non-sweaty modes for the casuals to lose steam AND an easy control mode.
People give examples about hard games like demon's souls and dark souls, but those games you can set your onw pace to beat stuff, in extraction games you can't just chill if other players are sweaty bastards on cocaine 24/7.
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MMaRsu
Member
A cope for the ages
Ogbert
Member
Very much so.
But those games take a lot more effort: you have to design and update content to keep people engaged.
diffusionx
Gold Member
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Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Exactly that's why we don't like seeing extraction, battle royale etc slop because it's the easiest way out of having to actually create true content just here's a map here's some guns go get it
Mondai
Member
This game won't even be remembered much in 2-3 years much less 30 lol (honestly can't even tell if you are serious or not).
Angry_Megalodon
Member
The genre is somewhat niche, that excuse could fly for a while. The problem is that Bungie is a huge studio and they can't afford making niche products unless they are working on 4-5 games at once. This thing having a budget of +200M is wild. Again, they could have made a weird single player shooter (which there are very few nowadays) with a story like Another World + Mirror's Edge in an alternate universe. There's an audience for that if well done. There's no market for this, no matter how good the game is.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Marathon is still going to be around in 2-3 years.
Sony is not going to cut and run on it. Yea they'll decimate Bungie (which they deserve) and I am not even sure if Bungie will get the $400 or $500 million to make Destiny 3 because this is not a studio to be trusted. But they're not going to abandon the game like Highguard or Concord. They are going to try to turn this around.
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Mondai
Member
I didn't say the game was going to die in 2-3 years, just saying it wont be remembered much, people move un quickly from most things.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Do we know how many Battlefield developers are still employed at EA? BF6 and Marathon likely have somewhat similar CCUs right now.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
But why are yall comparing Marathon to an indie game? And why are yall acting as if that indie game didn't have a very successful first game?
coachmcguirk91
Member
It was reported that Battlefield was trying to be a yearly release, like COD, in 5 years time. My guess is that EA decided to scale that back. People think the layoffs have to do with BF6. I disagree. EA is trying to figure out what makes financial sense long term for the franchise. It is not comparable to Marathon, imo
StreetsofBeige
Member
Building momentum? Not a good start in the morning. Comparing 9 am time slots, it's down another 13% at 30.2k vs 34.8k.
If this trend holds up, the peak today will be under 60k and the low will be under 20k, since the low last night was 22.5k.
coachmcguirk91
Member
I may have underestimated that Steam games generally have lower CCU's on Tuesday then they do Monday. Maybe because people take Monday off more often? Arc Raiders is down 15% from Monday morning lows to Tuesday morning lows. We shall see
It is pretty crazy how much more North America appearances to enjoy Marathon compared to Europe
StreetsofBeige
Member
Comparing a Monday vs a Weekend peak makes no sense since of course a weekday has fewer gamers. Pretty much every game will have lower numbers on a Monday..... unless it's a new game that just came out and still on the rise.
Many of those games you listed did rise from launch day to the following weekdays, but Marathon is down.
Your comparison would be more meaningful if you compared Launch Day --> Weekend --> Monday. And for an even better apples to apples comparison the games launched on a Thursday like Marathon.
Also, compared to most of the games you listed, Marathon only had a peak of 78k on the weekend. So compared to many of them it's way down.
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Roman Empire
Member
The money fountain dried up and he is moving for the trendy venture. Typical big streamer move.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Depends on the game. Skimming some of the other top shooters at 9 am vs 9am yesterday.
Apex is +1%
CS2 -6%
PUBG -2%
Delta Force -1%
Overwatch -2%
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Was the "yearly Battlefield releases" ever confirmed or was it rumored? I don't know how much sense a BF7 makes in 6 months at this point.
I also don't think EA was surprised at the poor retention of BF6 considering it was mostly just standard Battlefield. The franchise has always had similar retention rates.
Either way, definitely a difficult comparison because there are too many unknowns
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
The ranked mode and 4th map could certainly give this game injection via word of mouth but the damage could already be done that folks will write it off.
It's an industry where your first impression is pretty much cemented in stone. Once done folks don't give things a second glance.
It's an industry where your first impression is pretty much cemented in stone. Once done folks don't give things a second glance.
Roman Empire
Member
What are some of you on? Talking about good retention when the game is not a week old? Are you nuts?!
Marathon peaked at 66k yesterday... from its 88k on release. And 5 days after, already showing a player drop-off of 25%.
You can't be that disingenous to say it has "strong" retention when the numbers tell otherwise. Now, I am curious if Cryo Archive can turn things in a better direction, but I highly doubt with these numbers.
Marathon peaked at 66k yesterday... from its 88k on release. And 5 days after, already showing a player drop-off of 25%.
You can't be that disingenous to say it has "strong" retention when the numbers tell otherwise. Now, I am curious if Cryo Archive can turn things in a better direction, but I highly doubt with these numbers.
coachmcguirk91
Member
I think EA thought BF6's massive overhaul to their gunplay would have retained more players than other Battlefield games. Sometimes companies overhire and plans change
StreetsofBeige
Member
BF6 started hot out of the gate. Not sure why since I dont follow the series, but I guess people liked what they saw or tested out compared to past BF games. A month later it cratered. But it still peaks above 50k, though any day now it'll drop below that.
As for Bungie, D2 has dried up and Marathon isnt doing great. Heck, give it another week and BF6 peak will be higher than Marathon given both games recent trending. Sony/Bungie already did two waves of lay offs a year or two ago. And that's when D2 was still a hot game at 100k CCU and a couple of the DLC spiked the CCU to 200-300k. I expect another round of layoffs later this year unless by a miracle Marathon gamers pick up a lot and Destiny 3 is in full production too (assuming that's being worked on and they cant afford any more cuts).
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Battlefields gunplay was never really a problem. BF6 feeling more like traditional CoD gunplay was never going to retain players. Progression and social hooks retain players, not gunplay.
I've long felt "gunplay" is extremely overrated in theses parts. Roblox gunplay feels...???...and it's the biggest game on earth.
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yurinka
Member
True. And makes even less sense trying to link Steam CCUs with game sales, particularly one released in more stores and platforms.
It depends. And in any case, most of them had their all time peak outside that launch day or first weekend. It's too early to take any conclusion of Marathon's performance. And particularly to take conclusions only looking at Steam CCUs.
I see now the comparision wasn't 1:1. I just edited it to show day of the week they were released and launch day CCU peak, and what I wanted to highlight in the comparision, the CCU peak decrease from the first weekend days to Monday.
The comparision shows that which day of the week they released the game and the launch day CCU peak aren't relevant, as seen in the comparision there isn't any clear pattern of top GaaS releasing in a specific day or a day one CCU peak needed to be a top success: many of them released in random days (one even in a Saturday) and some of them had a lower day one CCU peak smaller than Marathon.
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