Marathon delayed by Bungie

My point was that a year delay isn't enough to substantially change the game. Suicide Squad was still fundamentally the game it was when it got roasted after unveiling. The Marathon we get, if we get it, is going to be largely the same game that was shown, the list of changes proves it, they're not announcing a singleplayer campaign or something. The ultimate question is are those changes enough to fix what is obviously a sinking ship? I mean as you point out this game has no aura whatsoever.

Better visuals and atmosphere could change the lack of aura. The fact that it feels like this has nothing to do with Marathon in the first place hurts it badly.

You have no characters that you connect with at all when it was obvious they should have built this around Mjolnir Recon number 54, which makes me believe that they either can't legally or are concerned about the legalities of doing so.

I don't know what's going to happen with this game, but it's been an interesting ride. I knew they had to delay the game, the only question now is what changes do they make. They've called out most of the things that I said they should address, short of the singleplayer and a clear art direction change (increased fidelity alone doesn't fix the art directio).
 


"indefinitely"

Hulst: " we are not going to make the same mistakes"

Fear Panic GIF by Diego Farao
 
My point was that a year delay isn't enough to substantially change the game. Suicide Squad was still fundamentally the game it was when it got roasted after unveiling. The Marathon we get, if we get it, is going to be largely the same game that was shown, the list of changes proves it, they're not announcing a singleplayer campaign or something. The ultimate question is are those changes enough to fix what is obviously a sinking ship? I mean as you point out this game has no aura whatsoever.

113 people who worked on Halo 3 worked on Destiny 2 Witch Queen which released in 2022, that's out of 410 people who worked on Halo 3.

189 people who worked on Halo Reach worked on Witch Queen.

As far as studio retention goes, it has not been the mass exodus people suggest.
 
Surprising that the gave a release date before the Alpha even dropped. Like you say most of this shit was easily avoidable if they just had a regular closed alpha and listened to real world players feedback.

Still think this will turn out alright in the end, hopefully it gets a full year.
Yeah, I hope they can too.

Sony did the same with Concord. Meaningless CGI trailer. Then a year later full cinematic trailer to announce release date and beta 3 months before. By that point you have no way of knowing if people even want the game you're making.
 
It definitely was... The game just looks like trash and completely uninspiring.

I'm pretty sure more people are peeved in general that they took a single player IP (Marathon) and shoehorned it into a completely uninspiring looking and feeling GAAS shooter.

The amount of, as the kids call them, "graphic whores", are very likely a minority on forums like GAF.
 
I'm pretty sure more people are peeved in general that they took a single player IP (Marathon) and shoehorned it into a completely uninspiring looking and feeling GAAS shooter.

The amount of, as the kids call them, "graphic whores", are very likely a minority on forums like GAF.

Eh, I don't think most people actually care about that.

I think people's biggest problems with the game are

1. The poor presentation
2. It's not Destiny 3

It's not just about graphics, it's about art direction. It's one of the worst looking games I've ever seen and it's not like it's running 120 fps as a result.

They might be hampered by their engine.
 
Marathon's number one competitor at the moment is ARC raiders, both of them are fairly casual oriented extraction shooters, Arc is coming this October with Marathon being delayed that game is in prime shape to establish a good playerbase which gives Marathon zero chance when it is eventually launches, and who knows maybe they are dumb enough to release it during GTA 6 window
 
As long as the game continues to have characters that look like this nothing they do will change the crash course they're on. Nothing.

marathon-game-characters-next-to-each-other.jpg
 
Hulst: "Hey Bungie, make sure the Twitter handler tweets the delay after I do my slides. Can you at least get that right?"

Again, I could tell from the strategy meeting that marathon was getting delayed.

They said non stop Marathon will be out this fiscal year when its September release date was around the corner. You only do that if you're delaying.

I don't even know if it'll make the fiscal year. The success of Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding may allow Bungie some additional leeway. With GTA6 coming out in FY26, Sony doesn't really need anything extra there either and even then they have Tokon, and probably Wolverine and Intergalactic.

You could delay Marathon until 2027 and it wouldn't impact your P&L much outside of the game probably never breaking even.
 
That's why they named it Marathon, guys.

They can delay it how much they want, the release window for this game is on the name itself.
 
That mad lad magician Randy Pitchford won again by doing the most simplistic magical trick yet.

Nothing.

Borderlands 4 wins.
 
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Just kill it
Exactly this. Stop dumping resources into it at this point - cut your losses and figure something else out.

It didn't work and that's OK. But, trying to "salvage" or remain busy... for busy sake ........ well.... unless that, instead of making good games, is the point of your business existing.
 
I actually am sad for Bungie and their employees, all thanks to the clueless wankgoblins at Sony.

A $40 extraction shooter, though not as much as hero shooters, is a market that is still saturated, with way better alternatives active in the market than what was shown in Marathon.

Hope the layoffs aren't much.
 
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I don't think some of these changes can realistically be implemented without a multi year delay. Improving the fidelity and changing the tone of the game to be more in line with the original series are pretty massive changes.
 
The coumpounding failures following this panic acquisition will never cease to be funny.

Another stellar highlight from Sony's GaaS strategy
 
Cancel this shit or rename it .. put Bungie to do a new single player game with a good campaign and MP elements.

Cancel fairgames also

Take this gaas failure bullshit plan and just kill it. Kill it with a bang, and announce some SP games dont care if they will come out in 3 years.. and maybe maybe you can recover some lost goodwill with part of the fanbase
 
When I hear "prox chat, so social stories can come to life" I am picturing some blue hair designer trying to figure out a reason why a extraction shooter needs proximity chat ...
 
aztecceoss said that people inside the industry told him that Sony was into going to let bugie die. it's an ego thing he said.
This is a lie, wouldn't make sense at all.

First because Bungie makes a lot of money with Destiny, second because will also make a lot of money with Marathon and future games and third because they spent some billions acquiring it not long ago.

Hulst said one tentpole game per year.

They already have Yotei for 2025.

They needed one for 2026.
Nah, Hermen never said that. He said (twice) that they plan to release every year at least one new 'tentpole' game during the holiday season. Meaning, on top of that, not covered by that sentence, outside the holiday season can release more tentpole' games and across the whole year they can release 'live service' games, 'experimental' games, plus ports, remasters, remakes or expansions /DLC.

According to Hermen's definition, their 'tentpole' games are the traditional single player (non-GaaS) titles. And live service games are a separate group.

Meaning, for 2024 the tentpole for holidays would be Yotei, but they'd also have this year Death Stranding 2 and Lost Soul Aside. Regarding live service they'd have Marathon, Midnight Murder Club or Convallaria. Plus ports, expansions or remasters like let's say Days Gone.

Tentpoles for 2026 would be Saros or Wolverine.

Cancel this shit or rename it ..

Cancel fairgames also
For what we know there's no reason to do this
put Bungie to do a new single player game with a good campaign and MP elements.
I'd like this, at least having a team doing so while other Bungie teams do GaaS
Take this gaas failure bullshit plan and just kill it.
The plan is very successful and pretty likely already profitable thanks to the huge success of MLB, GT, Destiny and Helldivers.
 
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They forgot to add:

  • sifting through the entire thing for more stolen art
  • making new, actually original art to replace the stolen art. Which won't look half as cool as the stolen art
  • checking through industry job listings. Because almost all of us are getting fired by Sony Corp the second this thing releases
 
Live service games are inherently unappealing. They have to meet the consumer more than halfway to be appealing because it's an open secret that they are meant to nickel and dime the players to keep going. You can't manufacture demand for a new genre like this without it being mind blowing.
 
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