Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

[Professor Donger]

Tarkov is indie game compared to marathon, it would need a lot more players just to break even on the expenses that they had till launch and the upcoming server costs. Tarkov is also notorius for having a cheating problem, big enough to make people think that the problem is intentional because cheaters keep buying the game over and over again. The price tag doesn't deter cheaters if the game doesn't have good protection.

Fair I'm just saying that Tarkov had the benefit of large word of mouth and it still didn't meet whatever mark they wanted for it.

I do think Marathon is going to be a financial failure though. They'd have to sell over 100k copies on everything to break even with whatever insane goal Sony set for them and they're not doing that

 

[Oliver Onions]

if these are supposed to be expendable "shells" why give them wacky hair styles and faces?

So they have more cosmetics to sell you in the cash shop.

 

[StacticShock]

Boy they're pushing the shilling hard leading up to the launch (here and on /v/). The desperation is palpable.

it's sony, remember that snoyggers do it for free.

otherwise they'll end up like the cycle frontier, an extraction shooters that got shutdown years ago because they got overrun by cheaters and other players subsequently left.

incorrect, TCF was a boring shit game and died because devs didn't push new patches fixing the gay exploits then blamed it on cheaters, not to mention it was more PvP than PvE.

 

[Professor Donger]

I think this is ultimately why Marathon will have a player base as long as it releases in a stable state, has a fun gameplay loop and is consistently updated by Bungie. One of the reasons people play Extraction shooters like Hunt, Tarkov and Arc Raiders is specifically for the PVP aspect of the game. if the PVP isn't rewarding why do it? Arc Raiders at least from what I've seen is actively punishing heavy PVP and I think that's going to drive anyone who wants to PVP away from it. You can already see it slowly happening since the game came out.



getting their stuff in something like Tarkov makes sense, it's generally pretty hard to get some of the gear in Tarkov because of Flea Market restrictions and item scarcity. But in Arc you can craft almost everything from what I've seen, so killing someone for a gun seems pointless.



It's lost about 56,000 players in the last 30 days. Which, yeah, is just a drop in the bucket compared to the 200k 24hr peak, but that's 56,000 players who may play Marathon because Arc Raiders isn't providing them something they want.

I'm not saying that's going to happen, but it is a real possibility

Bungie is at it again, bringing a pre-Halo lore game to a post-Halo world.

Marathon 2025 2026 is an extraction shooter, based on the lore from the classic Marathon Trilogy from 1994. You take a Runner Shell, a body that isn't your own, and go out into the world of Tau Ceti and kill, loot, and extract like any other extraction shooter, this time with Bungie's gunplay involved and a questionable artstyle.

There was an attached ARG leading up to the release of the teaser trailer.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YwlrL6FURy0The trailer was then released to some uh, mixed reactions from fans back in 2023. Destiny fans, especially, were a bit pissed that their game was taking a back seat to a new PVP game.

@ScurvyRat asked me to rewrite the OP for those that want to go back and look at it, I hope I did a good job.

Bungie just uploaded Rook's trailer

 

[Gorkzillah]

yall ready boys, for the ULTIMATE concord test of the game industry bros
we basically have the trifecta - buy to play(NOT free like Highguard), live service (like all of them lol) and SJW/DEI art (??? fokin' fags)
if this one did not fail I will return my gamer card to the nearest GameStop lol

 

[Frightened Rabbit]

Your post would've been better in WAAAAHHH-speak.

 

[Professor Donger]

I think something we're also overlooking is consoles and how they'll effect things. The most popular extraction shooters on console are Arc Raiders, Hunt, Delta Force and some game named Vigor.

Third Person Shooters like Arc aren't as attractive to teens/blacks as fps games are, I've known black people who straight up refuse to play a game if it's in third person.

Like some of them straight up have said that Gears of War was a trash game because it wasn't an fps like COD and we know they're the ones keeping COD afloat.

Delta Force is Chinese spyware. Hunt has constant content droughts and the devs have been dropping the ball recently.

On console Arc is really Marathons only competitor in the space and again, not everyone wants to play a third person shooter, especially one that doesn't give an immediate dopamine hit reward for pvp.

So Marathon could find a niche on consoles.

 

[StacticShock]

yall ready boys, for the ULTIMATE concord test of the game industry bros
we basically have the trifecta - buy to play(NOT free like Highguard), live service (like all of them lol) and SJW/DEI art (??? fokin' fags)
if this one did not fail I will return my gamer card to the nearest GameStop lol

horizon hunters gathering is set to release soon, if anything bungo will probably time their release date after that piece of trash in order to dampen the shittening marathon will have and that is a very smart strategy since all of the kultur war faggots and grifters will be busy with it, not to mention that they can always be silent about it too in order to not be the next target, they are aiming to have a very specific amount of players/whales on their game and arc raiders is starting to load the revolver to shoot itself on the head for the next FOTM game, so... there is a chance for marathon to do a engoodening, slim fucking chance but still a chance nonetheless.

I think this is ultimately why Marathon will have a player base as long as it releases in a stable state, has a fun gameplay loop and is consistently updated by Bungie.

congratulations you figured out bungo, they know they are cooked and just want to cash in destiny whales, watch them do a marathon crossover event with D2.

 

[Professor Donger]

congratulations you figured out bungo, they know they are cooked and just want to cash in destiny whales, watch them do a marathon crossover event with D2

Oh they already have, though to give them a little credit they're free.

horizon hunters gathering is set to release soon, if anything bungo will probably time their release date after that piece of trash in order to dampen the shittening marathon

Marathon releases March 5th

Horizon Hunters Gathering has no set release date

 

[4090 Chad]

The new Arc Raiders patch really nerfed a lot of things for PvP and PvE player bases. Embark are complete retards to drop a patch that will undoubtedly piss so many people off it’ll actually give the PvP playerbase an even bigger reason to try and potentially switch to Marathon. Obviously Bungie has to have a decent product and not fuck it up on their end, but Embark is literally handing them opportunities on a platter.

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Arc Raiders is specifically for the PVP aspect of the game

I think you misread what made arc popular.
From my experience what drew people into the game was seeing clips demonstrating mostly friendly encounters in a pvp game (as well as challenging PvE encounters). For the first time in a long time two teams would see each other and take a minute to communicate before just immediately shooting.
Because the latter happens 99% of the time in stella montis, blue gate, and any map on trios, you’ll notice that everyone is running around with free loadouts instead of actually using the stuff they found last match, completely breaking the looting aspect. Its like when pokemon introduced the wonder trade feature and everyone immediately flooded it with whatever low level shit they could find.

I genuinely hope all these wannabe streamers and no mic players migrate to marathon so trios is actually playable again.

 

[Professor Donger]

The new Arc Raiders patch really nerfed a lot of things for PvP and PvE player bases. Embark are complete retards to drop a patch that will undoubtedly piss so many people off it’ll actually give the PvP playerbase an even bigger reason to try and potentially switch to Marathon. Obviously Bungie has to have a decent product and not fuck it up on their end, but Embark is literally handing them opportunities on a platter.

They have a bad habit of fucking up their games in general. They've been doing the same thing to The Finals.

I think you misread what made arc popular.
From my experience what drew people into the game was seeing clips demonstrating mostly friendly encounters in a pvp game (as well as challenging PvE encounters). For the first time in a long time two teams would see each other and take a minute to communicate before just immediately shooting.

Oh no I understand this, my bad for the shitty phrasing of my words.

I wasn't saying that Arc became popular because of PVP, but I am saying that people do still play extraction shooters for pvp, not just pve. Yes, Arc became popular off the back of their player interactions, but there are still plenty of players who want to primarily pvp, interactions be damned.

Embark is pushing those players away, which sure can be good for Arc but it can also be good for Marathon depending on how well the game plays and how well Bungie supports it, if that makes sense

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Embark is pushing those players away, which sure can be good for Arc but it can also be good for Marathon depending on how well the game plays and how well Bungie supports it, if that makes sense

Id be fine with Marathon being the PvP extractor and Arc being a PvE extractor with some PvP interactions, i feel like first person is more conducive to pvp anyway since it’s harder to corner peek.

Embark has been doing that for a while too, so this update shouldnt be a surprise. They just finished like their third event since launch about “peace between raiders pretty please put the guns down”.

 

[Professor Donger]

Embark has been doing that for a while too, so this update shouldnt be a surprise. They just finished like their third event since launch about “peace between raiders pretty please put the guns down”.

Ngl and I get that it would make the game boring

But if you didn't want pvp in your extraction shooter, Embark, you shouldn't have made it an option

 

[soulgains]

They're trying to Doom Marathon? Stop necroing and raping these old franchises for fucks sake, this is why nobody cares anymore. This game will be horrible.

Btw, excellent OP. I forgot how to @ you but this is too high quality for a thread alot mfs wont read, unless a cow gets baited into joining the discourse somehow

 

[Professor Donger]

They're trying to Doom Marathon? Stop necroing and raping these old franchises for fucks sake, this is why nobody cares anymore. This game will be horrible.

Btw, excellent OP. I forgot how to @ you but this is too high quality for a thread alot mfs wont read, unless a cow gets baited into joining the discourse somehow

Yeah, the original OP was a bit barebones, and @ScurvyRat noticed that I was pretty autistic in my postings and that I wasn't just shitting on the game so he asked me to rewrite it with more info.

Its high quality because my autistic ass wouldn't let me not make it high quality xD

 

[Zenos Yae Viator]

But if you didn't want pvp in your extraction shooter, Embark, you shouldn't have made it an option

they do want PVP, alot of it, every system in the game is designed to put players near other players, and to announce a player is doing something, and simply giving you the option to kill him, extracts, breaching, door noises, even the arc, enemies like Ticks, Pops and such give your position away, especailly if you are forced to shoot them.

 

[Professor Donger]

they do want PVP, alot of it, every system in the game is designed to put players near other players, and to announce a player is doing something, and simply giving you the option to kill him, extracts, breaching, door noises, even the arc, enemies like Ticks, Pops and such give your position away, especailly if you are forced to shoot them.

Yes but Embark themselves have gone on record saying that PVP isn't the goal of the game. They said as much back in January

“We've had several discussions about Nemesis systems and all types of things,” he said. “I don't know where the team are on them right now. I think one of the beauties of this game is the fact that we don't have those leaderboards and it's not competitive.

“We don't want to necessarily foster that type of gameplay. The game isn't about shooting other players. You can do that if you want to, but the ethos of the game has never been to go in and shoot players. It's a part that we use to craft tension.”

They then removed pvp feats in the game today because they want people to focus on pve

Also to Bungies credit they have straight up stated they're going to ban people who cheat after they do it once, unlike Embark who have their stupid three strike rule

 

[Trogspawn]

This aesthetic that they have chosen for Marathon is a really strange choice to me. Judging only from the art direction and colors it feels like it should be some form of puzzle/platformer rather than an FPS.

I also noticed that you see a lot of similar designs and logos on the characters that are on the environment. Now, I haven't played it but, that seems like it's going to make spotting people rather difficult.

 

[Rodeo Roadrunner]

Also to Bungies credit they have straight up stated they're going to ban people who cheat after they do it once, unlike Embark who have their stupid three strike rule

Meaningless. Why should I trust Bungie when the disastrous state of pvp in Destiny has been apparent for years? Cheating is completely rampant in the game in both pve and pvp, so much so that what I would consider 'soft' cheating is completely normalized in raiding circles (network manipulation, weapon swap glitches and exploits). Bungie could have fixed these issues for years, but never did. Now I am supposed to believe that they magically are fixing them for their new game? Destiny players asked for dedicated servers for pvp for ten years and never got them, not Marathon magically gets them? Incredible slap in the face from Bungie. Even worse, I have no faith that they will actually push good updates and evolving content in the game, since they haven't done that for years with Destiny. Again, look at their track record. Why would Bungie magically turn it around and make good decisions here, when they haven't made good decisions for many years?