Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

Couldn't see any mention of it in the thread, but Marathon is now well under the top 100 on SteamDB's "Most Played on Steam By Daily Active Users" list.View attachment 8922884

ETA: Fucking lethal company is at 104, how embarrassing. Imagine being Bungie and seeing your AAAA extraction shooter product being beaten out by 3 year old stale streamer slop.
Fallout 4 (which is 11 years old, mind you) has more players than marathon:story: that’s just embarrassing at this point.
 
I think nearly all of the disinformation is originating from Paul Tassi, who like most journalists are covering a topic they have zero understanding of. People who haven't played the game cant verify what this retard is spitting.
Tassi actually does play games, including D2 and a bit of Marathon*, he's not the one I would go after for a claim of "vidya journo doesn't play vidya." The "SBMM" people are claiming is probably an effect of increased number of game modes and the low-skill bracket being more interested in the "free-kit only" map rather than Cryoarchive.

*I don't think he's doing much of either at this precise moment because almost no one still is
 
There is a ranked playlist that appears to be purely SBMM, but out side of that I don't know how the match making works. Unlike people with an outside perspective, I play the game and far be it from me to confidently say how it actually works.
The only thing I know about ranked mode is that you can buy a ticket to punch bronze/silver/gold player in the face while you personally are ranked platinum/whatever the other ones are. And this will allow you to still gain ranked points/progression. Straight from the (dead) horses mouth as it were.
 
The only thing I know about ranked mode is that you can buy a ticket to punch bronze/silver/gold player in the face while you personally are ranked platinum/whatever the other ones are. And this will allow you to still gain ranked points/progression. Straight from the (dead) horses mouth as it were.
I think this is true. What little i played of rank lasted an evening and was the most unfun and most try hard shit imaginable and it was in bronze 3, the lowest rank possible.

Tassi actually does play games, including D2 and a bit of Marathon*, he's not the one I would go after for a claim of "vidya journo doesn't play vidya." The "SBMM" people are claiming is probably an effect of increased number of game modes and the low-skill bracket being more interested in the "free-kit only" map rather than Cryoarchive.

*I don't think he's doing much of either at this precise moment because almost no one still is
Tassi was the one who called the new mode where you start with sponsor kit a 'Battle Royal mode', Paul Tassi has recently reported that Marathon has SBMM.

He just doesn't know what he's talking about. Either he is clueless of what BRs are or clueless about Marathon. I think its a bit of both.

If he's any kind of serious journalist he's going to be hopping around from subject to subject. He might have some back ground in gaming, but he's going to be outside his wheel house more often than he is in it.

The more I think about it the more I think the game is doing match making based entirely on player level. It's not like you need to be good to grind to lvl 200, it just takes time, which could be any one of any skill level.
 
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Paul Tassi has recently reported that Marathon has SBMM.
Where has he done this? The only mention I can find about this is him 'reporting' that sweats are complaining that it must have secretly been added because they have mostly run out of casuals to stomp. Also jesus fuck he is an ugly fuck.
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Okay, so my 'ugly fuck' was purely in relation to 'Paul Tassi vs Paul Tassi at home' :story:
 
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Where has he done this? The only mention I can find about this is him 'reporting' that sweats are complaining that it must have secretly been added because they have mostly run out of casuals to stomp. Also jesus fuck he is an ugly fuck.
That's pretty much it.

He is hoping for clicks and shares, with out ever having validated or verified the claim while framing it as hear say. It certainly isn't something he's experienced himself. I think marathon has another week or two where it probably goes into obscurity and Paul just stops reporting on it entirely.

So why is he reporting what some rando streamer said? He's a hack.
 
That's pretty much it.

He is hoping for clicks and shares, with out ever having validated or verified the claim while framing it as hear say. It certainly isn't something he's experienced himself. I think marathon has another week or two where it probably goes into obscurity and Paul just stops reporting on it entirely.

So why is he reporting what some rando streamer said? He's a hack.
That is what I thought, he does not say that they did it, he just regurgitates what the people who actually are playing the game have said. He is a journalist, and a 'gaming' one at that. The only redeeming point of Tassi is that he has been consistently clued into happenings at Bungie. He would 100% write an article 'exposing' Bungie for implementing it if he had any confirmation on it.
 
So, since this is essentially a “watch Bungie die thread”, I did want to bring up something funny that happened recently for us to giggle at;

DMG, Destiny 2’s community and communications manager, went on Twitter to bitch about some “threatening” tweets he got, basically sympathy baiting. This caused a good bit of back lash but also people supporting him, so it worked. What I find hilarious is the communications manager is only communicating to the fanbase when people bitch at him about not communicating.
 
Is it too soon to place it among the hallowed ranks of Concordlikes?

You may argue that the number of concurrent players was higher than triple digits, but Concord came with a price tag of only $500 million, while Marathon cost Sony $3.6 billion.
It depends on what a concord is.

To me a Concord is a massive monetary investment that is a failure immediately out of the gates.
I'm not sure a shutdown of the servers really quickly is a requirement of it. But it feels like it could be.

It meets the massive amounts of money with an embarrassing return requirements at least.
 
a failure immediately out of the gates
I don't disagree with the point you're trying to make necessarily, but to me it just feels that the money Sony invested in buying and propping up Bungie dwarfs all the cash they've lost on Concord.

Imagine buying a studio for $3.6 billion, and as that other user pointed out, then burning a few more hundred million dollars to keep the lights on, and then getting Marathon as a return on your investments.

It frankly makes the $500 million they lit on fire with Concord feel like chump change.

Marathon might not have crashed and burned as spectacularly as Concord did, but its failure is arguably far worse when taking into account just how many resources Sony has invested into making it.
 
It depends on what a concord is.

To me a Concord is a massive monetary investment that is a failure immediately out of the gates.
I'm not sure a shutdown of the servers really quickly is a requirement of it. But it feels like it could be.

It meets the massive amounts of money with an embarrassing return requirements at least.
I think that Marathon is ultimately a flop, but not a concordlike-level flop. It makes a lot of the same mistakes, and frankly I don't know how it did it, but this slow traildown is far more reminiscent of your standard bad game.

I disagree with @creaturestorm having such a narrow view of Concord being the one and only, though. I've gone over my own candidates for 'concordlikes' multiple times, and I think that at the very least Highguard's spectacular flop deserves the title. When literally all that stands between your game and the exact same fate as concord is a completely undeserved Game Awards highlight, I feel pretty safe saying we're gonna have some more. Especially with Horizon Forbidden Treadmill still on the way.
 
Concord is merely one more game in a long list of expensive blunders.
I can't think of any other flops that match Concord tbh. Except for games that were cancelled after years of development, even the biggest flops still made some money. Even E.T. shifted a million copies and turned a profit, and Atari lingered on as a company for years after.
to me it just feels that the money Sony invested in buying and propping up Bungie dwarfs all the cash they've lost on Concord.
If we're talking purely about financial losses then yes Bungie has definitely hurt Sony more, but if that's the only metric we're using then Suicide Squad, Anthem, Evolve, Marvel's Avengers, Redfall, Battleborn, Lawbreakers and every other failed live service is also a Concordlike because they definitely lost more money than they made.

For me, a Concordlike isn't just a flop, it has to at least meet these qualifiers:
  • Shut down/LTS within a year
  • Near-instant massive playercount dropoff
  • Cost vastly outweighs profit
  • Hideous 'who is this for?' art/game design
  • Delusional but rabid fanbase who refuse to accept it's over/community managers who attack The Gamers™
  • Kills the studio that made it
Marathon is well on its way, but I think Bungie is going to drag this out to the bitter end and Sony is going to let them just to save face because the Japanese side of the business has to be furious with this ongoing GaaS farce.
 
They still have one ace in the sleeve.

- director decides to leave, "excited for new challenges"
- makes a tweet jerking off all the talented folx in the studio who continue to showcase blood/sweat/tear-type of passion to the max erryday
- introduces the next guy with the good old "the game is in good hands for many years to come"
- the next guy then thanks the last guy, politely jerks him off a bit in return
- the next guy heccin loves his devs, his game and more importantly the players who should know that there are great things to come (no specifics at this time)
- community manager makes two posts: "I hope you're ready for what we got in store" and a cat meme, fulfilling his duties for the year
- nothing happens
- the game shuts down, all personnel fired and/or shuffled deeper into Sony's asshole
- Bluesky is collectively emotional for 15 minutes
- last guy at the scene is a janitor, content with his life, whistling as he mops an empty meeting room that smells of blood, sweat, pronouns and tears
 
I can't think of any other flops that match Concord tbh. Except for games that were cancelled after years of development, even the biggest flops still made some money. Even E.T. shifted a million copies and turned a profit, and Atari lingered on as a company for years after.

If we're talking purely about financial losses then yes Bungie has definitely hurt Sony more, but if that's the only metric we're using then Suicide Squad, Anthem, Evolve, Marvel's Avengers, Redfall, Battleborn, Lawbreakers and every other failed live service is also a Concordlike because they definitely lost more money than they made.

For me, a Concordlike isn't just a flop, it has to at least meet these qualifiers:
  • Shut down/LTS within a year
  • Near-instant massive playercount dropoff
  • Cost vastly outweighs profit
  • Hideous 'who is this for?' art/game design
  • Delusional but rabid fanbase who refuse to accept it's over/community managers who attack The Gamers™
  • Kills the studio that made it
Marathon is well on its way, but I think Bungie is going to drag this out to the bitter end and Sony is going to let them just to save face because the Japanese side of the business has to be furious with this ongoing GaaS farce.
My list's a bit simpler. Put as short as I can:

1: Corpos treat it like the second coming of christ
2: Game flops immediately and in spectacular, undeniable fashion
3: The Reason is the Corpos completely failed to read the room
4: And it's a live-service-game that needs the playerbase it doesn't have to justify it's continued existence.

And if you're feeling spicy, toss in Toxic Positivity as the root cause for all of it.

Genuine question, because you've mentioned something to the effect before: Is this a real error or a fourth-wall break from the game?
 
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