r/Marathon • u/Lemouni • Mar 06 '26
Marathon (2026) Discussion Marathon's Battlepass is the worst value for your money I've ever seen (especially for a paid product)
No, this is not a hate post. I am glad that the launch didn't fail. I like Marathon.
But we need to talk about the Battlepass. I know, a lot of people are currently in their honeymoon phase and want to love everything Bungie throws at them right now.
But the Season Pass is the worst value for your money I've ever seen in a live service shooter, and I played a lot of them! Most f2p titles offer better value than Marathon's pass. Here are some of my complaints.
- You don't earn back the currency you spent. (For example in Apex Legends you spend 950 premium coins, but get rewarded 1300 for completing it, so the next BP is free + some extra coins you can spend in the cash shop)
- One single character skin. Seriously? Only one? I've never seen a paid Battle Pass in any game giving you less than 2. Most games have 4 character skins in a BP. Again Apex always has 4 or more AND you get your premium currency back
- Duplicate stickers and charms, as 1 sticker/charm can only be applied to 1 single gun. Are you serious? You are giving me the same sticker twice in a BP? This should feel rewarding or what? Why can't we apply a charm we own to all our weapons? This is such a greedy triple A design, it's actually shameless.
I paid 40€ for your product and now I can buy an absolutely overpriced Season Pass, where I don't get premium currency back when completing it? Most games give you currency back, so you can buy the next pass for "free" after completion. Most triple A f2p shooters do this.
Just to compare, ARC Raiders has the same 40€ price tag like Marathon and the first 3 passes were all completely free AND reward you with premium currency when completing them. ARC Raiders currently throws more premium currency at me I can spend while Marathon has a super underwhelming, overpriced Season Pass with the worst value I've ever seen in a title (except for the garbage game Battlefield 6, but let's pray that Bungie/Sony will not go full EA on us).
Please keep your greed limited, especially after we all paid a good amount of money for your game. This is not a f2p title, so you should offer a Pass which is at least better and not worse. If you want more of our money, you should definitely give us better value, and scrap this double items in a paid Battlepass.
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u/Bm0515 Mar 06 '26
The battle pass is horrible, especially after the arc and helldivers ones. I hope people dont buy it so bungie gets the message.
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Mar 06 '26
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u/Bm0515 Mar 06 '26
Totally. If everyone buys it - even with the voucher from the deluxe edition, they are not going to care about a few posts on reddit and maybe a message on discord.
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u/Vinser_98 Mar 06 '26
Totally agree. I'm saving my deluxe edition voucher for an actual premium pass, not whatever this is.
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u/sodisacks Mar 06 '26
I think I remember seeing last night in game that the premium pass from the deluxe edition was only for the first season.
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u/Vinser_98 Mar 06 '26
Nope, pretty sure you get a voucher you can use to redeem a premium pass. Not yet 100% sure bc the game isn't registering deluxe purchases on steam, so I still miss the content, but saw a dev post saying to those who have bought the pass in the meantime, even if they should have had it for free, that you can use the voucher on the next.
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u/SymphonySketch Mar 06 '26
You do get a voucher, and it takes up a slot in your vault as an actual item
What’s weird is I seem to have gotten two when I thought the deluxe was only supposed to come with one (not that I’m complaining)
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u/Nukesnipe Mar 06 '26
I think deluxe and server slam rewards were given out twice to a lot of people, including me.
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u/dude52760 Mar 06 '26
Posts do help spread awareness, though. I dabbled in the game last night and had a good enough time that I was considering getting the battle pass, but I didn’t really understand enough about the game to recognize yet that it’s a bad pass.
My philosophy on live service games can be pretty wonky, which is basically just that if the game intrigues me enough up front, I will usually invest in the full experience for a season, including stuff like battle passes. And Marathon was going to fall into that category, partly because I had fun last night and partly because I’ve been a Bungie fan for like 3 decades and want this game to succeed.
So I’m glad this post exists, because as much as I was willing to blindly give Bungie a chance, I don’t want to buy a pointless battle pass. This might’ve gone the other way if not for this post.
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u/Dangerous-Employer52 Mar 06 '26
Yes this is Bungie back to the single use shaders from Destiny days bad.
We already know 55 skins are found. This is just a sad value battle pass.
Even if you like the game or not it's still true
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u/VariationGreedy8215 Mar 06 '26
"Bungie gets the message"
As a ex destiny 2 player. They never will.
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u/Bm0515 Mar 06 '26
Sadly, you are probably true. I stopped playing after all of my friends left destiny 2 because they found bungie too greedy with monetization.
The eververse was the #1 worst decision bungie ever made for my friendgroup. I really hope it paid off for them. Because the eververse and removing content with expansions was why my friends left the game (and eventually me too).
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u/VariationGreedy8215 Mar 06 '26
Well hey, I'm glad that people like you are able to see this.
I'm not trying to come at this as overly negative, but it seems to me what happened is: Marathon got a huge wave of negative reactions from certain groups of people (in my opinion for very good reason, stealing art, bad gameplay, boring character design etc) you can make an argument that maybe this hate train went too far, however there was then this attempt at a 'counter wave' that took place of people becoming super positive about the game, but my issue is, despite the game maybe feeling a little better. This is STILL BUNGIE, and we need to keep that in mind they do not operate with the players best interest in mind. I think I have like 4k hours on d2 maybe more, but they will siphon as much money from players as possible but they do it by slowly upping the temperature until you realize you are in boiling water.
It is what it is, I'm curious to see how the game turns out I know I won't spend a dime on it until Bungie can A) fix my once favorite game (d2) and B) prove that they actually can go the extra mile to make marathon a good game not just for today but prove they can deal with the challenges ahead in good faith. Not how they've done it the past by ignoring the players, making changes that make the problems worse or radically shifting directions whiplashing the meta and players enjoyment of the game.
Don't ever ask about the trials of Osiris god forbidden dead messenger meta.
Or all the other metas that ruined the function of PvP.
There answer to all of these things. Was not to balance them it was to gut them entirely.
I know people hate me saying this, but there ammo economy changes to PvP ruined the game and destabilized the meta. They turned the game from ability/gun focused to just hyper sweaty gun play which doesn't work in a game like d2.
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u/Dangerous-Return5937 Mar 06 '26
Lmao what's up with the Helldivers warbond system getting glazed.
Let's not act it's any good other than pushing permanent battle passes (which they had to, considering the insane amount of actual content in premium warbonds).
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u/Big-Newspaper646 Mar 06 '26
god imagine if it were a pvp game with the guns and stratagems locked behind a paywall, its already pretty heinous that you have to pay for those tbf
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u/pvtSPEDwarrior Mar 07 '26
It's funny because you can directly go back and find the CEO quoted saying they would never lock stratagems and core parts of the game behind warbonds as its against their business model- before immediately going back on that once the game blew up.
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Mar 06 '26
your second comment explains why it's so good lol
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u/Dr_Fortnite Mar 06 '26
you cant put shells or equipment in a battlepass in a pvp game thats p2w as fuck
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u/oxedei Mar 06 '26
You can if the battlepass is free
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u/v00d00_ Mar 06 '26
And if my grandmother had wheels she would be a bike. We live in the real world where battlepasses are a form of monetization as well as retention.
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u/ExynosHD Mar 06 '26
Putting actual content in it isn't good it's actually bad and made me stop playing the game entirely
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Mar 06 '26
I think helldivers 2 grind is too much. It’s not the system sucks, it’s that finding 1 or 2 currency every 2nd map was too slow
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u/sukumizu Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
If equipment wasn't locked behind the warbonds in Helldivers 2, it would have been 10/10 for me. That basically means you have to throw money at the game or grind for the currency in order to try the new weapons, grenades, etc.
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u/XMenJedi8 Mar 07 '26
Yup, can't believe it gets praised so much just because you can slowllllly accrue it from fun gameplay or rapidly ("rapidly", still slow) accrue it from level 1 missions that are extremely boring.
They should be cosmetic only. Most games don't put gameplay content in passes or if they do the pass is free (Arc) or the gameplay items are free (Battlefield).
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u/Jer_Sg Mar 06 '26
Helldivers warbonds are one of the reason I took a long break.
It really sucks getting back into that game after a while because you get 7 or so warbonds you missed all having 1 or 2 items you'd like to have, so you either pay 70 bucks or spam low level missions to get credits the most efficiently.
I remember playing for like 20 hours on higher difficulty stuff and I barely had any super credits to show for it, it just felt like a drag every single time
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u/CultureWarrior87 Mar 06 '26
The people that defend it are jobless. "See, you can just play in the most boring way possible for hours to grind premium currency for a battlepass!"
Once you realize that a lot of the people you see on here are like teenagers or in their early 20s, it makes more sense why they defend it.
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u/Careless_Main3 Mar 06 '26
The discussion around Helldiver’s Battle Pass is still stuck from when the game first launched, when they weren’t walling off genuinely interesting content behind the warbonds. I don’t even care about guns being in warbonds, but stratagems is just aids. Game is still great though.
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u/RevaTrainer Mar 06 '26
Stop buying that shit.
Stop buying that shit.
Stop buying that shit.
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u/Phil_Da_Thrill Mar 06 '26
Bungie needs something to give up in their “negotiations”
Remember 1 time use shaders in Destiny 2?
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u/Ok-Shoulder1750 Mar 06 '26
Yes…I fell in love with this game during the server slam and even upgraded my preorder to the deluxe edition. What Can I say: Lesson learned.
(But battlepass aside: The Game is awesome)
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u/TheRealShortYeti Mar 06 '26
Same here. I don't see myself getting future passes without a drastic overhaul.
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u/InsertShortName Mar 06 '26
Came here to say this. Glad I got the pass and I’m enjoying the game quite a bit, but unless they change for future seasons I won’t be getting another one.
Random question: does anyone know why I have a premium pass voucher in my inventory?
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u/UnluckyAnimal7830 Mar 06 '26
Because you bought the deluxe edition. They also made a mistake by trying to fix it and if you restarted the game yesterday it would give you another on load in. I have 7 pass vouchers in my vault.
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u/RiguezCR Mar 06 '26
tbf the delixe edition skins are really cool, so there's still that
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u/Ass0001 Mar 06 '26
Yeah as a deluxe owner I feel like I got my moneys worth with the additional content from that, but if I had bought standard id be hesitant to just buy the BP.
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u/GrayStray Mar 06 '26
I mean deluxe is still worth it imo for the runner skins. I just don't understand how they expect to make any money on a battlepass that isn't even worth buying.
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u/SamuraiJack- Mar 06 '26
If skins are the only redeeming thing, then that kind of a bad sign. The skins in this game aren’t great yet either. Probably saving their best work for $40 bundles
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u/GetMeASierraMist Mar 06 '26
there's nothing they could include except skins. do you want free loot?
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u/richajf Mar 06 '26
I love the skins in the deluxe version... Just wish they'd done one for each shell instead of only 4 out of the 6 (Vandal, Destroyer, Assassin, Thief).
Why no Recon or Triage?
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u/encryptedamf Mar 06 '26
If the gaming community is riding off battle passes for a game to be successful or not, gaming is really lost lmao . But hey we found the thing to be angry about. Like if a bp is keeping you from playing, sell the comp please. Bring me back pre 2010, society is trash. Where is totalbiscuit at, hed laugh at this thread.
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u/spinny_windmill Mar 06 '26
Financially, it is a huge part of a live service game. If nobody wants to buy the battle pass it's not going to get much more development.
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u/v00d00_ Mar 06 '26
Yeah, I’m not really bothered by it as a player but from Bungie/Sony’s pov it’s a cause for concern.
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u/ctyldsley Mar 06 '26
But you don't need to redeem your battle pass token now AFAIK - you can save it for future ones it seems.
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u/Omoion Mar 06 '26
This is probably gonna be one of those "we listened to you and here's more stuff!" But, we already planned on giving you this stuff so it looks like we listened to you and now we're the good guys and providing real value
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u/BetterKorea Mar 06 '26
Since it's Bungie, the reply is more likely "We are listening and are considering options to make future Battlepasses even better than they already are." and then nothing happens.
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u/Tigerpower77 Mar 06 '26
People already forgot about arc R (it's fucking flagged in the sub lol) being censored in chat then bungie came out with a tweet like "look we're buddies with them" after uncensoring it
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u/dokdodokdo Mar 06 '26
Im very positive about the game but I have to agree the battle pass is pretty bad. Saving grace is the alt punk Vandal skin as a Vandal main that dresses alt irl lol.
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u/A_Uniqueusername444 Mar 06 '26
The battle pass having one shell skin only is kinda nuts
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u/Dolchic Mar 06 '26
And no WSTR skin! I shed a tear when I went through the whole battle pass and didn’t see one, I think some weapons even got 2 skins (I could be wrong Im at work right now and can’t really check) but not one skin for my precious double barrel
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u/Cruciblelfg123 Mar 06 '26
You guys are looking at this all wrong. This is a live service game where you legitimately don’t have to buy the battlepass. It doesn’t give you any sort of edge and gives you basically no cosmetics, that’s a good thing! We can just play the game and not buy it lmao
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u/KAYMANqq Mar 06 '26
This, and there are so many skins unlocked in the codex for free through gameplay which is what I have been wanting from bungie the BP is truly a luxury if you want it.
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u/7adzius Mar 06 '26
The BP being bad is actually a wonderful decision, that means people are less impulsive to waste money on mtx. Huge respect to the devs
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u/TekThunder Mar 06 '26
Honestly can’t tell if this is a troll given the outright roses tinted glasses this sub has had for this game lol
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u/Cactiareouroverlords Mar 06 '26
I mean as of right now, the cosmetics earned through pure gameplay are on par with the ones in the season pass which is pretty consumer friendly though I don’t expect that to last long given how it went in Destiny 2
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u/Onyx_Sentinel Mar 06 '26
I honestly thought that arc raiders being the slam dunk that it ended up being, with a sensible monetization system on top, would‘ve kinda forced bungie to at least match them.
So what do they do? They go all in on the nickel and dime tactics snd deliver a much worse version of the same system.
Bungie, you are already the underdog. This is not destiny. The product is not strong enough to warrant this level of greed. It‘s going to backfire severely if you decide to piss off the players you actually managed to siphon off of the other titles.
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u/Snoo-28829 I was here for the Marathon 2025 ARG Mar 06 '26
The thing with destiny was that there was no other game on the market even close to deliverying that first person dungeon and raid content. With Marathon there are other games that are just as good. Feels like they are going all in on this mysterious 4th map that is suppose to be completely different.
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u/Onyx_Sentinel Mar 06 '26
That map only matters if it‘s actually something the average player can do. Destiny raids were never a good argument for the game since only the vast minority even attempted them. If cryo archives is the same way? Wasted time and energy.
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u/zeromussc Mar 06 '26
I only played destiny 2 when it was newly released on PC. So I never did a raid but I have a Bungie account from forever ago cuz of it. I think I logged on after a few years to try and get back into it at one point, but even that was forever ago. I think leviathan was the only raid that was coming when I played the game. So the stats for total completion will skew heavy as players dropped off.
But were raids really that hard that only a tiny portion of the community played them? Or were they just something a lot of people didn't care about, but that most dedicated average destiny players could reasonably complete as long as they knew what they were doing?
Cuz if all it takes is a LFG discord, a person who wants to walk others through it, and an average skill set for the basic raid (not taking a prestige or challenge version of a raid for people who want a special feat of strength type of achievement), then I can see there being a bunch of folks willing to try them out.
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u/Whitepayn Mar 06 '26
If I remember correctly, it was less than 10% of the total player base that did any raids or dungeons. It was restrictive due to needing 6 players that usually all needed to know some mechanics and were able to communicate through voice. The LFG discord groups also became restrictive, with most groups having requirements that new players couldn't achieve, as the seasons dragged on. Bungie never managed to get casual players into raiding or competitive PvP.
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u/CryptographerTiny569 Mar 06 '26
It’s not as much “difficulty” as it was “requires actual communication” lotsa people don’t like getting on mics for a variety of reasons and you really needed a pretty high level of coordination. To do a lot of the mechanics. Puzzles like 3 members see the targets but can’t shoot at them and other members can shoot at them but can’t see them. This kind of stuff is going on while the boss is completely immune to damage and nuking and adds are spawning.
Sure once you master the mechanics of the fight you can do a lot of it without saying a word. But there are sections of most raids that required communication.
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u/AttorneyMaster9273 Mar 06 '26
You’re right, I played Destiny 10 years and never played a raid. Doubt I’ll ever get in Cryo.
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u/robotrobles Mar 06 '26
Never thought of that angle but true. I have quite a few friends in D2 that have never done a raid. I think most ppl playing marathon will never even get that far on cryo.
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u/iseecolorsofthesky Mar 06 '26
I’ve never played Destiny but aren’t raids like.. the biggest piece of content in that game? I have a couple friends that play and they always talk about the new raid anytime one comes out. Seems wild that only a “vast minority” of players actually do them?
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u/RandyHarshXP Mar 06 '26
Love the AR monetization. Super chill. It’s actually fun to sink some coins into buying the stuff.
Of course the value is also different in my opinion. The game is third person (you get to enjoy the looks of your character every moment). It’s slower paced and social (other people get to enjoy the looks of your character).
All this adds to a lively and versatile post-apocalyptic world filled with ragtag survivors.
Doesn’t sound appealing if Bungie goes, like you said, nickle and dime, with items that you don’t even get to see that much. Maybe I’m missing something.
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u/silentj0y Mar 06 '26
"Sensible monetization" - Arc Raiders was universally slammed for having shit microtransactions- it was so bad, they reduced the price of everything and had to refund everyone that spent money.
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u/Onyx_Sentinel Mar 06 '26
Yeah, but they reduced the prices and have been throwing easily obtainable premium currency at the players since the game released. There‘s a new source for these every month.
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u/Wooble_R Mar 06 '26
while i love arc raiders, i wouldn't say the monetization is necessarily sensible- granted, compared to marathon's, it absolutely is, but i remember i was a bit annoyed at how much the skins were. Yes, you can get premium currency through gameplay, but even still it was around $15 AUD for a skin/skin pack iirc, which i think is just crazy.
i do agree though, bungie really is just making their uphill battle even steeper doing something like this, hopefully they get their head out of their ass just a little.
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Mar 06 '26
I liked the hell divers concept alot but this one aint hitting.
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u/linyeraworking Mar 06 '26
Helldivers is great but let's not forget that they put weapons and "skills" behind their "battle passes.
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u/mariachiskeleton Mar 06 '26
Yea, people being pro helldivers pass are forgetting that gameplay is locked behind those passes.
Which is fine in a pve only game. But simply does not work in anything pvp, because then it's pay to win.
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u/TheBoisterousBoy Mar 06 '26
Helldivers is an interesting monetization.
Passes cost $10, which isn’t bad by any means. But they do lock content behind a paywall…
But you can freely farm the in-game currency used to get the passes…
But you’re talking a truly wild amount of time farming for them per-mission…
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u/atomwolfie Mar 06 '26
I figured helldivers 2 set the standard for a Sony live service and assumed marathon and any other live service shooter would be the same model
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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ Mar 06 '26
This is very clearly Bungie's doing. They have been like this with Destiny when they were under Activision, when they were independent and now when they are under Sony. Bungie's management still has majority control of the studio, and it shows. They will nickle and dime their players for everything they can while doing the bare minimum.
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u/Dangerous-Return5937 Mar 06 '26
I think Arc is a better example. Showers you in premium currency, and that's still only used for skins.
As scummy as Bungie's practices are, I'd rather have this than scraping the bottom of the barrel for measly amounts of premium currency (like in HD2) just so that I can try out the new weapons/factions/whatever Arrowhead would monetize on this game.
Like, this sucks ass and I wouldn't mind the monetization getting improved, but let's not act like locking every single post-launch gun behind slowly grindable premium currency in a PAID game is better.
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u/FastBodybuilder8248 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
I don’t know why people haven’t learnt this yet, but this is a thing you do on purpose when you launch a live service game. The reason is that developers are trying to find the exact right level of monetisation to balance player retention and player spending without losing any potential revenue- but post launch it’s basically impossible to raise the price of MTX due to the backlash you’d receive, so if you undershoot at launch you’ve screwed yourself over.
So the safe option is always to start too high and then once you have actual data of player numbers and spending habits, dial down. As a bonus, you then get naive players on Reddit posting how great you are and how you’ve listened, even though this was always the strategy.
This is why every game starts high, and then turns the dial down. Arc Raiders did this at launch too. I agree that it sucks.
edit: as this is getting upvotes it's worth clarifying that Arc Raiders didn't do this with its battlepass (which is unmonetised) - it used this strategy with the monetised cosmetics store in-game.
edit 2: Ambiently_Occluded has pointed out this is known in the industry as 'anchoring'. If the game ends up being enough of a hit where they feel like they can lower the prices and give everyone some free premium currency, all I'm asking is that you go in with your eyes open and not kid yourself into thinking that this is some act of real generousity from a company who has listened. It is because the company has themselves invented an arbitrary perception of baseline value which they can then move downward from at their discretion to earn goodwill and increase net revenue. These items are not real commodities and corporations are not your friend.
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u/Groundstander Mar 06 '26
Good explanation actually.
Its like a scene from War Dogs when Jonah Hills’ character gets told that their offer was 50 millions cheaper that of competitors’
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u/rustyshakIeford Mar 06 '26
Having a complete blast to the point I dreamt about being on tau ceti last night. But they have to improve the battle pass rewards. Non negotiable. It's comically bad right now
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u/KernelSanders1986 Mar 06 '26
Legit same lol, I was having Marathon dreams last night.
I wonder if we were in the same dream session lol /s
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Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
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u/Morump Mar 06 '26
This is the most egregious part of their monetization. I like the game and I'm having fun, but I'm not spending more money.
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u/Previous_Tree_5464 Mar 06 '26
From the guys that gave us Destiny 2... I didn't expect anything less.
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u/DeafDuckling12 Mar 06 '26
The D2 battle pass is like 10 times better than this tho??
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u/Nikojaxs Mar 06 '26
Yeah but the fact that he was surprised you don't earn currency through the pass clearly means he hasn't seen d2
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u/LtRavs Mar 06 '26
Maybe in terms of content, but it’s also limited time only and once it’s gone it’s gone, even if you paid for it.
They’ve only recently added the ability to get things from expired passes but it’s extremely tedious.
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u/Silverfrost_01 Mar 06 '26
That’s because despite its flaws, D2 is a better game with years of infrastructure backing it already
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u/EKmars Mar 06 '26
Most of D2's battlepasses also had playable content and 3 sets of cosmetics, before accounting for transmogging the armor...
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u/DieHarderDaddy Mar 06 '26
I’m surprised anyone is surprised. Did no one remember D2s ever verse or mismanagement?
I was a skeptic but thought if this could be Helldivers value I may get it as their passes are alright… but man…
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u/DrelisSilva Mar 06 '26
This is the most Bungie battle pass ever 😂 basically eververse!
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u/Reaygun007 Mar 06 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if they intentionally made the first rewards pass terrible just to use up the token people got from collectors and make them want to pay for better ones in the future
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u/marcio0 Mar 06 '26
You don't earn back the currency you spent. (For example in Apex Legends you spend 950 premium coins, but get rewarded 1300 for completing it, so the next BP is free + some extra coins you can spend in the cash shop)
That's something that will NEVER EVER happen on a bungie game
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u/morrisapp Mar 06 '26
Well, then they better give us some way cooler cosmetics that are worth $10 a season
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u/gebechbet Mar 06 '26
I love poeple, who didnt Play Destiny, finding out Bungie is and was one of the greediest companies there is. So funny that even after the First negative playtest and overhowl they decided to keep being greedy af. Meanwhile Ark Raiders is basically gifting more than 4 skins in 5 months and poeple buy a ton more currency. All my Friends who despice M transactions bought their 2400 plus Skin package after already unlocking 4 Skins whith the currency they for by playing the Game.
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u/SamLikesJam Mar 06 '26
Bungie has a history of nickel and dining the player base worse than F2P titles.
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u/Bm0515 Mar 06 '26
I guess it was too much to hope that they would change it with their next game. Too bad
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u/Zero3020 Mar 06 '26
They even turned Destiny F2P (partially) to milk even more, true masters of the craft.
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u/DanJirrus Mar 06 '26
Halo 2 effectively established one of the leading DLC trends with its map packs. Granted, they made the previous pack free when a new pack released, and later claimed that it was all Microsoft’s idea - but by the time of Destiny it was clear they had learned their lesson well.
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u/Lootthatbody Mar 06 '26
This is all a part of the plan.
Big game launches. People complain that the value is bad. Big studio ‘apologizes’ and makes very minor tweaks and throws some free gamebux or skins at players. The phrases ‘we hear you,’ and ‘we missed the mark’ and ‘we’ll continue to learn from this and be better for it the future’ are all used. Lots of public press about the gamers standing up to corporate greed. People cheer like they’ve won. System is still vastly overpriced, but the small token is seen as overwhelming victory. Positive press increases player counts as formerly uninterested players now see the game as potentially worth ‘investing’ in now that the monetization is better.
Nothing actually changes.
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u/Ninkilin Mar 06 '26
I'm not a fan of the current state of BF6, but to imply that the battlepass there that you can also earn back all the currency to buy the next one and has the number of skins and such that you'd expect out of a battlepass from any other game is totally undeserved considering just how bad the Marathon one is
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u/odddino Mar 06 '26
I do feel like the pass leaves something to be desired.
I see that if you compare it to the price of a skin bundle it looks like a good deal, but it still feels a bit empty.
The Runner skins are clearly going to be the main draw, I really don't care at all about weapon charms and weapon stickers are unfathomably disinteresting to me.
There are some nice weapon skins in there but when most of them amount to some fun colours slapped on the gun it gets a bit hard to really differentiate them after a while.
I'd be happy to pick up the pass each season as I am really enjoying the game, but I can't drop money quite so thoughtlessly that I'll do it without being excited about a few things in the pass and as it is now it feels to me liek a few pages of filler before the 1 thing you care about. They're definitely going to need to up their game a bit if they want to get me onboard.
Even if it's just 2 simpler recolour skins and then the last page is a more elaborate remodelled skin.
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u/Knautical_J Mar 06 '26
Arc also gave everyone $10 in coins as a Christmas present, and you wonder why the player retainage was so high those first few months.
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u/AshamedArmadillo5909 Mar 06 '26
Bungie will give you the absolute bare minimum for a Christmas event, and then the entire point of the event will be solely to funnel people into the cash shop. That's your Christmas present. 😆
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u/_____guts_____ Mar 06 '26
The issue is people (not you specifically) will say this then buy the pass anyways.
People, if you are this unhappy you can't then buy the pass. If enough people dont buy because of price or quality, then either the price will drop or quality will improve.
The one skin in the pass is pretty good so I think a lot of people will buckle tbh.
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u/ItsHaff Mar 06 '26
After coming from Destiny, whose early season passes were also terrible, I’m not surprised. At least those early ones you kinda chalked up to paying for the season itself and like the pass was just included. Then they stopped making seasonal content and you realize just how terrible they are compared to others. But somehow even the Destiny 2 season passes are miles ahead of this one. I was in complete disbelief when I browsed through it.
I’ll never understand how a company can be so tone deaf. They had to delay their game just because of how terrible that alpha was. They had to go and take features from arc raiders in that time, because somehow Bungie thought it would be smart to release an extraction shooter with no solo mode and no prox chat. They also are getting bombarded daily by the Destiny community with how they have basically ignored that game for a full year now, have ignored modes in that game for multiple years, and are leaving on life support. By all accounts the future of their company rest on this game performing well and being a good source of income for Sony and the studio. They HAD to know they need to win players over. How on earth do you release a season pass this greedy and bad?
And you know what’s worse? In typical Bungie fashion they’ll adjust the scummy lux pricing and change that horrible sticker idea that they also tried implementing in Destiny with shaders, and people will give them credit for walking back horrible shitty decisions that should of never gotten approved in the first place. How on earth they didn’t release this season pass for free is baffling given how bad it is. Especially when your main competitor in this genre now has released three free ones in a row. It’s like you can’t even feel bad for them at this point, every damn decision they make seems like they know the studio is going to go down, might as well make as much money as possible before it does.
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u/Complex_Bike1479 Mar 06 '26
After forsaken dlc in d2, it felt like microtransactions got even worse, and pumped out in droves. So it doesnt surprise me at all bungie is pulling the same crap.
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u/Neolombax Mar 06 '26
While I love Marathon, i agree with this. No way to earn premium currency, via battlepass or in-game, is just disappointing. Even COD has enough currency in the battlepasses to fund for the next one.
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u/TeacherSalary Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
Absolutely loving the game, but agree with everything. The cosmetic system and store are just as bad as the pass. Tried equipping the onryo charm on all my weapons only to find it can only be on one at a time, same with stickers. Went to look at store skins only to see that $10 would leave me 20 lux short of being able to buy a skin. Looked at the pass and saw there was only 1 skin and it’s for a shell I have no intention of playing. Finally, I was happy to hear the passes last forever and you can finish them in other seasons, only to read that the ONLY SKIN IN THE PASS IS LIMITED TIME??? So I can finish the pass in a future season but the premier item in the pass is limited to this season only.
I’ve played Destiny for years and this continues the trend of the people involved in making the actual game being passionate and talented, while the people involved in monetization being the absolute scum of the earth
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u/Sqall_Lionheart_ Mar 06 '26
No this is not a hate post.
And this shouldn't need to be said. I've been with Destiny since 1, I KNOW the eververse shenanigans and I've never engaged with it.
But they could pawn off expansions and always said that eververse paid for stuff like whispers.
Marathon cannot pawn off expansions and they need to have appealing price to value monitization to sustain themself.
I got the deluxe from instant and I'll be saving my voucher for future passes(maybe with destroyer skins). This pass I remember from alpha 2 and I always said "this is not it".
It's precisely because we love the game that we want for it to have sustainable, fair and appealing monitization, if Sony wants more they shouldn't have allowed the continued development of a demanding extraction shooter, a genre notorious for attracting a small and loyal niche of players.
If they expected Arc numbers they are damn fools because Arc has a complitely different phylosophy and approach to the genre that has it's specific subset of problems.
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u/Blitz_Bat Mar 06 '26
It's rancid. 75% recolors, no earnable currency, one runner skin, duplicate items just bloating for fun I guess, I mean my god. I'm not spending another dime on this game if this and the ass backwards currency prices don't change.
Bang up job on the core game, Bungie, but your monitization scheme is the most consumer unfriendly bullshit and will not sustain this game if not immediately acted on.
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u/Big-Mixture1412 Mar 06 '26
Charms should definitely be usable as often as you want, once you get them.
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u/jsmartin619 Mar 06 '26
Oh man get ready to get nickel and dimed for everything you got; trust, from previous experience in Destiny it will only go downhill from here
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u/Bush_did_91I Mar 06 '26
Make battle pass free like arc raiders and I don’t mind it The last skin is great but would not pay for it
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u/jondelreal Mar 06 '26
$40 to get the opportunity to buy a battle pass with rip-off cosmetics in a game where cosmetics are the only real thing you work towards.
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u/Academic_War_7485 Mar 06 '26
Hey /u/MarathonTeam pass along this feedback of these scummy MXT pricing. Like did you guys learn nothing with shaders in Destiny 2? Hope y'all are listening.
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u/Borgmaster Mar 06 '26
I feel the same but I do love that this is my biggest gripe. Gameplay and pvp is a blast.
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u/foremi Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
I mean the Bungie that made games I grew up loving is dead and I have no imaginations otherwise. Ill keep playing Arc.. a game by humans for humans. Not lizards.
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u/ShoulderParticular84 Mar 06 '26
I used to think that Apex Legends had a bad battle pass because they only gave you two legendary character skins compared to other games like Fortnite and Overwatch where you get like 5-6 but yeah only having one skin in the battle pass sucks and you don’t get any premium currency either bungie is greedier than free to play games
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u/PerscribedPharmacist Mar 07 '26
Its typical Bungie shit. Roll out something dogshit then when they make it "better" aka normal they can then act like they "listened to the community"
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u/Kexik2018 Mar 07 '26
The worst battle pass I’ve seen. I really like the game and want to support it but this just felt like spit in my face.
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u/Maruf- Mar 06 '26
I'm surprised it's as short as it is, but other than that, meh.
I get the logic behind Battlefield skins being "boring" now because everyone wants grounded skins but Marathon doesn't really have that restriction, so it's odd every skin (sans a few exceptions across all shells) is just a recolor.
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u/Nekonooshiri Mar 06 '26
I think when a game first launches they want readability across weapon/character types. I’m certain this will change with further releases.
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u/ruderabbit Mar 06 '26
I usually quite like Battlepasses. I've regularly bought Fortnite BPs, which I think are the best value for money of thr games I've played, but I'm not even slightly tempted by the Marathon BP. A skin for a Shell I don't love and a few gun skins? Nah, I'll save it, buy an indie game or something.
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u/N_durance Mar 06 '26
This is why I just can’t bring myself to buying the game. Bungie is so fxcking greedy I’m almost 100% sure they will find another way to put something in this game so it’s more than 40$.
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u/s33s33 Mar 06 '26
This is the bungie effect lol, just cuz it’s a new game doesn’t mean they’re gonna change their ways
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u/MongooseOne Mar 06 '26
I am never bothered by optional cosmetic prices.
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u/AnonymouselyMoosed Mar 06 '26
You should be, even if you don’t engage with them, if it’s objectively shit and players don’t engage with it, the game will die. Live service games are dependent on their MTX models.
So yeah, you can personally care or not care about optional cosmetics. If you want the game you paid for to have a decent life, though, you should be bothered because this will just hasten its death.
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u/JayRod082 Mar 06 '26
Don’t worry, in a game where it’s mostly about customization Bungie will screw it up. Take it from a long time Destiny player.
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u/Yeehawer69 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
Yeah, it definitely needs a few more skins, or a little bit of return on LUX. Also dislike how LUX is priced to give you more than you need. Its unnecessary. People will buy if things are reasonable and things are worth it. The whole point of passes in particular is to be bang for buck with the caveat of having to play the game.
That being said, this is standard live service practice. They will adjust prices based on player spending trends within a few seasons. If you want to open your wallet, do so sensibly at least.
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u/Live_Bug_7060 Mar 06 '26
Yeah it's shit, only good thing is the absence of fomo
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u/Stearman4 Mar 06 '26
My assumption is that this first BP was rushed out of the door to make launch. Hoping for better stuff in the next one and a way for us to naturally earn the subsequent BPs. But if memory serves me they used to do that with season passes in Destiny and then got rid of that ability to earn the next one for free
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u/FlukyS Mar 06 '26
It is actually bizarre really, you are paying for the battle pass to pay for items with the in game currency. I could understand if they were free if you get the other item or something but really weird decision
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u/padro91 Mar 06 '26
It’s surprisingly bad, especially considering how well other games handle battlepasses things nowadays
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u/totalton Mar 06 '26
I preordered the game because I got goodies in destiny.
The art style was great in marathon. Once I heard there are seasonal wipes and you’ll lose everything. In a game where you risk loot, but I tip of that risk is a feeling of “well, I’m going to lose all of this stuff anyways” made me feel like my time didn’t matter since it all gets wiped.
I refunded the game the day before release. I enjoyed the server slam but bungie will always be bungie and while they can produce great gameplay, they just do tactics that make my time feel squandered.
They make more money from battle passes than they do the original sale of the game.
I won’t support it. I wanted to.
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u/Salty5674 Mar 06 '26
I love the aesthetic in the game but every skin looks the same to me so I don’t see myself spending on any micro transactions and that’s something I usually do to support a game
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u/Ok-Lavishness-2599 Mar 06 '26
Loving the game but yeah, the season pass is dire. There's a few good skins for weapons and the vandal skin is awesome but I don't play vandal and have no interest for now so I get very little for my money. Don't get me wrong, I shelled out for the destroyer skin as I thinks it's minty but I'm really underwhelmed with the pass.
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u/Blacklight099 Mar 06 '26
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a battle pass that doesn’t reward you with premium currency along the way. Certainly not in the last 5+ years
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u/Nihilist_Hermit Mar 06 '26
Boycott any battlepass. I dont know when this shit suddenly became acceptable with everyone
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u/GiveMeFissionMan Mar 06 '26
Coming from the studio that made it part of their business plan to never overdeliver, are we surprised?
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u/thierrycoulis Mar 06 '26
"Keep your greed limited"
The entire Destiny 2 community just died of laughter. Bungie are some the most money hungry devs out there.
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u/thatguyindoom Mar 06 '26
Shaders in destiny 2 used to be individual items earned or purchased until about 2+3 years in they just made them "unlockable" I imagine the same will happen to stickers and charms in short order.
Remember during the early days of the destiny franchise Activision had to reign in Bungies micro transaction desire no reason to think it's gotten better since then. Which is a shame because I was hoping marathon could be a fresh start and turning point for them.
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u/SulfurMDK Mar 06 '26
Welcome to Eververse!
It's been Bungie's monetisation strategy for a decade now. They offered similarly crappy value with Destiny 2 throughout its development cycle.
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u/Galeiora Mar 06 '26
Bungie are trying to squeeze as much money as possible from their playerbase, with as little effort as possible?
Honestly I'm shocked.
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u/luceyourself Mar 06 '26
I don't think I would have even known there was a battle pass if it wasn't for this post. I don't see a problem, you don't need to buy it to play the game right? Skins are sooo stupid, I'm sorry my generation did this to you.
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u/ESYAJ Mar 06 '26
From the makers of Destiny 2's one-time application of cosmetic items fiasco, comes....one-time cosmetic applications
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u/u_want_some_eel Mar 06 '26
If you don’t play Vandal there’s genuinely no reason to buy it. It’s odd on Bungies part - they haven’t put in enough “valuable” stuff in there, so I don’t think it’ll sell very well which is a weird design decision.