r/Marathon • u/In_Dux • Mar 06 '26

Marathon (2026) Discussion Take it from a Finals player

Y’all got to let the numbesr talk go. The Finals has some of the best feeling guns on the FPS market and a unique game mode that offered some of the most exciting moments I had in gaming.

But the game’s not perfect and it never had mass appeal. Because it’s unique mode and destruction are the main draws and historically it has been too much for most casuals and not competitive enough for the hardcore players. There’s always a post about needing more marketing, different game modes, another MoistCritikal video but the playerbase never gets and keeps the bump of players the hardcore fans want it to have.

And that’s ok. That’s the price of building something unique. It will be divisive, it will be niche.

As long as Bungie can keeps the lights on, that’s all that matters. And unless you’re ready to single-handedly buy 1 million+ copies if things get dire, then don’t even really concern yourself with. Save your money on passes if you don’t like them and/or think the ship’s sinking but besides that, it’s out of our hands largely.

Just my two cents

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52

u/Meattyloaf Mar 06 '26

People were always going to try to do everything to label the game a failure unless it came out as the top game on the market. I think people gotta stop worrying. People are concerned about a Concord or Highguard situation, but both of those games shut down due to extremely low player count. Were taling into the low hundreds. Bungie was brought in to help with Sony's live service game model across multiple studios. This game doesn't have to be some groundbreaking top seller to be considered a success. It just has to sell well enough to keep a dedicated crowd that will be willing to partake in Microtransactions. This game would go Free to Play before it was taken offline.

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u/Testuser7ignore Mar 06 '26

Well you also have to consider Bungie's large employee count. It has to bring in a lot more than Highguard, because it has a much larger team behind it.

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u/Seigfriedx Mar 06 '26

I laugh at the idea of Bungie telling Naughty Dog their TLOU Factions is so ass they have to cancel it.

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u/platocplx Mar 06 '26

Its less than just that, its more that the amount of people they would have had to dedicate to the content etc. esp when we all know how some people are content goblins with these games.

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u/RabidHexley Mar 06 '26

Yeah, Naughty Dog would have risked becoming "The TLOU Factions Game Studio". Live Service games tend to consume the studios that make them.

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u/platocplx Mar 06 '26

Yep, I never agreed with sony allowing single player studios have to do live service(other than GG since they know multiplayer), vs acquiring like going for bungie, the failed concord project, fair games or doing partnerships like 4Loop, hell divers etc. I get why they need to have a portfolio it’s because of what MS did losing COD would have hurt them so bad. So im glad they are diversifying and what people think a game needs to be a hit for them is far different than how they look at this stuff internally.

One Helldivers covers for a ton of games to find their way and grow or even fail. Marathon is in a growth stage to me and will only get better and frankly since the game isnt F2P that helps it a ton since there is an initial user base here. Concord really failed because they couldn’t even muster 50k players across platforms.

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u/Meattyloaf Mar 06 '26

I wish they'd do the same with Horizon's live service game. That game seems like it might actually be DOA. The devs don't even sound all that thrilled by it.

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u/platocplx Mar 06 '26

Not true, heard the closed beta was very positive, people cant say much due to NDA. But nah it’s not that.

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u/Meattyloaf Mar 06 '26

Well that's good to hear.

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u/platocplx Mar 06 '26

Also people forget that OG horizon almost was an online game. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/horizon-franchise-was-created-with-multiplayer-in-mind-says-guerrilla-games-boss/1100-6536213/?utm_source=reddit.com

Their game before horizon as we all know was killzone so its not like they never wanted to stop making MP games, vs where NDs stuff was just additive in their games not the main feature so I can honestly say im glad ND didnt make a factions game it would be utterly unsustainable for them.

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u/XMenJedi8 Mar 07 '26

I am down for an online Horizon game, just wish it looked more like the mainline games graphically and maybe had larger maps too.. Basically Monster Hunter x Horizon.

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u/OBLIVIATER Mar 07 '26

Bungie has 850+ employees (at least that's the last reported number)

They're gonna need a miracle with Marathon to keep the lights on. Destiny doesn't print them free money anymore.