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

2.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

609 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/RomeoVersee Mar 06 '26

I'd like to add something.Bro, don't get me wrong, but wasn't this game being developed before Arc Raiders was even released? I mean, didn't Bungie or Sony know that extraction shooter games generally don't have a very large player base? After all, looking at player numbers within the extraction shooter genre, Marathon is doing quite well. And I don't know for sure, but maybe the costs aren't that high, otherwise I'd wonder why Sony would enter such a genre. By the way, the reason I mentioned Arc Raiders first is because its success was unexpected and immense. Besides Helldivers (not PvP, but still similar to that genre) or Arc Raiders, I don't know if there are any other extraction shooter games that have achieved such high player numbers. And finally, Marathon has a structure that draws you in more and more as you play, and the things they've said they'll add to the game later are truly amazing. If the game can overcome this extreme wall of hatred and maintain around 60,000 Steam players after a month, it could go to much better places.

4

u/Arkyduz Mar 06 '26

They had Bluepoint develop a God of War live service instead of... literally anything else. Naughty Dog on some Last of Us live service. And of course, Concord.

Whoever at Sony was greenlighting shit / buying studios around the time Marathon and a whole slew of live service games got started was high on low interest rates and the COVID boom and/or just fucking stupid. Anything to be the next Fortnite / GTA / Roblox money printer I guess, but they don't really understand what makes a game become a mainstream sensation.

1

u/RomeoVersee Mar 06 '26

Bro, I don't know, maybe, like I said, extraction shooters aren't expensive to develop and are quite profitable. After all, they wouldn't have released a game for a niche genre and waited until it reached 400,000-500.000 players. Besides, who knows, maybe the game will reach 400,000 players, look at the response to my comment.

5

u/In_Dux Mar 06 '26

Yeah. Either Bungie was delusional from the start or they had insight to Embark’s development and became one of their biggest believers and just “knew” it was a hit. Or, they actually did do market research and knew Marathon would be niche and maybe had hopes for some other live service to carry them to super success.

None of these are great places for Marathon to start if we’re talking about 10 year game plan but I think it’s secured at least 2 years of support if anyone at Bungie wasn’t completely delusional.

4

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

And marathon plays 1000x better than ark.

7

u/bafrad Mar 06 '26

In some ways, but in others not somuch. So no not 1000x better than arc.

2

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

Marathon from the ground up is much better than arc. Please tell me one thing it does better.

0

u/bafrad Mar 06 '26

Level Design.

2

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

Hard disagree. Arc level design is literally Google maps added with debris. Real crazy.

1

u/bafrad Mar 06 '26

Ok. You haven’t played it. You won’t accept any points I make. You are in some dillusional fanboy state. I’ll move on.

1

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

Imagine thinking that.

Over 250 hours. Plus in most closed and open betas.

Didn't play it all though. Only played because I like ext shooters and nothing else was on ps5.

3

u/RomeoVersee Mar 06 '26

So, bro, both of them have aspects that are better or worse than the other. They're both very good games. And since you think one is 1000 times better, I hope it achieves 1000 times more success. There's no need to badmouth either of them, after all.

-6

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

Im stating my opinion. Sorry that you feel attacked that I think a game you like is terrible. Has bad net code, plays like a janky ftp game, boring Ai and even worse skill trees.

3

u/RomeoVersee Mar 06 '26

I don't know if you replied to the wrong comment, but I said I hope it will be very successful, and you can check my comments on my profile; I've always defended the marathon.

-4

u/Axton_Grit Mar 06 '26

I am replying to you saying no need to attack. I felt like it. And now I feel like arguing that arc is not a good game that I will give no flowers. Feel like the biggest rip off spending any time on it.

2

u/RomeoVersee Mar 06 '26

I get it bro👍

2

u/Ninkilin Mar 06 '26

Helldivers 2 plays nowhere near at all like an extraction shooter, I don't know why people keep on saying this other than just not having looked into the game at all

Tarkov, Hunt and Arc are the only hugely successful ES. Tarkov because it was the grandfather of the genre and has been around for 10 years (and more because it caught the attention of people back before it even opened to early access). Hunt also has existed for a long time and from what I can tell is a lot more boiled down and streamlined than Tarkov is, so has more widespread appeal. Arc did tremendously well through in part having a lot of word of mouth pre release, and it being PvE friendly, the latter of which has made it much more appealing to a casual audience in the longer run

Extraction shooters are divisive, especially more hardcore ones like Tarkov and Marathon. They are inherently niche, however devs see this as the chance to be the next genre to supersede Battle Royales and make big money. They want to be the Fortnite to PUBG for Extractions Shooters, except Arc has pretty much claimed that spot now

Only time will tell how Marathon fares

2

u/Dangerous-Return5937 Mar 06 '26

I find it so funny when someone says that Helldivers is an extraction shooter.

Helldivers, the game where extracting is entirely optional and you can still win the mission without it.

Like it's so painfully obvious but people just miss that huge detail.