In the end, how did the Marathon Closed Alpha go? There are two components to this, how the game felt and how it was received more generally.
Marathon has always been teetered on the edge of future failure, but now that seems set in stone after recent events.
Paul Tassi is a known xbox/MS stooge.
Saying that, Marathon looks so meh to me, absolutely no interest at all.
Once he wrote an article characterizing Horizon Forbidden West, which came out over a year after the PS5 released, as a PS5 "launch game." Assuming this was just a mistake, I pointed out to him that "launch games" for a console are widely understood to be the games that come out on the day of a console's launch or in the immediate window thereafter. He responded and told me that he understood "launch game" to mean a game that launches, which would mean that every game that releases on a console is a "launch game" for that console.
I've basically ignored everything he has said since then. But I don't care about Marathon either way; playing Hunt: Showdown turned me off this genre pretty much.
If I was running Sony why would I not try to have bungie reboot Killzone and have it as their Halo. Honestly I don't know how Sony could justify that 3.6 billion purchase price. Insomniac games at 256 million has been their greatest acquisition in Playstation history for what they have already delivered and what's the pipeline
The smart money would have given them killzone but they brought them to be a pillar of their live services investment and seeming have no interest in allowing them near a single player story driven game again.
The bigger mistake imo is not having them do any SP projects. Just all LS stuff.
Also want to clear up some misinformation on my part about Marathon. It wasn't due to creative differences as to why Jade left it was due to early internal Play tests were reportedly not received very well. Which probably prompted her to leave. My fault on that.
It does look like ass shit.
Would pulling the plug now make any difference or is Bungie thoroughly cooked regardless?
The saga of the legal battle that sees Epic Games fight Apple in the attempt to bring Fortnite back to iOS has just gained another chapter.
After a rough playtest and now plagiarism confirmation, Bungie is changing some Marathon plans and internally, things are bad.
Wish they'd just go back to making a simple fps game like halo. As much as I loved destiny 1, it got absolutely stale and a chore to play after the sequel came out. I ain't got that kinda time to waste so much on a single game with it's crazy grind and raids.
Just make a great story singleplayer game with co op optional. Add in traditional classic pvp. Support with some new maps and weapons for a couple of years. That's it. Move on to the next game and make a new great singleplayer story sequel with it. Unfortunately every dev thinks an fps game needs to be fully live service and chase trends.
Or even go back earlier and make lore heavy Marathon(s) again, with similar gritty art style?
In your estimation, what was the last fps game to follow the traditional release model (rather than live service) you described in your comment, and actually maintain a solid player base outside the immediate release window?
I guess you could say Warhammer Space Marine 2 fits that category, although it's playerbase is I'm sure much lower than what Bungie would call a success.
Space Marine 2, despite not being huge, is still better success than this dead on arrival bull crap that we all knew would fail.
I'm not sure why having a persistent player base is required for success. Just make more money then it cost for you to make it.
It really sad that a dev would simply slap a classic IP name onto something completely unrelated. While I may come off as being overly pessimistic. I very firmly believe Bungie’s upcoming “Marathon” will not do well. It’s not getting the hype and engagement needed for a successful live-service game.
Not yet... There may be one or two studios yet that haven't been completely derailed
I wonder how many ways they want to take the same arena slap a different coat of paint on it and fail, before it occurs to them to try something else…
It went poorly. We've got another Concord on our hands.