Marathon, Bungie’s new project, supposedly targets a $40 launch price. Marathon is an upcoming PvP extraction shooter originally revealed in May 2023. Sources have reportedly spoken to The Game Post about the upcoming title and that they’re considering a $40 launch price for Marathon.
This suggests that Bungie is opting for the game to be a pay-to-play premium model rather than free-to-play with microtransactions, as seen in plenty of current games, including their well-known Destiny 2.
Recently, Bungie and Sony have discussed Marathon’s pricing strategy and how they will approach it. Conversations and an extended dialogue likely happened once Sony’s latest live-service game, Concord, failed to take off and was shut down and refunded just two weeks later.
Since its announcement, Marathon has continued to stir up conversation and controversy, especially under its new director, Joe Ziegler. This is because people feel the game may be veering too close to hero shooters like Valorant and Overwatch. After all, Concord was one of those hero shooters, and it just didn’t take off the way Sony expected it to.
According to The Game Post, multiple sources have since confirmed that Marathon is not “hero-focused. ” Instead, the heroes in Marathon are classes with their own set of abilities and special abilities, making them all degrees of different from each other. Unlike other hero shooters, the gameplay structure is similar to Escape from Tarkov but with a “Bungie twist.” Only two maps are playable, but it’s uncertain whether it will get more than just two maps when it eventually releases.
In the past couple of months, Bungie has been conducting playtests with people from the internal teams, streamers, and content creators all participating. So far, the feedback suggests that it is somewhat positive but not worth the $40 price tag. If they continue to go through with it, they may risk facing the same treatment that Concord did.
Although the company is receiving positive feedback during the playtests, it’s said that morale within Bungie is continuing to remain low as the developers are growing frustrated with leadership changes at the studio. As a result, concern continues to soar regarding the launch of Marathon. In addition, they are also facing anxiety about Destiny 2’s future and how it will shape up with the new expansion model.
The team creating Marathon is riding high, and its success has the potential to be pivotal for Bungie and Destiny. A new trailer for Marathon is said to be in production, which may reveal some new details about the game.