- Former Microsoft Game Studios executive producer Laura Fryer doesn’t believe Marathon is a success for Bungie “still”
- Fryer said the game was “built at a scale and cost that the current market simply does not reward.”
- He added that the game is a hit with players who love it, but Bungie has “a very big hill to climb.”
Former Microsoft Game Studios executive producer and founding member of the original Xbox project, Laura Fryer, believes Bungie’s pull-out shooter Marathon is a hit among its players, but the studio has a long way to go to make the game worth your investment.
Marathon It finally launched late last month after several delays, and while Bungie’s new live service game appears to be attracting the attention of its player base, Fryer said that “the math around the project is difficult when it comes to scope and planning.”
Speaking in a new YouTube video titled ‘Is the marathon a success? Laura’s take, talked about the game’s release and Steam player count at the time, and positive reviews.
Article continues below.
He mentions numbers 10 days after launch, which show between 26,000 and 34,000 concurrent players during off-peak hours (according to SteamDB). This rises from 58,000 to 60,000 during prime time, with Fryer arguing that “for a $40 pull-out shooter in a crowded genre, that’s a decent hold.”
“It’s not exploding like some people expected, but it’s not dead either,” Fryre said. “And for the players who actually play it, this feels like a victory. They’re happy and that matters.”
However, despite these numbers, the game has already dropped out of Steam’s top 50 games.
Fyre also notes that while we don’t have PS5 and Xbox Series X stats to compare, MarathonIts primary audience appears to be the PC, where it estimates it has made around $22 million after the Steam outage.
Sony bought Bungie in 2022 and Fyre mentions Destiny 2The subsequent poor performance. now has Marathon There is also to contend with, which needs regular updates to keep the player’s attention.
Fyre said that for players who love Marathon, it’s a success, but “for Bungie and Sony, not yet, and maybe never in the form they need.”
As the former Microsoft executive noted, Bungie was also expected to appear at GDC to talk about Marathonbut canceled his appearance to focus on his game. She maintains it was a smart decision.
“But it also points to a bigger problem,” he added. “The team is stretched thin, priorities are off, and leadership is reacting instead of planning for the future.”
Look
Fryer also compared this to a situation with Blizzard’s ex. supervision director, Jeff Kaplan, who recently revealed in an interview that he was told his game would have to make a certain amount of money or the company would lay off 1,000 employees (via IGN).
“Look, gaming is a business. There are harsh realities,” Fryer said. “The revenue has to come, but the guy who came in, who gave that ultimatum to Jeff, is so far removed from making games that he will never feel what it’s like when a thousand people, a thousand families, lose their jobs.”
The Xbox veteran went on to explain that this is where indie development differs, because games like Kill Spire 2, made up of 10 people, they can still reach record numbers on Steam because they know what the player wants.
“Money matters. Everyone knows that live service games need recurring revenue to survive, Fyre said. “But when lawsuits come in and force arbitrary numbers to be made without a realistic scope, good leaders and good games get crushed.”
“So, is it Marathon a success? Unfortunately, no, not yet,” Fyrer concluded. “It has a dedicated audience and the core gameplay is really solid, but it was built at a scale and cost that today’s market just isn’t rewarding.”
Fyrer suggests that Marathon’s vision may have been too ambitious, saying that “the leadership stake was too big and it may be too late for the new leaders to fix things”, and concludes that Bungie has a “very big mountain to climb”, but Marathon is not “dead” yet.
The best PS5 controllers for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
