As part of Bloomberg's report on layoffs at Sony-owned developer Bungie, it is also claimed the studio has pushed back its PS5, PC live-service title Marathon to 2025. In addition, Destiny 2 DLC The Final Shape will now release in June 2024 instead of February. Neither Sony nor Bungie have confirmed the delays, but sources speaking to the outlet suggest this to be true after it was recently shared with company staff.
While Marathon was never given an actual release date, it is one of the games spearheading Sony's push into the live-service market, which also includes Fairgame$ from Haven Studio and Concord from Firewalk Studios. Meanwhile, the next Destiny 2 expansion is actually up for pre-order on the PS Store. Following today's report, it would come as little surprise for Bungie to formally announce the delay in the coming days.
Little is known about Marathon, other than it's a "sci-fi PvP extraction shooter" for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It'll feature cross-play and cross-save, and won't have a single player campaign. "We’re building a world full of persistent, evolving zones, where players create their own journey with every run they take, said editorial lead Brian Ekberg upon its announcement earlier this year. "That might mean an unforgettable firefight against another crew vying for the same loot, or a last-second extraction while beset on all sides."
How do you react to this news? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 47
that's really bad news
Oh no!
Anyway
I'm sad for the layoffs, but I have basically no interest in Marathon or Destiny, so the delays aren't anything to me.
And i still wont care about this game when it does come
I don’t know why PlayStation thought live service games are worth the investment/risk I like PlayStation for there different genres and the story in the games! Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind the odd online multiplayer but I prefer a quality single player that focuses on the story and characters
I'm betting this never releases. Sony severely overestimated the PlayStation community's interest in Bungie, the little honeymoon period where they could shutdown Naughty Dog games seems to be very, very over.
Sony is gonna relegate them to going all in on Destiny to ensure they actually pull a profit.
@MeerkatSimples
Because 10/10 of the most played games on PlayStation are multiplayer games. Outside of the big games like Spider-Man and God of War, the smaller games aren’t actually selling that much. Perfect example is returnal selling 600K copies and after 2 years it still hasn’t reached a million copies sold yet.
@Shad361 Then again I'd say their biggest problem is a lack of diversity among their lineup. Most of their games so far have been very similar in terms of genre and approach.
out of the 10 service games supposedly in development at sony, i have a feeling only 5 will see the light of day... and all but 1 of those will actually be good. hopefully sony learned a lesson in all this. what remains to be seen is whether or not the other 5 service games can pivot to become single player-only games or if sony has to outright cancel them and take major financial losses. the next 3-5 years of ps5 is going to be interesting, but not necessarily in a good way.
@JSnow2 "Sony is gonna relegate them to going all in on Destiny to ensure they actually pull a profit."
We'll see how well that works out. Bungie has shown that if they don't get their way. They easily just jump ship. Don't be surprised if there news of Bungie going back independent in the next 10 years if that happen.
@JSnow2 well its pretty obvious really. Name anything other than destiny that has bungies name attached to it on the playstation currently. Thats right because there is only destiny so it makes sense that sony will have them working on it..
@JayJ For the hardcore base yes. But casual PlayStation players don’t seem to even care. As long as they can play the latest cod and fifa, and an occasional god of war or Spider-Man game, that’s enough to satisfy them.
PlayStation players being mostly single player gamers is a myth in 2023. PlayStation has become the new Xbox 360 in terms of the audience. Multiplayer focused with the occasional single player game.
Totally prefer Sony doing what they do best.
Single player big AAA campaign games.
That’s why I have PS5 and definitely not for any other games like service games and multiplayer games.
The single only online game I play is Mario kart and that’s it.
My Sony and Nintendo game collection are the main single player big AAA games.
I don't mind live services, but Sony should have made a pivot to these kinds of games a while ago. They had plenty of opportunities within existing franchises to make the multiplayer components of those games live service. GoT Legends mode is a good example, it got some decent post launch support, but if Sony could have made a support team take control of that pillar then it could have really been something special, GT is another game, but the support that game receives seems very sporadic.
I feel like Sony keeps saying they want more live services, but their scared to do anything other than a half measure, scared to put anything out there to see what sticks, scared of tarnishing the quality that is associated with their brand, and that's not really how most live service games start out. A lot of them start out kind of average or pretty good, and they grow into something great. It's a genre of game that grows from feedback from the players that play the game, and it is a lot of work and dedication from the teams that make and support them.
Bungie I feel...I don't know. I want to say they aren't a good choice to head up a live service initiative, but that's because I legitimately hate Destiny. I don't think that game is fun, and I genuinely think no one really has thought it was fun in years, andnl they are just addicted to the gameplay...well not really a loop anymore...a spiral. A downward spiral.
We will just have to see how it pans out in the not so near future, but I think Sony needs to invest in other experts in the field for live service, because it seems like they have absolutely no idea what they are doing.
All these failed/pushed back live service games are the basically the same, nothing unique about them. Live service multiplayer games that live on for years and years just can't be wished to existence. If it's going to happen it's going to happen organically. You just can't force the next GTA Online or Fortnite. The next great live service game is going to happen to a random game nobody expected much of.
Sony have completely sh*t the bed. They’ve taken a studio like Bungie who went through all sorts of crap over the years and finally hit upon full independence, now Sony have bought them and gutted them. Utter mismanagement.
Not the Marathon the fans wanted. A reboot or remake similar to System Shock remake would have been better
It’s a marathon not a sprint 😋
Revisiting the PS3 made me realize how many games/genres Sony was pushing in those days. Especially on the publishing end.
They really need to step up their Indie/publishing smaller titles. Investing tons of money into these live service failures is not helping them. I get it, from a business perspective they need to chase trends, but man I miss the days of random games like Fat Princess.
It really is a case of remakes and multiplayer games these days unfortunately. Not many people are prepared to shell out on games they don’t really know about. Another Uncharted would sell millions.
From what I read on PSU. Sony has scaled back alot on there live service push. Music to my ears I said. 😁
@Shad361 I think that's more of a focus on a fanbase than the casual audience.
should’ve just invested in their existing but dead and dormant IPs like twisted metal and focused on making a killer live service and single player component of that game , revive killzone, motor storm, infamous, remaster your classics in a trilogy (i miss sly cooper) , etc .
$ony been very dumb these past years, starting to think they didn’t deserve the legacy library they had.
@MeerkatSimples In theory, given the success of Fortnite Sony wants their own success of a live service game. The money earned from a successful live service would help fund their other divisions and other plans they may have. If there was one game that had the biggest chance of success it would've been The Last of Us' with the recent positive reception of the show and game's success prior to it being shelved.
We need real confirmation on things at this point
@Arxagelos bad news? We as gamers should be supportive of indie Devs that gives us great titles not supporting this intentional greed never ending grinding horrible mess, support for what gaming is all about 💪💪
@Stragen8 PS3 even tho it still feels kinda recent, it has so many great titles and arcade racers that have been lost in this modern mess, I boot it once in a while to play so I know that feeling
Im beginning to think that big Jims retirement may have been tied to his decision to push live games. Theres a lot of smoke around regarding ps studios being unhappy about being told they need to toe the line and, usually, theres no smoke without fire.
What is happening 😂 such a strong start for Sony and it seems like they really have made some bad decisions.
So many layoffs and pushed back or scrapped projects.
Please let it be just that we are just hearing the negative and have a killer showcase before Christmas.
@Jswift56 Yeah it sound really bad. But tbf we only ever hear about layoffs and almost never about how many were hired in the lead up to a game.
I'm guessing some studios really staffed up for these live service games and now have to cut staff when Jim retired and Sony is moving away from all these Gaas titles.
I wish that they invested in the one area where they seem to be absolutely starved right now; arcade racing games. Maybe also western informed RPGs. Microsoft are crushing them in that respect right now.
@PegasusActual93 you could make it work by leveraging the bungie name. The story of the original games is very interesting. So a full remake with the original story would be great, as there'd be a ton of new players who wouldn't be aware of the story.
I’m someone who actually want some good multiplayer/gas games from Sony. Sony Single player games are great but could get boring if just focusing on them a lone.
Wasn’t really interested, so it’s whatever.
Aside from being yet another extraction shooter (remember Hyenas), it's really just another sign of the live service struggle Sony is going through.
I couldn't care less if it got cancelled all together to be honest
Damn, in 2025 we will be thinking of the PS6.
And I can assure you all there will still be people wanting games to be released on PS4 in 2025 🤦♂️
Man if only Sony had a talented and proven team to create a FPS game that could rival CoD...a team that made Microsoft relevant and a reason everyone bought Xboxes back in the day. A team that not only delivered an excellent single player campaign but an awesome multiplayer experience as well...
Nah, we need more live service games. Scratch that, let's downsize the team and delay even that game. Sounds good.
Imagine how much was wasted on these GaaS stupidities and how many new games could be done...
If it turns out team asobi have been moved onto a live service project I think I'll likely sell my PS5 and move on. See what early next summer brings. Been with PlayStation since day 1 with PS1 but I don't think I'm their audience anymore. Nintendo and PC keep me pretty busy.
@Ken_Kaniff I prefer experiences like Uncharted 2, TLoU, and Resistance 2 where they were great games with tacked on multiplayer.
The damage may be done though and it will take years to return back to what they were doing if this is true. You have to consider these past 1-3 years went into GaaS, and if they change from that, it will take another 3-6 years to see a release.
@OmegaStriver I agree and yes its unfortunate that will suffer from there bad decision making for the next few years.
Go ahead and cancel it. No loss to the industry.
@MeerkatSimples because they made a ton of money before they started become over saturated
@Sequel what about all the other hundreds of third party games?
@Toot1st Only two games I love and can't get on PC are the Astro bot demo and demon souls, and I've played both to death. All other third party stuff is on (or is coming) to PC and will likely be on switch 2. Hoping there's more announced next year but not looking hopeful.
@Sequel fair enough
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