Marathon is doing fine, it’s certainly no Concord like many predicted pre-release – but there’s a big question emerging around whether it’s doing well enough.
While we don’t have data for consoles like PS5, we can see the extraction shooter peaked at 88k concurrent players on Steam at launch, and has steadily been declining over the weekend.
This isn’t a Highguard situation where the drop-off was profound and immediate; more just a steady shedding of players, from a high of 78k on Saturday to 73k on Sunday. It’ll be interesting to see where it settles.
These aren’t bad numbers in isolation at all, but they may not be good enough for Bungie, an expensive prestige studio behind some of the biggest shooters on the planet.
In an attempt to maintain its existing players and attract new ones, the Washington-based studio announced some incoming improvements overnight.
First and foremost, it’s making an alteration to the amount of LUX which can be purchased with real money. This is the game’s in-game currency used for microtransactions, and it was previously structured in such as a way where $10 got you 1,100 LUX.
The problem is, most of the skins in the game cost 1,120 LUX, so you’d need to buy another pack – like the $5 bundle for 500 LUX – in order to get one.
Moving forward, $10 will net you 1,120 LUX, enough for a skin. Anyone who’s already purchased one or more of these bundles will be refunded the appropriate amount of in-game currency.
Bungie is also paying attention to the criticism of the cosmetics themselves. “We want to ensure that when you spend in Marathon you feel like you are getting great value and discussing ways to improve this experience,” a spokesperson said.
While this is a paid, premium release, it’s also a live service game. It’ll need positive post-release monetisation in order to support its ongoing development.
And one issue the studio seems eager to address is its difficulty, which has basically ruled the release out of casual rotations.
An incoming update due out next week will make the following changes:
- Increased the distance objective nav points appear from 10m to 20m.
- Increased the number of Med Cabinets and Munitions Crates that can spawn on Perimeter.
- Increased the amount of starting ammo in MIDA, CyberAcme, and Arachne free Sponsored Kits.
Many have criticised Marathon for simply being too hardcore. As an extraction shooter, you’re putting all of your loot on the line each time you attempt a run, and the game doesn’t take any prisoners at all.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of response the community has to this. Some have already embraced the changes, while others feel Bungie is watering down the release’s USP.
What do you think? Have you tried Marathon? Do you intend to spend on its microtransactions? Are you enjoying its difficulty? Let us know below.