Our Game Director @Ziegler_Dev will be unavailable this Friday, so we're shifting our PlayMA to May 16th at 1PM PT, that way we can stream our Friday internal playtest. We're eager to dive into Alpha feedback and share our initial thinking.

📺 https://t.co/j72GOyFm9y

— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) May 8, 2025

Guess it's the 16th now.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Marathon Closed Alpha test. Your feedback is already helping us improve Marathon.

Join us May 8th at 1PM PT for our PlayMA where we will be discussing what's next. pic.twitter.com/2lcBzzOQli

— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) May 7, 2025

I played a few games Saturday morning. Matched with randos, with zero communication. Almost all the games, we never encountered another team. It was very slow paced, bordering boring.

Sunday morning. Matched with randos, with zero communication. Almost every game we were slaughtered by other teams. It was very frantic and frustrating.

Sunday afternoon. Played with Kermit, with good communication. There was a perfect mixture of bot battles, successful loots and contracts, a couple contracts we couldn't complete. Some players battles we won, some player battles we lost. It was really fun! I hope to get a full trio in the next two nights to see how that goes. There was one specific battle that was so exciting and fun, it absolutely captured a bit of magic that I felt from old school Halo days. It had a proper jump scare moment followed by a good laugh.

Played a couple more later on with BlackT1ger, with a rando third. Same experience as above.

This is absolutely a game you have to play with a team/friends. And it's fun (for my play style...as always)

I think it's bizarre that I saw smoke flairs everywhere I looked until I needed to find them. Enjoyed the time, Mankitten! I got the contract later when a rando teammate did the thing when I wasn't looking.

Sunday morning. Matched with randos, with zero communication. Almost every game we were slaughtered by other teams. It was very frantic and frustrating.

Sunday afternoon. Played with Kermit, with good communication. There was a perfect mixture of bot battles, successful loots and contracts, a couple contracts we couldn't complete. Some players battles we won, some player battles we lost. It was really fun! I hope to get a full trio in the next two nights to see how that goes. There was one specific battle that was so exciting and fun, it absolutely captured a bit of magic that I felt from old school Halo days. It had a proper jump scare moment followed by a good laugh.

Played a couple more later on with BlackT1ger, with a rando third. Same experience as above.

This is absolutely a game you have to play with a team/friends. And it's fun (for my play style...as always)

As if Bungie hasn't gotten enough of my money. I've had enough fun to warrant the purchase, especially knowing that I'll have some friends playing.

My verdict so far: it's either very chill or very intense. There hasn't been much in-between. An interesting mixture.

But it's super dark chocolate (the best kind) and extremely smooth peanut butter (not my favorite but I'm trying to make a point here).

A few games in and it's not what I expected. So far it's been veeerrry slow paced. That's a not a complaint. I still have to figure out what everything is and what I'm supposed to be doing.

The controls feel a bit clunkier than Destiny and Halo though.

and nothing happened....

there's nothing.

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the best game I've played in ages, is $50 for a 30-60 hour RPG, and is selling so well you literally can't find a physical copy right now. It is possible to make a successful video game without live service and microtransactions.

With the rate at which Bungie has been cutting jobs, maybe they'll be down to 30 people soon and be able to replicate this success.

Budgets for game development now are greatly outpacing their revenue, so live service HAS to be a factor.

Does it, though? If you're making an online multiplayer game, then yeah, I guess it probably does. But they could just make something else. Imagine a new Marathon that's more like ODST, with the current aesthetic. But I reject the notion that they're making a live service game because it's just too expensive otherwise. They're making a live service game because no one is going to be dropping $20 on skins for a single player game, and that's ultimately what they're after. I don't really blame them for that, even if I don't like it. Destiny made them so much money, why wouldn't they try to do it again?

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the best game I've played in ages, is $50 for a 30-60 hour RPG, and is selling so well you literally can't find a physical copy right now. It is possible to make a successful video game without live service and microtransactions.

Who on earth has ever given a book review or film review and lamented 'Yeah, this book is good, but will it have the staying power in today's market? Can it attract enough readers?"

Most of what I read about movies has to do with box office results, international market, streaming window, go to market strategy, licensing blackouts. It's insidious.

I find all that sort of stuff interesting, but you’re not wrong. The youtube sphere is filled with trend chasers just trying to bait engagement, and everyone pretends they’re an expert. At a certain point, you have to feel for Bungie. Like, this all is exactly the reason the test had an NDA to begin with. Their mistake was doing their big reveal like they did. They should have held off until they got all the feedback this alpha was supposed to provide and actually made some changes.

I agree with you about TotalBiscuit, too, even ignoring all the gamer gate bullshit. Digital Foundry is sort of the same way. Nitpicking shit you have to zoom and slow 400% to even notice is about the biggest waste of time in games coverage.

I ignore the pixel counting, more of less. I do admit to paying attention when they compare releases across platforms, especially if I'm sincerely considering buying something. Since I'm not in the PC master race, my version is always less than optimal, but one benefit of having old eyes is that I can't really tell regardless.

I agree with you about TotalBiscuit, too, even ignoring all the gamer gate bullshit. Digital Foundry is sort of the same way. Nitpicking shit you have to zoom and slow 400% to even notice is about the biggest waste of time in games coverage.

I swear that the steam playercount charts are one of the worst things to happen to gaming since achievements. Who cares at all how many people are playing a game at any given time right now? Can you log on, find a match, and have fun? If so how does it matter at all?

The game developers care, and in turn the people playing the game who hope the game continues to be supported care. This is no longer the time of buying a cartridge, and that's the game you have. Pop it in and play it. Even games that aren't live service still have some sort of digital connection to the developer.

Marathon and Arc Raiders are both going to be $40 purchases (as far as the information we've seen). I still don't know if I want to drop that on either game, let alone both. I have to think that a lot of people aren't going to buy both, they will just get one of them.

Budgets for game development now are greatly outpacing their revenue, so live service HAS to be a factor. You know this. A few years ago you posted an article about Candy Crush or some mobile game, and how much revenue they made for Ad free, vs free with ads and it was a no brainer for them to remove the Ad free version.

Borderlands release date got moved forward. It was also scheduled for the same date as Marathon. Are they trying to get ahead of these games? Debatable.

And let's not forget the shadow of the juggernaut everyone is standing in...GTA6, which apparently will be $80+ late this Fall as well.

My verdict so far: it's either very chill or very intense. There hasn't been much in-between. An interesting mixture.

I'm guilty of this for sure, I think tons of people are. But why is so much discourse around games about how many players it will get? Can beat out some other competing game? Will it be financially viable? Will it appeal to XYZ playerbase?

I've tried watching some videos about Marathon… but essentially nobody is right off the bat just talking about is the game fun. It's always in terms of the larger placement within the business landscape of gaming.

I swear that the steam playercount charts are one of the worst things to happen to gaming since achievements. Who cares at all how many people are playing a game at any given time right now? Can you log on, find a match, and have fun? If so how does it matter at all?

It looks like this week about 25 people were playing Rosewater. Does that mean anything about if it's a good game or not? Of course not. If you're into adventure games pick it up immediately. I have a couple of problems with it but it was a solid 4/5 star point and click adventure.

Why is everyone suddenly an armchair expert on the business of video games?

Everyone liked Total Biscuit back in the day, but I kind of found him insufferable. His videos were so verbose about the most pointless things such as technical options, and 'value for money'. Like holy shit dude, just tell us if the game is fun, or if it provides an interesting valuable experience, and expand on WHY that experience is so valuable. I can't even watch videos about Marathon because everyone is talking about stuff even more uninteresting like market conditions, player counts, and if it's enough for Sony.

Who on earth has ever given a book review or film review and lamented 'Yeah, this book is good, but will it have the staying power in today's market? Can it attract enough readers?"

It's kind of hard to not start thinking this way yourself when SO MUCH of the discourse is about this rather than the experience of the game itself. I've definitely tried myself to think about only the game part of games, but sometimes you can't help but slip up. Sure, it's important to know illegality or harassment at the studio in a broader context so you don't support monsters. But if everything is above board, why can't the discussion be around the game?

From now on if I see anyone in an article or on youtube reference or mention steam player counts or whether a game can compete with another game, then I'm immediately disengaging unless there is some actual point to it.

[whispering]
You know...the other extraction shooter that releases the same day as Marathon?
[looks over shoulders]
Arc Raiders

It has a "tech test" going on now. It's getting some mixed reviews, but some of the streamers I've seen playing it are seeming to have positive experiences. Anyone have experience with this game? or both games? What are the thoughts on the two going head-to-head?

Looks cool, but Marathon's story is already very intriguing to me.

It has a "tech test" going on now. It's getting some mixed reviews, but some of the streamers I've seen playing it are seeming to have positive experiences. Anyone have experience with this game? or both games? What are the thoughts on the two going head-to-head?

I'm not even at the point where I feel comfortable regular taking on the UESC event that takes place in the bubble.

Interestingly doing that activity resulted in the most memorable moment all Alpha.

We took down the commander in the red bubble, and were waiting for the container to open. All of a sudden, sniper shots started whizzing past. It was an ambush! But it was TWO teams who had the bright idea to let us kill the commander then steal the loot. It resulted in a super tense 3 team battle, where we came out on top. The other teams were LOADED. Tons of self revives, purple backpacks, great guns.

So yeah. When stuff like that happens I get it. But that doesn’t happen much and it takes too long to get there. Part of me wonders if that’s not what it will devolve into anyway, with people that have great long range weapons just waiting out of ping range for you to do an activity then shanking you before you get the loot.

Posting up like that can easily result into you getting ambushed in some CQC.