‘Marathon' Should Be Delayed In The Wake Of Its Closed Alpha

Forbes

28-04-2025

Marathon
Bungie
Marathon is now on its sixth day of its Closed Alpha, the test featuring tens of thousands of players with many more than that still are waiting to be let in. But even as new codes have been issued (and more are coming today), over this incredibly short period of time, interest has dropped dramatically, now less that 25% of what it was on launch day, The numbers falling each consecutive day, even over the weekend when those figures would normally surge. That may change with more codes issued today, but again, we already had one wave of that and it didn't change this trajectory.
This, plus experiencing the game myself for close to 20 hours now, comes to one conclusion: Marathon is not ready for release in just five months. It needs way more time to 'cook,' as they say.
Now, I'm going to stop you right there. You're about to say 'well this is an Alpha, don't you know what an Alpha is?' But the expectations I'm seeing from this group are too high. People are mixing up what 'being in Alpha' is compared to a preview Alpha. I'm even hearing people citing the GTA 6 leaks as some sort of evidence that gamers 'don't understand' development. Generally, that is true, but if you think this current Closed Alpha is comparable to leaked years-old footage of an in-development game, that is not what this is.
Bungie has already told us what's coming. Visual polish, sandbox balancing, new gear, two new heroes, one new map. If you think there's some secret 50% of the game that Bungie isn't talking about that's coming for launch, I have some bad news.
Marathon
Bungie
It's four months until the beta which will serve as essentially a fully developed ad for launch. This is not enough time to see the kind of changes that will dramatically increase interest. And I'm telling you, based on what I'm seeing from those who have been let into the game, interest needs to be dramatically increased.
I don't think Marathon should be released until 2026, and it may even need something as significant as a 4-6 month delay past its September target. This would be a way to potentially address significant issues with the game, including but not limited to:
Picking a Lane – Marathon needs to ultimately decide if it's going to make changes to make it an even more hardcore extraction shooter to go more directly after the Tarkov-like playerbase, or if it's going head the other direction to make an extraction shooter even more accessible than what we're seeing here, and for a period of time past the initial few weeks of launch. That may include some of the following.
Solo Players – It is abundantly clear this is quickly going to be a game where you're running with a team of friends, who also must be convinced to spend $40 on Marathon, or you're not running it much at all. Random teams have counter-objectives when it comes to contracts or looting patterns. Solo players locked into 3s games are limited to skulking around in the shadows which can be fun for a while, but it's going to get old when you keep running into teams that will often auto-nuke you. This has to change in some capacity, quickly.
Marathon
Bungie
The Magical Fourth Map – This map has been hyped up by playtesters as the thing to make Marathon stand out in this space, but it's not something arriving at launch. But if you push launch, there's probably enough time to get that ready (or even more than one cool map) even if the initial plan is to make it some sort of unlocked community puzzle, which is what I hear. Plans need to change.
The Price – I'm extremely concerned about the conversion from a sought-after Closed Alpha to an Open Beta to a release that will then demand a $40 asking price at the end of the tunnel. It's a way to limit cheaters and promote a 'premium' product, but it's also a way to get a fraction of people playing your game in a sea of f2p alternatives. It is much harder than you might imagine to flip to f2p, but a delay would at least give it a chance to do that if that trigger was pulled.
For months now I've heard about the push and pull of Bungie wanting more time for development, a 2026 launch, and Sony effectively demanding a 2025 launch. That's great Sony, but read the room. The publisher is on exceptionally thin ice when it comes to its live service ambitions with big cancelled games and the most spectacular launch failure of all time in Concord. Marathon needs to be given every possible chance to succeed and making Bungie crunch to fix things and throwing it into the wolves as a fall release (one that's literally on the same day as Borderlands 4, mind you) would be a pathetic excuse for support.
Marathon
Bungie
None of this guarantees success. A six month delay, a year delay, you are still fundamentally trying to convince both casual and hardcore players to play this kind of extraction shooter, and that's not changing. But the game will be in a much worse position if it's forced out five months from now instead of taking a lot of time to absorb Alpha and Beta feedback and address larger, obvious issues. It would be nice if this was one of these 'the launch wasn't good but it got really good with more time' before launch happens instead of waiting for that inevitable reaction.
I don't have a great feeling about any of this, honestly, but I do not think this game is in a position to have a strong launch in September, Alpha or not.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
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