Latest news with #Bungie
Digital Trends
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 new PlayStation Plus games to play this weekend (May 30-June 1)
Under normal circumstances, we would have to wait until next week to get our drop of new PlayStation Plus games, but this is a special occasion. We're currently right at the start of the Days of Play event where Sony celebrates with tons of community events and huge discounts on PS5 games and accessories. The icing on the cake is that we're not only getting four new games for Essential members, but an additional four for Extra and two more for Premium, with several already available. That's a lot to keep up with if you weren't prepared for it, which is where I come in. We will have to wait for most of the games until Tuesday, but here are a few new games you can start playing over this weekend to start the celebrations early. Destiny 2: The Final Shape With all the talk surrounding Marathon, Bungie, and live service games as a whole, it might feel in bad form to recommend The Final Shape right now. However, for what it's worth, Bungie did manage to make what looks like its last major expansion to the Destiny universe its best yet. This feels like the true swansong of the 10+ year journey players have been on since launch in all the right ways. The story is as complex as ever overall, but the micro moments with characters and the buildup to missions and major battles are thrilling. Gunplay, as always, is a joy with even more ways to break open the game. If you're overly pessimistic about Bungie right now, this might help remind you that it can still deliver. Recommended Videos Destiny 2: The Final Shape is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Another Crab's Treasure Don't be fooled by the tone or presentation of this game. Another Crab's Treasure is a deep (pun intended) soulslike with a style all its own that is way more than just a fun parody. Sure, you will see deliberate jabs here and there, like how the game takes place in the Sands Between, but the gameplay is dead serious. Besides its underwater setting, what sets this game apart is its shell mechanic. Depending on what shell your crab is wearing, you have access to a different ability. If even the mention of the word soulslike turns you off, fear not. This game is meant to be beginner-friendly and has plenty of accessibility and assist options. Another Crab's Treasure is available now on PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. Alone in the Dark 2 I'm taking you way back with this pick, but stick with me because I have a reason. Sadly, I can't put the very first game on the list since it isn't on PS Plus, so Alone in the Dark 2 will have to do. This is the sequel to the game that essentially inspired all survival horror games after. It is a bit rough on the eyes now, and just as clunky as it was in the '90s, but just as creepy and astounding when you consider the era it came out in. But beyond being a classic I think anyone should try, next week we are getting the 2024 reboot that sadly went overlooked by most. There's no need to play this first to understand the modern entry, but it is always a fun exercise to see where a series started compared to where it is now. Alone in the Dark 2 is available now on PS4, PS5, and PC.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Marathon' Isn't Canceled, But It's Bad We Even Have To Ask That
Marathon Bungie Marathon cannot stop being thrown into fresh drama every few days since its controversial Closed Alpha which led to a string of reports about things going poorly internally, capped off by a revelation that an artist had plagiarized art currently still in the game. Now, we have a worrying report from Colin Moriarty on Sacred Symbols where he says that all paid marketing for Marathon this quarter has been canceled by Sony. This tracks somewhat with what I was told a little while back, though he's getting info on the Sony side (he's trustworthy) while I'm getting it on the Bungie side. I heard the entire marketing plan was thrown out and had to restart from scratch, and plans like a new trailer launching pre-orders and a big public beta a month before launch were not happening. I didn't hear anything about all paid marketing being erased, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's where things ended up. There is now talk about whether this means Marathon is delayed or even cancelled after its disastrous couple of weeks. Delayed? I'm almost positive, yes. Canceled? It's hard to see how that could happen given that it would be Sony's second obscene live service blowup in a year. Blowing up a game on the launchpad this close to release with years and hundreds of millions invested would be insanity. It's close to what happened with Concord, yes, but the difference here is that this is Bungie, not just a storied shooter studio but one that Sony paid (an absurdly overpriced) $3.6 billion for. Marathon Bungie You can't cancel it now. It's too late. You have to roll the dice, but to do that, you need at least some sort of delay to reset the narrative and polish and add…I don't know, something to the game to make it more of a draw at launch. A delay is what I think this marketing hold means because you're not going to bother spooling up a big ad campaign for a game that isn't coming out until when? Sometime in 2026, from the looks of all this. I have been on the 'delay Marathon' train before, and I still think it's the least-worst option, but my position has also evolved into thinking it simply does not matter. Marathon's problems are too foundational, a class-based extraction game entirely unbalanced for solo play, not accessible enough for casuals, and not hardcore enough for existing genre players. Oh, and its cool art style that was the one thing it had going for it? You can't talk about that without saying 'plagiarism' in the same sentence, no matter how few decals may have been stolen. The marketing spend pull isn't a shock, but I get how it certainly sounds like that. The writing has pretty clearly been on the wall since the Alpha that this is not a game that can be released in four months, and it's not just because of some visual polish. Still, I have not heard anything internally about a delay (or cancellation, though those conversations are probably only happening at the top levels. But if Sony is making this move now, some public news may be imminent. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Business Mayor
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Marathon is fighting the ultimate uphill battle
Ever since its initial reveal, Marathon has had an air of skepticism surrounding it by the gaming community at large. At first, I mostly attributed this to Bungie's uneven approach to handling its premier live service franchise, Destiny. Between decisions like removing past expansions, vaulting weapons, and more underwhelming updates than positive ones, I could completely understand the hesitancy around the studio attempting to launch and maintain a second live service game. As we've inched closer and closer to its release date, the general outlook seems to have only gotten more dismal. Yes, there have been some very concerning controversies that shouldn't be swept under the rug, but Marathon is suffering from a more systemic problem with live service games as a whole that it will need to overcome to succeed. Live service games are labelled as such because they're meant to be living, evolving experiences that players can keep coming back to for months and years. MMORPGs were the progenitors of this model, but now we've seen it applied to all sorts of genres. Despite its ups and downs, Destiny is still the poster child for what we now call live service games and the model so many have tried to imitate. As with anything successful in the gaming industry, it wasn't long before every big player wanted a piece of that pie. The allure of a perpetual money-maker was too great to resist, despite the reality being much more complicated. Sony was arguably the one to invest the most heavily in the model, at one point boasting over 12 live service games in the works. Between released and cancelled projects, that number has shrunk to possibly two, those being Marathon and Fairgames. While we can't discuss the broken trust between gamers and the current and upcoming slate of live service games without mentioning Concord , the root of the problem goes back much further than that. The first game I recall raising major red flags in the gaming sphere was Anthem. Even before all the behind-the-scenes problems in development were brought to light about the game, fans were leery about a studio known for RPGs seemingly trying to hop onto the latest trend. Anthem launched to a less-than-stellar response and quickly went on life support. It failed to satisfy BioWare's core RPG fans or any potential Destiny converts due to a lack of both a satisfying story or a compelling endgame grind. Before launch, EA shared a roadmap calendar detailing three acts of content, and when nothing beyond Act 1 was released for over a year, BioWare promised a major overhaul of the game, unofficially called Anthem 2.0. All of these plans were cancelled. Firewalk Studios Since then, we've seen more major games make bold claims about months and years of future content, only to pull the rug out from players after a middling — or downright abysmal — launch. Examples include Redfall , Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League , and, of course, Concord. That last one is likely the one that broke the camel's back for most gamers due to how unprecedented it was. This was a PlayStation first-party release with prime showcase placement, an ambitious roadmap of content, an experimental storytelling method, and even a tie-in episode in Secret Level before the game had even come out. That game failing would be bad, but it being scrubbed from existence is catastrophic for gamers' trust in PlayStation and live service as a whole. Not only do we have to be concerned about a game simply breaking all promises of support, but also the entire experience being ripped from us. While I don't think the sins of one game should be borne by another, I can't blame anyone who has adopted a more wait-and-see approach to new live service games. If we can't count on a name as big as PlayStation to make good on its promises, why should we think differently for any other studio? Trust isn't given anymore, it needs to be earned. The impressions I have seen from both major pundits and average players in forums for Marathon feel a lot like what the sentiment was for Concord before launch. The general feelings appear to float around a 'it's pretty fun to play, but there's not enough there right now' type of vibe. Justified or not, that's a death sentence for a game that relies on a large population of people being willing to support the game at its weakest so that it can even attempt to reach its full potential. Gamers have long memories — at least when it comes to being burned. A roadmap and a 'trust us' from the development team just doesn't cut it anymore. Marathon could very well have the potential to be amazing, but it has to start out great to even have a chance to get there. Not enough people will settle for even good, and with so many people perfectly content sitting on the sidelines to see if it fails before it even gets off the ground, it will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bungie shouldn't be let off the hook for blatant plagiarism or the apparent crashing moral at the studio. Rumors swirling about how the unrealistic amount of money it needs to make to be considered a success don't help either, but Marathon 's fate wouldn't look any more certain even if that had never occurred. Until enough live service games earn our trust back, each game is fighting an uphill battle that gets steeper with every failed attempt.
Digital Trends
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Marathon is fighting the ultimate uphill battle
Ever since its initial reveal, Marathon has had an air of skepticism surrounding it by the gaming community at large. At first, I mostly attributed this to Bungie's uneven approach to handling its premier live service franchise, Destiny. Between decisions like removing past expansions, vaulting weapons, and more underwhelming updates than positive ones, I could completely understand the hesitancy around the studio attempting to launch and maintain a second live service game. As we've inched closer and closer to its release date, the general outlook seems to have only gotten more dismal. Yes, there have been some very concerning controversies that shouldn't be swept under the rug, but Marathon is suffering from a more systemic problem with live service games as a whole that it will need to overcome to succeed. Recommended Videos The trust is broken Live service games are labelled as such because they're meant to be living, evolving experiences that players can keep coming back to for months and years. MMORPGs were the progenitors of this model, but now we've seen it applied to all sorts of genres. Despite its ups and downs, Destiny is still the poster child for what we now call live service games and the model so many have tried to imitate. As with anything successful in the gaming industry, it wasn't long before every big player wanted a piece of that pie. The allure of a perpetual money-maker was too great to resist, despite the reality being much more complicated. Sony was arguably the one to invest the most heavily in the model, at one point boasting over 12 live service games in the works. Between released and cancelled projects, that number has shrunk to possibly two, those being Marathon and Fairgames. While we can't discuss the broken trust between gamers and the current and upcoming slate of live service games without mentioning Concord, the root of the problem goes back much further than that. The first game I recall raising major red flags in the gaming sphere was Anthem. Even before all the behind-the-scenes problems in development were brought to light about the game, fans were leery about a studio known for RPGs seemingly trying to hop onto the latest trend. Anthem launched to a less-than-stellar response and quickly went on life support. It failed to satisfy BioWare's core RPG fans or any potential Destiny converts due to a lack of both a satisfying story or a compelling endgame grind. Before launch, EA shared a roadmap calendar detailing three acts of content, and when nothing beyond Act 1 was released for over a year, BioWare promised a major overhaul of the game, unofficially called Anthem 2.0. All of these plans were cancelled. Since then, we've seen more major games make bold claims about months and years of future content, only to pull the rug out from players after a middling — or downright abysmal — launch. Examples include Redfall, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and, of course, Concord. That last one is likely the one that broke the camel's back for most gamers due to how unprecedented it was. This was a PlayStation first-party release with prime showcase placement, an ambitious roadmap of content, an experimental storytelling method, and even a tie-in episode in Secret Level before the game had even come out. That game failing would be bad, but it being scrubbed from existence is catastrophic for gamers' trust in PlayStation and live service as a whole. Not only do we have to be concerned about a game simply breaking all promises of support, but also the entire experience being ripped from us. While I don't think the sins of one game should be borne by another, I can't blame anyone who has adopted a more wait-and-see approach to new live service games. If we can't count on a name as big as PlayStation to make good on its promises, why should we think differently for any other studio? Trust isn't given anymore, it needs to be earned. The impressions I have seen from both major pundits and average players in forums for Marathon feel a lot like what the sentiment was for Concord before launch. The general feelings appear to float around a 'it's pretty fun to play, but there's not enough there right now' type of vibe. Justified or not, that's a death sentence for a game that relies on a large population of people being willing to support the game at its weakest so that it can even attempt to reach its full potential. Gamers have long memories — at least when it comes to being burned. A roadmap and a 'trust us' from the development team just doesn't cut it anymore. Marathon could very well have the potential to be amazing, but it has to start out great to even have a chance to get there. Not enough people will settle for even good, and with so many people perfectly content sitting on the sidelines to see if it fails before it even gets off the ground, it will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bungie shouldn't be let off the hook for blatant plagiarism or the apparent crashing moral at the studio. Rumors swirling about how the unrealistic amount of money it needs to make to be considered a success don't help either, but Marathon's fate wouldn't look any more certain even if that had never occurred. Until enough live service games earn our trust back, each game is fighting an uphill battle that gets steeper with every failed attempt.
Metro
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
This week was low-key the worst in modern video game history - Reader's Feature
A reader is disturbed by the amount of bad news in the video game world at the moment, especially as most of it involves issues that have been brewing for many months. We are in a strange situation right now with video games, where almost all the news is terrible and yet great games continue to be released. This has the side effect of masking the serious issues from many gamers, who either don't know or don't care about what's really going on. As long as games as good as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Monster Hunter Wilds are still coming out then everything must be fine, right? Wrong. What disturbed me this week, while reading the Metro, is that apart from job cuts (although they were implied) it had examples of all the biggest problems going on. What I found extra worrying is not only did they happen all at the same time but they're all long running issues that show absolutely no sign of being fixed. Perhaps the most obvious problem was the growing inevitability of £80 becoming the default price for big name games. At this point it'd be a victory if it only increases to £80, because GTA 6 will almost certainly be more. What was so awful about this week's news is that we had two big industry figures telling us that actually we shouldn't complain, we should get a second job to afford the games and just eat the cost. I wouldn't necessarily expect better from someone like Randy Pitchford, but hearing the ex-Sony guy saying that we shouldn't complain just shows how out of touch these execs and decision makers are. Increasing costs will lower the number of games people buy and that means a lot of titles and companies are just going to have the door slammed in their faces. People's money is not going to stretch as far as it used to and that is going to be a big problem for some games. Many are already predicting Marathon will either be a flop or just cancelled before it gets a chance, and it's not hard to see why. Nothing about it looks appealing and Sony seeming to be looking for any excuse to shut down Bungie completely, at the loss of hundreds of jobs. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Oh, and the reason for Bungie's downfall? Corporate greed, according to the people that used to work there. That's not exactly shocking news but there it is in black and white: all these problems could've been avoided if Bungie's bosses had thought of the company first and not themselves. But then we also had the revelation that the boss of Take-Two doesn't play video games and has no interest in trying out GTA 6, even though he totally could. This is also a massive non-surprise and probably very common in the games industry, where decisions are made on a spreadsheet and not from a place of passion or ambition. Sometimes they just seem to lack basic competence though, such as the lack of any plan for when games become too expensive and time consuming to make – a problem they must have seen coming years ago. This was illustrated perfectly this week by Hideo Kojima saying his Metal Gear spiritual sequel won't be out for five or six years, even though he announced it over a year ago. The amount of time it takes to make a game is out of control, but nobody is doing anything about it. And then to finish we had the rumour that Sony is only going to have a State of Play this summer, not a full showcase, or possibly have nothing at all in terms of not-E3 events. Thereby setting us up for another 12 months of no major announcements and only one or two releases. More Trending I don't want to get anyone down, but I do think it's important to point out that just because good games are still coming out it doesn't mean that it's not chaos behind the scenes, which ultimately is only going to lead to even greater disaster if none of the problems are dealt with. By reader Ollie The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Star Wars Battlefront 3 needs to have these new features - Reader's Feature MORE: 5 reasons why I'm not buying a Nintendo Switch 2 this year - Reader's Feature MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be a third party port machine – Reader's Feature
