Concordwas such an interesting failure. It wasn’t completely broken at launch and the few fans it attracted were initially sold on its Overwatch-esque hero shooter mechanics, but that brief interest couldn’t stop it from being dead on arrival. It was a disastrous failure thatshut down mere days after launchandcaused Sony to close the studio that made it.
Marathonis Sony’s next first-party premium multiplayer offering that, I assume, the company hopes doesn’t die a quick, painful death oris the subject of widespread morbid fascination. Despite not being very similar to Concord, many have already written Marathon off and are expecting it to fail in the exact same way.
While I understand the hesitation that many are feeling about Sony launchinganotherpaid multiplayer game to compete against the sea of established free-to-play titles, Marathon has a major leg up on Concord that gives it a much better chance at life. Why? Marathon is being made by Bungie.
Where Did Concord Go Wrong?
Not to speak ill of the dead, but who was Firewalk Studios? It wasn’t an established developer. Firewalk boasted that it was composed of former Bungie and Activision developers, which certainly gave it some pedigree, but other than the fact that Sony was interested in the studio enough to purchase it, there wasn’t much momentum keeping Firewalk in the public eye.
If Concord had been a success, it would have likely put Firewalk on the map, but in the lead up to launch, players and press alike were skeptical about nearly everything it had to offer.There wasn’t much setting it apart from the rest of the multiplayer landscape, and if not for the fact that it was a first-party PlayStation game, it likelywouldn’t have garnered much attention in the first place.
Now that we’ve gotten a proper look at Marathon, people are saying that it suffers from a lot of the same problems as Concord. That the shooting looks uninspired, the PvPvE extraction systemsseem very close to games like Escape From Tarkovand other long-time established titles with huge fanbases, and that it seems to be a misstep on Sony’s part for charging money for the game when many of the most successful multiplayer shooters are completely free.
Bungie isBungie
One thing I haven’t seen much discussion about, however, is that Marathon isn’t being developed by an untested studio. It’s being made by Bungie.
Bungie is one of the most successful studios of all time. In the early 2000s,it developed the original Halo trilogy, which established Xbox as a brand, and if Bungie hadn’t been around,Xbox might not exist as the industry giant it is today.
After it was done with Halo, Bungie split from Microsoft to create Destiny andDestiny 2with the questionable support of Activision, two of the most successful multiplayer shooters of the last decade. The studio has consistently delivered high-quality experiences and industry-defining shooters, so it’s natural to assume that Marathon is in very safe hands and that we should have more faith in it.
I don’t know if Marathon is going to completely redefine the multiplayer landscape or become PlayStation’s Halo, but I do know that I trust the studio that’s working on it. I’ve enjoyed Bungie’s work over the years, and it’s not given me a single reason to think that, out of nowhere, it’s going to turn heel and make something completely bland and forgettable.
If someone is uninterested in what we’ve seen of Marathon so far, that’s completely fine, but I feel like I’m losing my mind watching people online saying that Marathon is exactly the same as Concord and will therefore suffer the exact same fate. Concord failed to grab audiences because it was a bland-looking game developed by a studio that no one had ever heard of before and was a $40 gamble for anyone looking to see if they were right about their judgments.
We haven’t received price confirmation for Marathon just yet,other than that it won’t be priced at $70, but I think people are much more likely to pay for a Bungie game given its long history of crafting excellence even if they aren’t entirely sold.
Marathon isn’t Concord. It’s not going to be a flash in the pan in the exact same way because there’s more at play here. That said, if Marathon does shut down after a trainwreck launch, pretend like I never said anything.
