Marathon and GTA VI 'Hate'
Bungie layoffs
June 25th Bungie is facing “a reduction in force as we reorganize Bungie”, from what I can gather roughly 220 employees laid off and 200 more reassigned within Sony’s PlayStation, blaming Destiny 2. This Forbes Article by Paul Tassi - Apr 22, 2026 referenced the majority of devs were working on Marathon over Destiny 2, citing a team size of 850.
So roughly half of bungie is gone with Destiny 2 sunsetting and “a lot” (Marathon steam charts) of gamers concerned for Marathon’s future. Their estimated sales and current player numbers aren’t horrible but well, well below what any executives would’ve liked for a AAA(“Triple A”) live service game. Don’t forget, Sony didn’t purchase Bungie for $3.6 Billion to make middling amount of profit. If they made profit at all which still seems questionable.
A sentiment I’ve seen around discussed was Destiny 2 being put on the backburner while they focused on Marathon hoping to make it big. With Marathon doing such poor numbers I just don’t see how Bungie recovers from this. Maybe they stick around under Sony as a support studio, but I think it’s pretty much over for any Bungie games and marks the inevitable shutdown for Marathon.
Extraction Shooters
Now I don’t really follow game industry news, more so just games themselves and reviews of them. I haven’t played an extraction shooter besides Escape from Tarkov, which outside of Single Player Tarkov (fantastic mod I also played coop with the gf), I haven’t played since 2019 or so.
So I did take note of Arc Raiders, which kind of exploded in popularity, but just didn’t look like the type of game I would play too much of. I do love that plenty of devs from indie to AA can afford to price a game at below market rate, showing profits are possible without ballooning their budgets.
As for Marathon, it just didn’t pique my interest. I think there’s a slightly higher chance I would’ve enjoyed it more than Arc but /shrug. I couldn’t even be arsed to try it during the free server-slam. Props for them selling it at $40, but I assume they expected lots of additional revenue sold inside the game. Making the entry fee too high could end up costing
For myself, I don’t really play any AAA games, especially at full price. I will probably make a blog post about it soon but I like the concept of being a Patient Gamer. I don’t know the vibe of that subreddit, but I like the concept. Don’t fall for hype, don’t preorder, etc.. You’re basically going to pay way less due to sales and deal with less bugs.
Missing The Hype?
However, the calculation is different for games with PvP and has some hype around it. Just like movies or shows, some games are better experienced together as a collective, kind of like a “gamers collective conscience” (zeitgeist might be more appropriate). There are shorter que times, more content made about the game (gameplay, guides, etc.), and mods if it allows such things. Also, people are on a (somewhat) level playing field before The META develops, which I personally find a lot of fun.
Live-Service Games require a certain amount of player base and, more important, revenue to continue forward. Sometimes it’s as simple as projected revenue is higher than projected expenses. I wonder with Starcraft 2, and definitely Heroes of the Storm, that these must be expense accounts for Blizzard but worth it for their reputation.
Others, and where I think Marathon might land (again, IF even profitable), that the resources spent on the game/servers would be better spent elsewhere for higher possible returns. Kind of analogous to selling stocks at a lost not because you think the stock will return eventually for a profit, but because you rather invest that money into a another stock you believe will have a better/faster return. Opportunity Cost.
Get To The Point
Perhaps my writings are a little too ‘schizo’ to follow, but it’s also just how I think or would explain this in person. I could also just explain my main point in a sentence or two, but that’s what Twitter is for. Perhaps I’m unintentionally “burying the lead” but that seems like a tactic for people trying to make money with longer videos/articles.
You can see a common sentiment among the people who did enjoy the game.
February 12th Thread
May 22nd
May 25th
Basically, it’s a good game but there was too much hate from various groups hoping for its downfall. I don’t really buy that the negativity played a role in this game kind of flopping, a Concord 3 if the previous big flop, Highuard counts as Concord 2. If a game is good enough (price/quality/value, etc.) it will do well commercially, if it also has enough eyeballs on it which Marathon certainly did. It even had the free server slam weekend for anyone to try free of charge.
“There is no such thing as bad publicity” - P.T. Barnum
“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” - Oscar Wilde
Good, word-of-mouth publicity, such as we saw with the movie Obsession, can really skyrocket a product into astronomical success by bringing awareness to it, but I don’t believe the opposite can really happen.
“Proof” That Hate Didn’t Cause Its Downfall
Proof isn’t the right word, but this is how I loop back into the title of my post. Of course I’m making a prediction here, but I think it’s a sure bet.
(Although looking things up while I make this post, it seems they made record breaking pre-sales.)
Grand Theft Auto VI Is Also Getting A Lot Of Hate
Of course this will depend on the type of creators you watch, but from those I watch on YouTube, they are slinging a lot of (well-earned) criticisms at Rockstar. I won’t list everything but it’s kind of a stand-in for bad industry practices.
$80 base game and no CD for physical purchases.
I don’t own a console so I won’t be buying, but I also won’t be in line for when it eventually comes to Steam. Maybe in 5 years I might buy on sale but I just don’t have much interest. I played Vice City and San Andreas as a kid and found them loads of fun. However, I only bought GTA 5 1-2 years ago for $5 and put in 13 hours. Fine game (I have no interest in all the online BS of GTA), but my interest lay elsewhere.
Even with all the negativity and no gameplay trailer I could find, this game is going to print money for Rockstar. Unless we find out that the entire Dev team and C-suite executives all participated in multiple blood rituals sacrificing multiple people to appease the AAAA Gods(Yes, “quadruple-A”; dethroning the first AAAA game “Skull and Bones” ), I don’t think any negativity can stop this hype.
Conclusion
Just like with Marathon (or any game for that fact), I don’t care if you don’t buy it. I want the people who worked on games I enjoy to reap the financial rewards, but that will happen with or without me. It’s also not on you to support them unless you chose to. I dislike “holding consumers hostages” by saying devs will lose their jobs if a game doesn’t do well. I might expand upon this in the future, but I (and we as consumers) can’t be expected to prop up every single service/product regardless of quality because of jobs.
I also don’t care if you decide to hand over your money to Rockstar. Even though the bad industry practices only exist because enough people are willing to accept it and pay money. it’s why some people hope for the downfall of AAA games to punish the industry and force them into better practices.
I recognize I must be in the minority and hope you get your moneys worth from the purchase. It’s your money and you get to choose how to spend it. I would hope people are more discerning with their money, especially with the economy is tight, but gaming is still a luxury.
Thanks for sticking through to the end! I guess I would ask for comments here, but I’m still not sure I want to deal with moderation (assuming I would even get comments), but feel free to shoot me an email about anything. I have my ‘contact me’ page, but perhaps I’ll end my posts with my email if I’m curious about what others think.