Bungie’s recent showcase of early footage from their first-person extraction shooter, Marathon, has stirred up quite a bit of skepticism online, particularly on social platforms like Reddit. Some cynics are already predicting it might meet the same unfortunate fate as Concord, Sony’s hero shooter that was pulled from the market just a month after it launched. Not letting this narrative go unchallenged, a former developer from the Concord team decided to speak up on the Marathon subreddit, urging the community to give the game a fair shot.
“Concord couldn’t capture the players’ hearts, and we got that message loud and clear,” the developer candidly expressed under the Reddit handle, MrSpug. “Watching our project crash and burn, and become an internet punchline, was a tough pill to swallow.”
This developer, who was with Firewalk Studios until Sony closed it mere months after pulling the game, expressed empathy for the developers at Bungie. They recognized the immense effort that went into creating Marathon and praised them for taking a bold step in a highly competitive market.
“I poured my heart into Concord and gave it my all,” the developer admitted. “We missed the mark, but let’s not take out our frustrations on others who are trying something new.”
While Concord and Marathon are different breeds of games, they share the common thread of having Sony as their publisher. One of the major criticisms that emerged from the Marathon stream was Bungie’s decision to not follow the free-to-play model. Like Concord, Marathon will retail at a price below the standard for new releases. Bungie has indicated that the game won’t be as pricey as a “full-priced” title, suggesting it might land somewhere around the $40 mark when it hits the shelves in September. Yet, the fact that any price is attached has some wondering whether it might suffer the same destiny as Concord.
“I really didn’t want to be ‘that’ developer, drawing attention to myself as if I have any stake in this,” the former Concord developer mentioned in a comment responding to their post. “But labeling this game a flop before it’s even seen the light of day is just absurd to me.”
