Bungie's Marathon Is About To End, Miles From The Finish Line.

I've been a strong supporter of Marathon since its unveiling, to the point where I've written multiple blog posts about it and where I saw its potential success coming from. I've been fair and impartial in my criticism as the title has unfairly had "Concord 2.0" thrown at it. I noted critiques I had with the game, concerns about its alpha state, and wondered whether or not such a niche subgenre would be viable the way Bungie needed it to be. It's one thing to make a niche game, it's another when you bank your studio's future on it. So believe me when I say, I’m not turning on the game out of spite, bandwagoning, or a witch hunt. I wanted this game to succeed, part of me still hopes Bungie figures out whatever the gilded fuck is going on at their HQ, rather, I’ve been embarrassed by Bungie, and that needs no explanation.

For months I've seen people attempt to tear down the game in its infancy for subjective, exaggerated reasons. However, with the plagiarism, which is at best incorrigible and at worst ,sinister, I can no longer in good faith be excited for Marathon. I draw the line at plagiarism, and my tolerance is even thinner when it’s committed by billion dollar corporations. While Bungie is currently entrenched in a lawsuit alleging that they stole narrative direction from an author for Destiny 2’s “Red War” campaign, it’s a situation that is unfortunately familiar.

Antireal is an artist who has been working on and refining an incredibly unique and specific art style, their entire portfolio was effectively stolen and copy-pasted into Marathon’s alpha with no compensation or even credit. Sure, the argument could’ve been made that it was a place-holder for a title not profiting yet, but a simple shout out could’ve changed that Artist’s entire life. Stealing is unacceptable. Bungie has come out and stated that they’d launched a fruitful investigation, choosing to put the responsibility on a “former” employee who had previously procured the assets. No matter how much air freshener they use, the stench of shit persists. It will permeate and follow a game that was already on an uphill battle. Bungie’s reputation for losing good will from their audience rivals Activision-Blizzard, but the difference is that ActiBlizz is not in financial jeopardy.

One bad decision after the next, I can’t fucking believe it, honestly. There may be some remedies but what Bungie has managed to do over the last few months regarding Marathon’s launch may scar not only the title, but the IP and studio permanently. Here are the main concerns Marathon has:

• Niche subgenre (alienates commercial audience)

• PvPvE (alienates main Bungie/Destiny community)

• The shadow of Concord (unfair, but the narrative does exist)

• Arc Raiders (Direct competition that has had better public reception)

• Tarkov (A massive dedicated community that is set to launch officially this year)

• The “they killed Destiny 3 for this” narrative (also unfair, but the narrative does also exist)

• The scaled back Runner customization (in favor of skins)

• The inevitable pricing and monetization

These were issues 24 hours ago, and from everyone I’ve seen who was excited for this title, they didn’t seem to mind these concerns all that much. However, the straw that has broken the camel's back is Plagiarism. When you throw that into the mix, the game seems like an impossible sell. Especially with Borderlands 4 launching two weeks prior. The audience for Marathon grows slimmer and slimmer every week, it’s not good. In fact, this is catastrophic. If Bungie refuses to address these issues and Marathon fails, they will be dismantled and stripped for parts by SIE, snuffing out a legacy developer with over 30 years of history in the industry. It will happen if Bungie fails. Not “maybe”, not “we’ll see”, this is a definite. No matter how you feel about Marathon, Destiny, Bungie as a studio, or its executive wing, the shuttering of Bungie would be a devastating consequence for the hundreds of people who actually do their jobs well.

So, here’s my recommendation:

• Indefinitely delay Marathon, as soon as possible. Take it off wishlists and store fronts

• Rebuild the entire game and bring on AntiReal as a lead, or co-lead, art director, permanently.

• Pull the game away from being only PvPvE

• Invest more time into Runner customization

• Pick a release window that doesn’t fucking suck and isn’t under pressure from 3 major competitors in Arc Radiers, Tarkov, and Borderlands 4

• Continue to address Destiny 2’s issues

• Launch Marathon with next gen systems in 2027.

I’m not kidding. This game has to be delayed for over 2 years. This is make or break for the studio and if this game launches and fails instead of launching and succeeding despite its trials, Bungie will die. It will die like Firewalk.

Fix Marathon. Fix Bungie. They do not have a choice. Fix it now.