Marathon is “not going well” according to people close to Bungie, cited by Jason Schreier: pessimism about the new game from the creators of Destiny 2.
Bungie is going through a very difficult time, after massive layoffs of 17% of the workforce, plus the loss of many others who moved from Bungie to Sony, causing the cancellation of a Destiny spin-off.
Con Destiny 2 which will no longer receive any more expansions, but short and frequent updates, Bungie is betting everything on Marathon, a new game as a service, an extraction shooter that should have been released this year, but was delayed until 2025.
Marathon (which is actually a reboot of a 1990s franchise, the “DOOM for Mac”) is Bungie’s big hope, but there could be problems in its development, according to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier.
Marathon is not progressing well, says Jason Schreier
Schreier, speaking on the Friends Per Second podcast, had some worrying words to say about the state of Marathon. Here’s what he said when asked about the state of Marathon: “The general feeling from what I’ve heard is not very good in recent months.“.
“Not very well, from what I’ve heard.There’s a reason it was planned this year and has been delayed a whole year.“
Schreier even casts doubt on whether the game will be ready in 2025. “The people I’ve spoken to are a bit pessimistic, even doubting that it will reach the current goals, but we’ll see. I don’t know when that will be, sometime in 2025.“.
Marathon, however, will now be Bungie’s priority, so perhaps the pessimism that Schreier was talking about also has a lot to do with the uncertainty about the foreseeable layoffs.
Since the layoffs occurred, many current and former employees have spoken out about Bungie’s management practices, which apparently lied to Sony about its tax situation, while calling for CEO Pete Parsons to resign.
Let’s hope that Marathon be a huge hit when it comes out in 2025, on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X (even though it’s from a Sony studio, they said it wouldn’t be exclusive… and Bungie really needs as big an audience as they can get).
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