Bungie’s extraction shooter, Marathon, now has a release date: March 5. That puts it at odds with its own Destiny 2 update launch, Shadow and Order, due out on March 3, but my sources tell me that will be delayed due to that, though Bungie has not announced that yet.
But something else I’ve heard is that Bungie has been biting its nails internally about what ARC Raiders may have planned for the Marathon launch window. The game has kept a winter/spring roadmap under wraps for longer than players would have liked, but now all has been revealed.
Well, Marathon can breathe a sigh of relief.
According to the new roadmap, there is no big update/expansion happening in March. February has a larger update, Shrouded Sky, which introduces a new map condition, ARC threat, player project, raider deck, expedition window and a map update. March, by contrast, just has a new condition, ARC threat, project and “scrappy update.” In short, not that much. Skipping ahead, April is a big one with a new map and a new “large” ARC. *Eyes emoji*
The fear here was due in part because Marathon had its last alpha decimated by ARC Raiders, dropping its own public test right on top of it this past summer, one that went far better and made Marathon look unfavorable in comparison.
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Even though there’s no big expansion or update from ARC, it remains a big question mark for Marathon, namely, whether it will boost the game or hold it back. A boost could come from the dramatic expansion of interest in the extraction genre, and this could come at a time when existing players are ready to try a different flavor than ARC Raiders.
In contrast, if players remain committed to ARC Raiders, a game that has extremely impressive player retention so far, shelling out $40 for a different extraction game may not be appealing. Plus, Marathon will cater to harder-core players rather than ARC, generally speaking, so switching over may be a hard sell. Regardless, there is almost no chance that Marathon will spike with ARC-level insane playercounts, though neither is it going to be the that case this is some Concord-like disaster despite initial bad buzz. On preorder day, Marathon was the #4 highest-earning game on Steam for a time.
Speaking of roadmaps, it’s not clear when Marathon will lay one out, whether at launch or some time after. Focus will likely be wholly on launch, and the larger player will be laid out after. I’m most curious to see how their “season” cadence will be, and the pace of new additions throughout the year.
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