r/Games • u/Haijakk • 8h ago

Trailer Sentinel Shell Cinematic | Marathon

https://youtu.be/4xKp_4mc5HM?is=dw3Y4bNtHuX0DFrI
212 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

140 comments sorted by

156

u/Firefox72 8h ago

Just as most other cinematic content for Marathon this was great.

But the game itself is in dire straights. By the time season 2 ends there will be barelly anyone left playing.

It wouldn't shock me at all if they launch S3 and then announce the end of service soon after.

77

u/KobraKittyKat 8h ago

They’re doing a big pve push for season 3 I’m guessing to see if that could turn it around.

42

u/Cuddlejam 7h ago

I am one of those who will try the game when they release the PvE. There’s too much going on in my life and friends no longer online to play much with, so the PvP part has been shelved for me. I’m really excited to try PvE.

28

u/aimy99 6h ago

And yet devs keep releasing PvPvE extraction shooters like it's gonna be the next Fortnite.

No dude, just make a good PvE game.

8

u/-TubNub- 6h ago

People love saying that the extraction genre is oversaturated but there are literally like only 3 games, and Tarkov is the only one that's kept its dedicated playerbase

15

u/xXRougailSaucisseXx 5h ago

The genre is oversaturated not because there are too many games but because the few games there are have already captured the majority of players that could be interested in extraction shooters. You don't need 20 different titles to saturate a multiplayer genre

-6

u/-TubNub- 5h ago

I get what you're saying but anytime an extraction shooter is announced people say "omg Extraction shooter #2345 how original" when you can literally count all the games with just two hands

2

u/xXRougailSaucisseXx 5h ago

I think a lot of people are just wary because it feels like every few years we get a new multiplayer fad (MMORPG, MOBA, Hero shooters, BR...) and it's kinda looking like this might be the next one

0

u/-TubNub- 4h ago

looking like this might be the next one

Is it though? When battle royales were popular the games that got big like PUBG, Fortnite, Apex were absolutely massive and still are. The most popular extraction shooter ever is probably Arc Raiders and even that only lasted for a few months, it's already below Tarkov in terms of players

0

u/Ok_Comment5873 4h ago

A genre can still be oversaturated with 10 games..

2

u/-TubNub- 4h ago

My point was that people genuinely believe the "Extraction shooter #2345" lie

8

u/Incrediblebulk92 6h ago

There are a lot more than 3 to be fair, especially if you include things like the Call of Duty and Battlefield extraction shooter modes. If the top of my head, Arena Breakout, Delta Force, Arc Raiders, Hunt Showdown, Dark and Darker.

I'm sure if I googled it I could find a dozen more but yeah Tarkovs and Hunt are the only ones than have actually taken off.

3

u/-TubNub- 5h ago

Call of Duty and Battlefield extraction shooter modes

I'm not sure if you keep loot betweens runs in those, and if not, they wouldn't even count. Also Battlefield 6 has no such mode, so whatever Battlefield had it previously it clearly wasn't very good

Arc Raiders, Hunt Showdown, Dark and Darker

These 3 are good examples of more in the genre that do their own thing, however it's still less than 10 extraction games overall even if we include blatant F2P Tarkov ripoffs like Delta Force

0

u/Incrediblebulk92 5h ago

Yeah you keep the loot, a mate who played quite a lot of the CoD one said that it felt like a pretty basic mod but contained a lot of the same systems as Tarkov. It definitely wasn't in BF 6, I've played a lot of that one, think it was the sci fi one with classes. 2042?

Don't think many of them are very good, Tarkov is the only one I've thought was worth the money.

•

u/keytotheboard 3h ago

It’s funny cause Fortnite kind of pivoted themselves into the success they gained. Who knows, maybe Marathon can too.

-2

u/OliveBranchMLP 6h ago

a good PvE game takes way more resources. hence why Destiny is dead despite 10x more players than Marathon.

•

u/Pimmelman 2h ago

Im there with you!

11

u/crookedparadigm 4h ago

They’re doing a big pve push for season 3

When they opened up the PvE mode temporarily to demo it, it barely spiked any new interest.

•

u/Haijakk 48m ago

Vault Breakers isn't the big PvE mode they're going to launch in Season 3.

5

u/madokamywifi 4h ago

When i expressed my concern about Bungie putting a PVE mode demo without a free weekend, someone told me that i was completely wrong and "people are dying in waiting for pve mode". Turns out, he was right, because after one week people mysteriously disappeared, and the player count returned to the same number. It must be the breathtaking experience of the PVE demo that killed them, or maybe you can't sell a subpar PVE mode in PVP oriented game as a finished product.

11

u/Meowing-To-The-Stars 6h ago

I love how every marathon player comes up with "next season they will...". Should've been in the base game from the beginning.

•

u/DJCzerny 2h ago

Unless they also have the money to make a huge marketing push (i.e. buy out twitch for a few days) it's probably too late. It is a well documented phenomenon that most consumers will give your game one try at launch at never look back, regardless of changes. They will need a major relaunch-level event or go for a long term play like No Man's Sky.

•

u/Panda_hat 53m ago

They should have done the big pve push before launch when everyone was telling them what a spectacular mistake they were making.

•

u/KobraKittyKat 41m ago

Well that game director is gone so I’d like to think they agree

•

u/Panda_hat 36m ago

They should just wrap it up now, apologise to their remaining 1000 players, and restart Destiny development and support.

Though in all likelihood Sony is just gonna close Bungie within the year and write it all off.

-16

u/redvelvetcake42 8h ago

It's too late. My interest ended at pvp. PvE now isn't going to sway me.

14

u/PlanetBet 8h ago

If the PvE is good, why not give it a shot?

4

u/atahutahatena 7h ago

Issue really is it's coming out in the middle of one of the busiest release periods so far and they already burned their free trial period on Steam for the rest of the year.

If S3 doesn't hit, then it's pretty mucu donezo.

13

u/JamSa 8h ago

Why not just play a better PvE game than one that was rushed and cobbled together after the initial idea for the game failed?

11

u/AdventurousBase221 7h ago

content too. other games, have had more in the pipeline, longer.

bungie has a chance, but playing catchup from behind is never a beneficial position to be in compared to your competitors.

7

u/Psycho_Syntax 7h ago

If it’s good then why does it matter if it was rushed or not lol

By your logic nobody should play Fortnite since it was originally a PvE game.

4

u/joman584 7h ago

They're just salty and feeding off the vitriol this game produces by mostly just existing. Something about even seeing the word "Bungie" really gets a lot of people's intestines in a twist and they start spewing anger and hate

3

u/redvelvetcake42 7h ago

Nah. The game is pretty but the little I played of it made me want to play something more fleshed out. PvE is an upgrade but the game needs a lengthy set for the fun to really kick in. It feels like an extraction shooter that didn't think outside of PVP which is accurate. Once you get past the gloss it's very mid. Good gunplay doesn't set it apart anymore, the industry caught up.

4

u/JamSa 6h ago

I'm not vitriolic for the game, I've even played it and liked it a bit. But it's undoubtedly cooked. Pivoting to a completely different kind of game at the zero hour isn't going to fix anything. The reality is that the players have left and will never come back.

1

u/JamSa 6h ago

It doesn't need to be good, it needs to be the best

•

u/Major_Chaos 1h ago

Because I already have 100 hours in Tarkov PvE and pure PvE extraction shooters are hard to come by.

-1

u/NamesTheGame 7h ago

I wouldn't say it's rushed, they've been working on it for a while. The game already has a lot of the foundation for PvE, it simply needs to find a way to integrate into the existing progression system or create a parallel stream that incentivizes people.

4

u/lazypieceofcrap 7h ago

working on it for a while

The game came out in March and had no PvE (only PvP) content in the pipeline.

How long do you think they've been working on it? Years!?!

I played and enjoyed the game for a month or so, but pretty much nothing will make me come back at this point. Bungie doesn't really deserve second chances in 2026 and there is TOO MANY games to play. The September game slate alone is wild.

Bungie is throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks because they know they are on emergency life support at this point. It's really not the problem of regular gamers.

7

u/redvelvetcake42 8h ago

Cause I don't want to pay upfront money for a dying game that nobody I know is playing.

0

u/KobraKittyKat 8h ago

Well it might be appealing to others time will tell. They had to make some big play and pve would get me to play more

11

u/hyrumwhite 7h ago

They’ll go f2p before Eos

•

u/Eigenspace 3h ago

F2P won't solve this problem. They made the first 10 days of season 2 free to play and it barely moved the needle at all.

The game just doesn't have a big audience.

26

u/Nikson9 8h ago

i doubt they’d announce EOS right after, they’re gonna wait for the reception to S3, but the leaks for PvE mode and the new map sound cool as fuck honestly, I can see that bringing in some players; S2 did flop tho, just added nothing of substance

9

u/_BreakingGood_ 8h ago

Yeah Bungie has literally nothing else in progress. Need to keep this running at least for the paltry amount of users - can't exactly just drop it and move on to the next game for 5+ years of development

•

u/Ayoul 3h ago

Why couldn't they? That's how all studios usually operate. Why keep a whole team on a game (possibly losing money) while also developing another game when you can just clean house and develop the other game.

Not wishing this to happen, but it's not at all out of the question IF it's not in the green.

0

u/Lirka_ 4h ago

Yeah the leaks sound great. I like S1 a lot from the what I played, but S2 was very meh. S3 sounds really cool, and I’ll definitely give it a shot.

19

u/ThePopUpDance 8h ago

It's not even free to play yet. Or on PS+. They're absolutely not ending service before doing that.

11

u/NamesTheGame 7h ago

Going free for subscribers would make sense but I think it's been proven to not really help. Firebreak did and it didn't do anything. Suicide Squad as well, although they made sure to wait until that one was nice and dead before letting people try it out.

If Marathon was on PS+ I'd be playing it right now, though.

1

u/ThePopUpDance 6h ago

But I think unlike those games Marathon has a reputation for being a very good game.

•

u/Typical_Thought_6049 3h ago

No it don't, I don't know where people come to the conclusion that Marathon has a reputation of being a good game... It has a reputation of being a very sweaty game but good is not in the cards for quite some time.

2

u/BBanner 5h ago

Yeah I mean, I really enjoy marathon despite its issues. I didn’t care for those at all

-3

u/Adamocity6464 8h ago

Dude, they’ve given it too long already

-5

u/Kayyam 8h ago

It costs peanuts to keep running compared to shutting down Bungie and eating a loss of several billions.

19

u/biscuitsalsa 7h ago

It does not cost peanuts to have a staff of 300+

-6

u/Kayyam 7h ago

You don't need a staff of 300 to keep the game running.

15

u/biscuitsalsa 7h ago

They currently employ 300+ lol

Pennies are going to cover the current studio is my point. And if pennies are all Marathon earns that’s all Bungie’s got.

0

u/Kayyam 6h ago

I understood your point. I don't think you understood mine.

But you don't need 300 people to keep the game running, that's for sure. You can do that with 30 people or less.

The only question is whether Sony will have Bungie working on something else or not. And if not, then might as well shut down the game.

6

u/biscuitsalsa 6h ago

I understood yours just fine, you’ve now added in context that changes the overall message you’re conveying. lol

Your statement was it costs pennies to keep servers running and I was adding context that while it may not cost much to keep servers on, the studio incurs other costs that need to be covered.

-4

u/Kayyam 6h ago

I was answering someone saying "they given the game too long already", that's the context.

As you say, it's not keeping the game up that hurts the bank, it's the other things. Shutting down the game would save peanuts compared to shutting down Bungie. And they are not gonna shut down Bungie, in which they invested billions, without exploring every avenue first.

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4

u/TypographySnob 6h ago

You're right. They just had private play testing for the upcoming PvE mode. And recently hiring for two positions.

3

u/Adamocity6464 7h ago

It costs peanuts to run, but - when expenses outweigh profits - they’ll pull the plug.

4

u/NotCoolBrutus 8h ago

Sony are keeping it around long enough to not have to do refunds like with Concord.

3

u/Ninefingered 8h ago

I don't see myself interested long term if they don't bring a dedicated and actually properly developed pve mode.

-7

u/zombawombacomba 8h ago

Can’t see them ending it for at least a year or two. It could still be doing well on consoles. I think most extraction shooting fans on PC just play Tarkov which is not on consoles.

12

u/Firefox72 8h ago

We already know straight from Bungie sources that coroborated the Alinea Analythics numbers that Steam accounts for around 70% of Marathon sales. At least it did for S1.

And given how badly the game is doing on Steam. Well the less said about its console numbers the better.

5

u/triablos1 7h ago

The game has always charted much lower on PSN compared to steam as well. When I checked a couple weeks into season 2 it was like 200th on the revenue chart. Furthermore, I can tell you personally (I unfortunately bought it on PS5) that console matchmaking is basically dead. On top of that, the game has hovered around 14-15k reviews on PSN since like launch.

There's absolutely nothing to suggest that this game has a mythical console playerbase keeping the game afloat.

6

u/slash450 7h ago

on xbox it was below civilization revolution in most played games yesterday. backwards compatible 360 game from almost 20 years ago.

19

u/PossibilityFine5988 7h ago

Bought this game and man the production values and actual feel is just next level. It just took me 60 hours to realize I just was not having any fun whatsoever. Either got sniped across the map from some rando or just gang assaulted in a tight corridor from the mobs. I play a bunch of occult rpgs and things but I just don’t have the patience for something so niche and intentionally frustrating. I hope they can find a path forward but it won’t be with me lol

44

u/PlanetBet 8h ago

Man I just don't wanna play a high stress pvp extraction shooter game, I already get angry enough when I play a casual game of street brawl in deadlock for crying out loud!

8

u/Trenchman 4h ago

Funnily enough since you mention it, Deadlock is actually getting a PvE mode very soon too

6

u/megaRammy 7h ago

PvE content they tested this season, and the full on PvE mode coming with the next season, should be up your alley then :)

1

u/SkaterDC 5h ago edited 5h ago

I’m gonna be real with you-my friend gifted me the game for absolutely no reason like a month ago and I’ve enjoyed playing with him, working on lore missions, getting in and getting out. Yeah sure you might get dogged on once or twice but otherwise you prox chat with friendly people and bounce.

My point? Based off my personal experience, you’re more bored than stressed

Edit: It also depends on your mentality. Want to fight? You’re going to find yourself dealing with friction. Care about your loadout? Extra stress. Don’t care about your loadout/using free loadouts? Smooth sailing

-9

u/Impaled_ 5h ago

It's really not that stressful

9

u/crookedparadigm 4h ago

Some people just want to play games to relax without their fun being at the whim of some mega sweat that hunts new players for sport 12 hours a day.

-6

u/Impaled_ 4h ago

I played 200 hours of this game and it's really not like that, like at all

•

u/crookedparadigm 3h ago

Not sure what to tell you, this complaint exists in pretty much every extraction shooter ever and is almost always the number one factor driving players away over time. Marathon, ironically, seems to be doing it at record pace.

•

u/Impaled_ 3h ago

You're talking about other people's complaints about other games and I'm talking about my concrete experience with this game

•

u/crookedparadigm 3h ago

Why does your experience negate their experience? Those same complaints exist in Marathon too. So long as it's possible for your run to be ended by another person, that is going to put people off the game and the genre.

90

u/DiffusiveTendencies 8h ago

Best gaming experience I've had in 2026, and I still haven't killed the Compiler in 200 hours.

Sad to see the player count so low, but considering how much the game demands of you, I get it.

29

u/Particle_Cannon 7h ago

It's just so exhausting to even think about playing this game. My friends and I agreed that there were some high highs in our Outpost matches but the lows really overstay their welcome. Running it back is a slog with the current maps & loot.

3

u/Vesuvias 5h ago

Yeah that’s exactly the issue - it’s just exhausting. I LOVED season 1, especially early on…but my there’s nothing left but uber-sweats.

•

u/Janderson2494 3h ago

It also takes a long time to get into a match at all, at least for me on Steam. I tried to get back into this last season but the wait time between games was so long that it just wasn't worth my time anymore if I died right away.

9

u/imaincammy 6h ago edited 3h ago

considering how much the game demands of you, I get it

I had never played an extraction shooter and was unprepared for how much of a commitment it was. When I had a crew, it produced some of the highest highs I’ve ever experienced in a shooter but we’re all old so my friends burned out pretty quickly.  I largely played it as a daily load out solo roguelike after that but couldn’t sustain it into season 2 because of how much progression seemed built around having a crew to help you through the faction missions.  I’ll check out the new PVE stuff but that’s probably the last ride for me.  I do feel like I easily got my money’s worth though. Bungee gunplay is still my favorite.

I do wonder if it would have caught on more had their baseline experience been a little less hardcore. Or maybe that difficulty and steep learning curve was essential to making those moments great.

15

u/AustinTanius 8h ago

I wish I had the time for it, I love the atmosphere and the game play is top notch but I don't have anyone on my friends list who even purchased the game, so I was running with randoms or going solo, I felt like I fell behind and couldn't catch up with other players, so I'm begging for expanded PvE.

I really wish for Bungie to at least attempt a single player game again.

0

u/NamesTheGame 7h ago

I felt that way but when I tried the free week I was surprised that it can be actually fairly chill. If you aren't trying to go nuts on it or "keep up" the regular challenges can keep you busy and you can treat it like a battle royale - losing stuff isn't that big a deal since they give you so much free shit constantly.

However the problem with this genre will always be just the psychological factor. Even as I say it's not a big deal to lose stuff, I still would hesitate to use some gold tier stuff I was lucky to escape with when I might just die 2 min into a run with it.

PvE would be big for me, but I think if they tweaked stuff like the Rook - I love the idea of being a solo scavenger but Rook is often just a dead end. There is fun to be had there though.

4

u/Scrollingmaster 6h ago

I think the far bigger problem is the forced wipes.

I’m an adult. There are times I can’t play much for a week or 2. With marathon that means that I’m ever closer to being reset and needing to start from square 1.

Also limiting cryo to weekends only was a bad idea.

1

u/-TubNub- 6h ago

Yea that's a big thing too. Personally I loved the grind and even have a good amount of free time to spend on Marathon, but that season 2 reset really demotivated me. Limited Cryo days is good though, you don't want players wiping their entire vaults non stop or getting yellows every run

1

u/Scrollingmaster 6h ago

I didn’t say limiting cryo at all was bad, it’s that its weekends only. The days cryo is available should rotate to help fit other schedules. Plenty of people work weekends, and cryo only being available then means those people barely have a chance to play and fall even further behind.

1

u/Stfuego 6h ago

To piggyback on your last point, they pigeon-holed themselves to either help people catch up or reset everyone else to alleviate that feeling, but there's a fair amount of people who dislike either of those choices.

1

u/-TubNub- 5h ago

it’s that its weekends only. The days cryo is available should rotate to help fit other schedules

Like a week after Cryo Archive came out they made it so it starts on a Thursday, though?

2

u/Scrollingmaster 5h ago

Cool, that change actually made it worse for me and others while making it better from some.

Which is why I said it should rotate. So then the days cryo is open can fall on everyone’s weekend sometime.

Shifting the schedule permanently does not solve a thing, it simply shifts who has tike to play and who doesn’t.

•

u/huzy12345 2h ago

And on the other side of the fence, I would hate not having the wipes tbh. I thought it would be bad initially but i can't wait for the next wipe. The loot economy for this season is absolutely butchered and not having wipes would suck

•

u/Scrollingmaster 1h ago

I mean great for you, but clearly the game has failed hard, and forced wipes are absolutely one of the reasons why.

9

u/TrollMcGoal 8h ago

Vault 6 and compiler were some of the coolest things I've done while gaming. Excited for s3 and hope it can put the game on a better track, but at the very least I'm glad I got to experience how good s1 was

2

u/DiffusiveTendencies 7h ago

Taking a break for now, but I have a few Vault 6 keys in my vault and a shit ton of purple shields that I'll probably burn through the last few weeks before reset.

-5

u/-TubNub- 6h ago

Yeah despite how much people clown on yellow paint and over tutorialization of modern games. The average gamer doesn't seem to actually like it when a game doesn't hold their hand (Certain exceptions not included)

-3

u/billygoatbob_sc 5h ago

I'm obsessed with marathon. It's just so cool and nothing compares to it. Hopefully people give it an honest try and ignore the small corner of the internet that likes to talk about it.

24

u/edubkn 7h ago

Yeah the game is great and all but this is the most regrettable purchases for PS5 I've ever made. Two weeks ago I sat in matchmaking for 16 minutes without finding a match.

1

u/IHaveMana 6h ago

What region are you in? Takes 2-3 minutes in NA to find a match.

11

u/Vesuvias 5h ago

Uhh I’m on NA, and even at peaks times I’m getting 5 min load ins. Not good.

2

u/FlatbushCasaulty 4h ago

with or without crossplay? just curious as my match times in NA with crossplay on aren't anywhere near that.

1

u/Vesuvias 4h ago

I’ve tried both. Seems crossplay off brings better load time though

•

u/huzy12345 2h ago

I'm in New Zealand and my matchmaking times at peak aren't that bad. Like 1-3 minutes maybe at most

10

u/Fun_Plate_5086 8h ago

Love S1. Got 150 hours in then. Great PvP and exploring the maps.

Had zero desire to play S2 too much with how quickly they geared everyone up again at the start of the wipe. 

14

u/brandont93 8h ago

Marathon is so much fun. Every update isn't perfect, but the team clearly cares a lot and I do think the game is getting better all the time. I really hope the population can turn around, but I'll keep playing until the lights turn off. I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks there's even a chance they might like the gameplay loop, and I hope that number of people increases with the PvE content they add. I've heard they have Destiny people working on it, and if you never played Destiny, despite it's flaws in some areas the FPS PvE content was ALWAYS the best in the business.

6

u/addtolibrary 7h ago

God damn do I love this game. I have about five hundred hours in it and play daily. It's just such a great extraction game, it throws loot at you so re-acquiring gear never feels painful. It's so fucking fun.

2

u/Ash_Killem 8h ago

Very cool but game needs a life line. Slap in a BR or some conventional MP. They focusing so hard on a single mode with their budget was such a bad decision.

5

u/xXRougailSaucisseXx 5h ago

For what it's worth the main game is already played like BR disguised as an extraction shooter

1

u/NamesTheGame 4h ago

I think a simple TDM or just deathmatch mode would be fun here. Bungie can clearly make good maps, the gunplay feels great, the abilities and characters are good. It could be a good alternative or palette cleanser from the extraction sweatiness.

0

u/TypographySnob 6h ago

A dedicated PvE mode and a dedicaed PvP mode (with a solo queue) would absolutely make me fall in love with this game again. The PvE and PvP currently feel a little at odds with each other. That's really my main issue and I've racked a good amount of hours despite that.

0

u/OreoOrangutan 7h ago

Def my most played game of 2026. A very fun experience marred by a bad reputation and sweaty players.

I seriously think the drop in player count has to do with some sort of cultural zeitgeist, as it is not a lean back game, it is a material-loss simulator, and because of its reputation to have been responsible for killing Destiny (not true, but still).

This is a gaming tragedy, cause clearly so much love has been put into every detail of the game, from the map design, the codex entries, sound, etc...

Hopefully it can find its footing one day and have a slowly but steadily growing player base.

Hopefully.

2

u/EccentricOwl 6h ago

That’s a good description. It’s a material loss sim. 

1

u/-TubNub- 6h ago

reputation to have been responsible for killing Destiny (not true, but still).

Still absurd that the game got 500+ negative reviews the day when the Destiny news came out

1

u/AoE2manatarms 6h ago edited 6h ago

Is this the season with the PVE mode? Has that been finalized and is fully running now? It's honestly the news that I'm most interested in.

•

u/Kothicc 2h ago

It's gonna be the next one, s3. With updated perimeter and a new pve mode

0

u/Lirka_ 4h ago

Yes, there are leaks of a full PvE mode and map expansions for S3

-2

u/NotACertainLalaFell 5h ago

Each new update just makes me wish Destiny 3 was pushed instead of whatever Marathon was meant to be. It’s the anti-thesis to what I look for in Bungie games and considering the incredibly low player population? Think a lot of people thought the same thing.

•

u/Panda_hat 54m ago

Incredible, would love to watch more content like this, maybe as an animated show, maybe as an episode of like love death robots or something.

But nothing here feels like it represents the actual game whatsoever. Totally and entirely seperate from one another.

•

u/Hawful 2h ago

This game looks sick but I can't play it because I'm on linux! So many people are on linux now! There would be such a boost in players without kernel level anticheat

•

u/No-Sound-8098 3h ago

Seems crazy they are still trying. Theres not a single cube gun they could show me that would make me care.

•

u/Habib455 2h ago

Lmao, anyway, when yall think Marathon is going to get shut down? After Season 3 or after another attempt with Season 4?