Legendary video game studio Bungie has recently released a new title in their 30 year old Marathon franchise. Fans have praised this multiplayer sci-fi shooter for its vivid artstyle, but many critics feel that the game will continue a trend within the game industry where developers will pull games that fail to exceed sky-high budgets from stores and shut them down. With budgets for video games and movies getting larger and larger, it seems almost impossible for new projects to succeed, even when sales are doing well.
Return to the Marathon
Marathon (2026) is a reboot of Bungie’s sci-fi shooter franchise, which helped revolutionize the genre in the late 90s. This new entry is a complete revamp. After 30 years since the last installment, the series is shifting from a single-player, story-driven shooter to a multiplayer extraction shooter, where players compete to gather as much loot as possible and exfiltrate before the timer runs out. The game’s visual style is vibrant and eye-catching, with bright colors and sleek futurist designs captivating fans.
Bungie is a staple in the video game industry, known for creating the iconic Halo franchise before moving on to another multiplayer sci-fi shooter, Destiny. With such notable titles under their belt, players expected Marathon to top sales charts, easily surpassing its competition in the extraction shooter genre, such as Arc Raiders. This was not the case, as Marathon has only reached an all-time high player count of over 88,000 on Steam, whereas Bungie’s previous game, Destiny 2, reached an all-time high of over 316,000.
Player counts have remained consistent since launch; however, many critics of Marathon feel that these suboptimal numbers could be the final nail in the coffin for the game before it even has a chance to grow. Critics have stated that these numbers are not enough for the game to recoup its budget, and they believe it is likely that Bungie will shut the game down to avoid putting any more money towards an unprofitable title.
Development Controversies
Rumors surrounding the future of Marathon are not the first set of controversies the game has found itself in. During its development, Bungie came under fire after an artist by the name of 4nt1r34l claimed Bungie had stolen her artwork and used it in the game. While many were angry at Bungie for using stolen assets, the situation was quickly rectified by the developers. Bungie stated that an employee stole the assets. And shortly after Bungie discovered the issue the person responsible were fired. 4nt1r34l and Bungie came to an agreement, and she is now credited in the game for her works.
Marathon has not been without difficulties since its development, and this has fueled beliefs that it will continue the recent trend of studios shutting down games that underperform. Over the past few years, poorly received multiplayer games have shut down completely, with the AAA studios that develop them abandoning the project.
Shut Downs and Removal from Stores
One of the most infamous of these was Concord, a sci-fi hero shooter published by Sony, with a rumored budget of around $400 million. Concord debuted to player count less than 700, leading to the game’s shut down in September of 2024, only two weeks later, with the developers refunding purchases and pulling it from the online store. The failure of Concord was not an isolated incident; this year also saw the release of Highguard, another multiplayer hero shooter, which failed to attract a sizable player base. Highguard shut down in March of this year, less than two months after its release.
With the budgets for video games growing and rivalling Hollywood productions, it is becoming harder and harder for new titles to succeed. Marathon has reportedly sold around 1.2 million copies at its $40 price point, but since the budget was likely in the hundreds of millions, these sales are far from enough to break even. This problem has also become more and more relevant in Hollywood, with declining theater attendance causing high budget films to underperform, despite earning millions in sales in a time when very few people actually make it to the theater.
Film Industry Parallels
Films from wildly popular franchises like Marvel are not safe from this effect. Films like Captain America: Brave New World and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania were box office failures after they did not reach the heights that films like Avengers: Infinity War did, and they struggled to break even during their theater runs. With both games and film taking years to develop and hundreds of people to bring to life, these projects are becoming more and more risky, as a failure would set the studio back years, despite fans wanting to see more original projects that take risks.
On the other side of this, games that manage to become breakout successes are well worth the years of development time, such as Red Dead Redemption 2. Red Dead 2 was in development for eight years, almost the sole focus of developer Rockstar, with a budget of $370 million to $450 million. This paid off, as Red Dead 2 sold over 77 million copies and generated over $1 billion dollars since its release. Red Dead 2 has become one of the most highly acclaimed games ever, with fans singing its praises for its realistic graphics and incredible voice performances.
Similar to how developers pull video games from store shelves, streaming services also have a history of pulling content from their service, or outright cancelling a series, if the viewership or ratings fail to meet their standards. One of the most unfortunate examples of this was when HBO removed Westworld from their platform in 2022. Westworld’s first season was a critical success, positioned to be HBO’s next hit, alongside Game of Thrones. However, ratings declined after its first season, leading to the show’s cancellation and eventual removal from the website.
The Future of Marathona
While the ceiling that films and games must shatter to be considered hits continues to rise higher and higher, it is unlikely that Marathon will be shut down. The game’s player counts have remained consistent, and many have stated that it was released in a better state than other Bungie titles, giving them hope for the future. Marathon recently released its first of many free content updates, the challenging raid map Cryo Archive, which players can take on every weekend. With more free content planned in the future, player counts will continue to rise, and Marathon may become a staple in the extraction shooter genre.
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