Bungie recently offered fans a sneak peek of their upcoming first-person extraction shooter, Marathon, during a live stream event. Naturally, this stirred quite the buzz on social media and Reddit, with some folks predicting it might follow in the ill-fated footsteps of Concord, a hero shooter by Sony that was unplugged barely a month post-launch. In the midst of these discussions, a previous developer from Concord took to the Marathon subreddit to urge the community to give the new game a shot.
“The feedback about Concord was heard loud and clear—it didn’t manage to capture players’ interests,” the developer, posting under the handle MrSpug, openly admitted. “It was heartbreaking watching our project crumble and become the butt of jokes online.”
This developer, who was part of the team at Firewalk Studios until Sony pulled the plug just months after Concord’s downfall, expressed empathy towards the Bungie team. They applauded the developers for daring to enter such a challenging market.
“I poured my heart into Concord,” they shared. “Despite our efforts, we didn’t make the cut. Let’s not carry over our failures to others.”
While Concord and Marathon diverge in gameplay styles, both titles carry Sony’s imprint. A significant concern raised during the Marathon stream was Bungie’s decision against adopting a free-to-play model. Instead, much like Concord, Marathon is set to launch at a price lower than new typical releases. Bungie hinted at a price tag below a “full-priced” game, possibly around $40 when it hits the shelves this September. This decision left many wondering if Marathon would share Concord’s fate.
“I wasn’t eager to draw attention to myself as if I had any stake in this,” the former Concord developer commented in a follow-up post. “Presuming a game’s failure before it’s even released seems pretty crazy to me.”
Ultimately, it’s a plea for a fair chance—both for the game itself and the developers who have put their all behind it.
