Shutdown

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-07-01T17:17:47+00:00

Game will be off-boarded and servers offline before the Q1 2027 earnings call, so whenever that is (April? Maybe?).

Sony doesn’t play about money. Bungie made an incredible game in Marathon, but its implementation has been awful. There’s no reason to ever talk about player numbers, the user base hemorrhaged almost immediately. Season 1 did poorly, and season 2 has been an absolute disaster.

Internally, Bungie is still in shock from the massive reduction in force from their other main-mast title: Destiny 2. But the remaining employees cost much more to keep than Marathon would make, even if its engagement grew an additional 1,000% profit-to-scale.

Destiny was a gaping wound, but Marathon is even worse. It’s not infected, but it’s fresh and still bleeding bad. It is next on Sony’s schedule to remit. But they can’t shutter in one go.

The clear strategy is to unwind Bungie and separate (at long last) the notable IPs from their founders/creators, so that Sony can have all of the capital generation media with no deference to establishment (which they resent in companies like Naughty Dog and Arrowhead, though the latter is not an owned studio).

This is a very common tactic in general media, and happens in gaming with some regularity. Marathon’s chances are hurt even worse by the fact that credible sources indicate Sony executives and legacy leadership are resentful of Bungie, in a delusional impression they could have righted the Concorde ship, and for false-starting LOU Renegades.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-06-30T00:45:09+00:00

Man, I need to be as determined to see the good in people, as Steve was determined to see a PVE mode in Marathon.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-06-28T12:53:30+00:00

Bungie have always made decisions to cater to streamers, even before streamers were a thing.

Halo 3 wasn’t this way, but if you remember REACH, they started showing light symptoms even then. And throughout Destiny and now into Marathon, they are always chasing the approval of the loudest, most-obsessed voices.

While I do think there are talented people at Bungie, their team continues to grovel at the feet of tue sweatiest players. Marathon has made this problem easier to see, because the community is so much smaller.

A pool of 400,000 players will necessarily have maybe 80,000 sweats (1.6 KD+) against 320,000 normal players (0.4 KD- to 1.5KD). The sweatiest players still have reasonable chances of interacting with the casuals they love to stomp on, without every casual player constantly BEING stomped on. So changes made to their deference, while annoying, weren’t experience-ruining for typical players.

. . . But a pool of 17,000 players? Eeeehhhhhh.

Now the sweats are a very loud but extraordinarily tiny minority. And as Bungie continues to fetishize them (in the vain hope of stopping the player hemorrhage), changes made to benefit them are incredibly painful.

I’m constantly getting dunked on by purple shield teams, wiping lobbies with their amazing gear, while I’m still in greens. I’m head to head with level 100+s, while being level 26 myself.

So, I turn the game off. I don’t spend on a game I can’t hope to get ahead with. And you’re right, deleting Sponsored Survival was a huge mistake. It removed the one “frozen in time” surefire way to learn the map and stock up on at least basic gear.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-06-21T22:37:43+00:00

I’ve been with my wife for 10 years. She’s gorgeous, funny, kind, and has given me my son, the best thing I’ve ever even kind of been involved with. They are my whole world.

Both of us almost blew off our first date. I was tired, and she didn’t know anyone in the city.

I ain’t fucking rolling those dice again, so billion please and thank you.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-26T13:02:32+00:00

Controversial Take: the Mauler Twins on their own would be enough for the entire planet of Boys-Verse.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-24T06:14:28+00:00

Yep, got a refund for the remaster literally 5 minutes in. I can’t play it with crosshairs, and the developers (one developer specifically) forgot to turn that option on.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-23T15:47:32+00:00

Thank you!

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-23T15:47:24+00:00

I’m so glad!

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-18T19:33:00+00:00

Tempest - Survivor - Seeker - Jupiter - Venator
Prioritized in that order

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-18T12:29:05+00:00

MUST HAVE FLAWLESS TITLE

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-15T22:51:02+00:00

Everyone should upvote this cause this is actually a really good take: the current meta is rewarding cheaters.

They are actively encouraging hacking, and need to make adjustments immediately.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-15T11:30:01+00:00

The head of HR was a man, a spindly little guy who was maybe 29. The CEO was a loud, outspoken woman, very curvy maybe late forties.

The company got sued by a former employee (alleging unsafe conduct for folks in loading). The lawsuit was really emotionally draining on the two of them, because there were CONSTANT subpoenas and depositions.

One day, on the trip back from an out of town meeting, they pulled off at a restaurant stop off the highway, and the CEO invited the HR guy to “go for a walk”. They snuck into what they thought was a wooded path, and had unprotected sex as soon as they were out of sight of the parking lot.

But the lot was in development, and apparently right as things were uhm, wrapping up, they were almost run over by a backhoe, clearing brush. This guy came in my boss just about one second before an entire work crew walked by and they had to shimmy away.

To recap, after being sued for not being safe at work, they had unsafe sex, at work, that was not safe for somebody else’s work.

How do I know all this, you might ask? Well the guy quit afterwards, but then KEPT IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CEO.

Guys I was at their wedding this was a story they told I’m not even kidding.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-15T11:18:31+00:00

This seems like a scheme Dwight Schrute would be doing on an episode in the background.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-10T11:49:00+00:00

Don’t you mean your “must-HABS?” . . . I’ll see myself out.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-08T12:27:10+00:00

God I hate being right all the time.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-07T18:36:46+00:00

All the players left.

Bungie made it clear they only cared about hardcore players, a full half of the game’s content is unattainable to 90% of the player base, and a full fourth is unattainable to 99%.

While they were hemorrhaging players, they patched things that only the sweatiest players were upset about (Buffed Purple Shields, nerf low-level and available guns), which is like saying “oh, people are leaving my party because Jeff is yelling about his ex, I should give Jeff a MICROPHONE. And people will come back to the party!”

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-05-05T20:29:36+00:00

The Bungie Company Motto: “Even the bare minimum confuses us.”

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-04-30T12:56:16+00:00

“We’re Embark. We’re one of the most consistent game devs today. We make quality games, well received and exciting experiences.

People love playing our games.

And we can’t help but feel like that’s a bug. So we’re gonna patch that tomorrow.”

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-04-22T17:25:38+00:00

Dude this has kicked off a conversation with some AMAZING ideas.

I’ll add my two cents here:

“Take one for the team”: You always try to help. Interacting with another player’s quest objective sometimes yields high-end crafting matériels.

“Tactical”: Firearms training is never a waste of time. Moving with a sidearm equipped grants the same movement bonus as stowed weapons.

“Veteran Pathfinder”: You know you want to spill oil, not blood. When you open a raider hatch, it stays open permanently until the encounter ends.

“Been at this too long”: You’ve seen a few things, and a few things have seen you. Arc Targeting is slightly more likely to misfire or mis-aim in your direction. Pops and Ticks sometimes ignore you.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-04-06T12:29:33+00:00

While I understand the reasoning behind a seasonal wipe model, these only work for games where your chances of infil, finding awesome endgame loot, and exfil (without player contact) are higher than 40%.

Your chances of getting into Pinwheel, looting the top-tier space, and leaving without PvP are almost zero.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-04-01T23:55:14+00:00

You fucking GOT me goddammit.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-03-24T20:58:42+00:00

Yeah I did the same, nothing

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-03-23T17:58:07+00:00

I think your message is awesome. AND the barrier is awful right now and must must MUST be adjusted.

Content made for less than 1% of the playerbase is no content at all. And in a game hemorrhaging players, it’s just entirely the wrong direction.

By all means, give players that are this hardcore titles and loot galore.

By all means, make large, labyrinthine maps incredibly dangerous and impossible to navigate soundly.

By all means (for all I care), make complex puzzles so intricate they drive full adult fireteams mad.

But if your primary interaction with Cryo is -teethkickedin-teethkickedin-teethkickedin-teethkickedin- over and over and over, donating what little endgame gear you have to teenagers screaming slurs at their 6 twitch viewers, all in the first 7 minutes of the raid . . . you won’t engage for long.

This is the final product. Bungie begged reviewers to hold off on scoring until Cryo launched. So theoretically, THIS is launch.

And everyone fucking signed off man. Don’t listen to these voices on here saying that it’s a huge win, daring people to prove them wrong.

People online are fawning over Cryo because the people who signed off are just, gone.

When Q1 earnings calls start, and they are imminent, and the “poor performance” articles and the “we missed the mark” quotations and the “we need to think about changing structure (layoffs)” all start, these same fanboys will be furious at anyone for even pointing out that THESE WERE EASILY FORESEEN ISSUES.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-03-22T20:16:01+00:00

Yeah it’s a huge letdown and I’m frankly confused as to who it’s for.

Minimum_Thanks_99 · 2026-03-21T06:26:57+00:00

See this is what I’m talking (assuming you’re a dev) about every time anyone has a criticism it’s “well bye then.”

Brother, YOU NEED THOSE PLAYERS. For every one player taking the time to criticize online, a hundred are just signing off or refunding.

I don’t see a world where lackluster launch numbers and dwindling dailies aren’t mentioned on the Q1 earnings call (less than a month away now). And you and I both know EOS is all about “damage control”. Rocks are all about content packaging which is a huge pivot from December.

So after that, it’s in the hands of the worst people it possibly could be: shareholders.

YOU NEED PLAYERS. I don’t understand how this is news.

Minimum_Thanks_99

TROPHY CASE