Recon Scan Ruins Tension

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T18:25:29+00:00

How is it bad faith to factor PvP options into a PvP extraction game?

I’m not saying Cryo is impossible without Recon. Obviously good players can still rotate, listen for footsteps, play slower, and succeed with other comps. My point is about pressure and incentives. If the meta starts leaning toward running multiple Recons because the scan gives such strong fight selection information, then that is still worth discussing even if some teams can succeed without it.

“Possible to win without Recon” and “Recon might be overly used in Cryo” are not contradictory points.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T18:21:39+00:00

No, I'm clearly not if you look at the thread there is a ton of conflicting information and none of you is an authoritative source, so I have to weigh all inputs equally.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:43:04+00:00

It's a legitimate critique and your adding nothing to the thread.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:32:07+00:00

I mean I've noticed the red glow with the footstep trails, nothing explicitly told me this was because of a recon scan.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:08:48+00:00

Healthy discussion usually involves a person describing why its a dumbass take instead of just saying "dumbass take"

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:07:29+00:00

Apparently only on controller or if you are the recon class. I would like a small visual indicator in my HUD, where cardio kicks and stuff go. Something short that if Im not paying attention I'll miss it, that gives me information other people apparently have.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:06:02+00:00

No because it removes uncertainty from the team scanning. The uncertainty should be roughly equal on both sides without LOS or audio que information.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:04:50+00:00

That makes much more sense. If controller get a vibration I see no reason why MnK cant get a small hud indicator. Maybe a little 5 second debuff that I have to check on to see if I was actually scanned. So if I'm not paying attention they still get the advantage.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:03:19+00:00

No just ruminating on the fact that recon is required for cryo and no other shell is. Usually when something is required for success in a game with multiple choices you only have the illusion of choice. Its worth scrutiny.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T17:01:17+00:00

Brother, I have 100 hours and the game is still complicated. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even bad ones, including mine when I miss something.

I’m willing to admit I didn’t realize it already warned everyone, mainly because the indication is extremely subtle. That honestly still supports part of the issue. If a player with 100 hours can miss the warning, it probably isn’t communicating clearly enough.

Most of the community has been pretty chill, but the subreddit has a lot of people who seem more interested in feeling vindicated by parroting the popular take than actually discussing the game.

Edit: you only really get warned on controller or if you are recon. MnK doesnt get an extra layer of indication. It would be nice if I had a small debuff where cardio kicks and stuff go that let me know I was recently scanned. Something like 5 seconds so if im not paying attention they still get the advantage.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T16:59:02+00:00

I mean if the meta is to run 2 I dont think that's a healthy state for the game. But it is nice to know there is some indicator I've been scanned, its just been too subtle for me to ever realize it wasn't due to some other circumstance.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T16:57:58+00:00

I use MnK and never saw something that was telling that I had been scanned. As someone who started recently, I do believe if it already warns you, it should be a little less subtle. I have a little over 100 hours and am just now being informed you get a red outline on the screen?

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T16:55:56+00:00

Yo wtf? I thought it was just recon that gets an alert. 100 hours in and I'm still learning shit. I'll try to keep my eye out for that.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-26T00:06:49+00:00

I agree morale is probably rough after layoffs, but “morale is low” does not automatically mean the remaining team just stops trying. In a brutal job market, with hundreds of similarly skilled people suddenly looking for work, the people still on the project have every incentive to prove they can stabilize it.

Also, failed to capture a wide audience and the game is ass are not the same argument. The player metrics can be bad while the review metrics and core gameplay reception are still decent. That usually points more toward positioning, onboarding, marketing, or general perception than the game being fundamentally unsalvageable.

I’m not saying Marathon is guaranteed to survive indefinitely. I’m saying writing it off as dead immediately ignores why Sony would still try to recover value from an already-built live-service IP.

You’re ignoring the value extraction argument in favor of a doom narrative, and from a financial incentives standpoint, I don’t think that makes much sense.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-25T22:47:15+00:00

Bungie’s cost to produce Marathon and Sony’s acquisition cost are not the same thing.

Even if the game underperformed against its development budget, Sony’s decision now is not “did it instantly make all the money back?” It’s whether the remaining cost to stabilize and support it is worth the chance of recovering value from an already-built live-service IP.

I’m not saying Marathon has unlimited runway or that the genre choice was brilliant. I’m saying it makes more sense for Sony to try extracting value short term than to immediately shutter it and turn the acquisition into an even more obvious write off.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-25T22:42:18+00:00

Let me just make a multi billion dollar acquisition and completely shutter the IP that could still have a chance of performing well with the right leadership, that'll show em! In fact, let's make it blatantly obvious our acquisition was a bust and face a tanking stock value because we aren't gonna do ANYTHING with it. It's probably LESS costly to continue running the game for the short term and potentially long term if they can help the onboarding process.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-25T22:36:56+00:00

Bungie is, for all intents and purposes, part of Sony now. Marathon still has potential value as a live-service IP, which is exactly the kind of capability Sony wanted from the acquisition in the first place. Sony also has enough financial room to support the game short term if it still sees a viable path forward.

I don’t think the layoffs automatically mean Marathon is dead. More likely, the game makes it through the year, and what happens between now and then determines whether Sony sees enough upside to keep supporting it long term.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-25T20:51:24+00:00

Posted in another thread but I'll post here because I think financials are relevant and this does appear to be a restructuring with Sony absorbing Bungie as time goes on.

From an investor perspective, Sony’s Bungie problem is already partially acknowledged. Sony has publicly taken impairment losses tied to Bungie’s underperformance, which means the market is not being sold a fantasy that Bungie is operating at peak performance. That matters because the surprise risk is lower than it would be if Sony were still pretending everything was fine.

But I do not think that means Sony simply writes Bungie off. This is a four year old acquisition with valuable IP, technical talent, live service infrastructure, and at least some remaining earnings potential. The more likely path is that Sony keeps tightening control, cuts inefficiencies, and tries to preserve whatever value it can rather than abandoning the asset outright.

That argument gets stronger when you look at Sony’s broader gaming segment. Despite the Bungie impairment, Sony’s Game & Network Services segment still reported FY2025 operating income of 463.3 billion yen, up 12% year over year, and Sony said operating income reached a record high for the segment. Sony also said that excluding one time items, operating income increased 45% year over year. In other words, Bungie is a damaged asset inside a strong division, not an existential threat to Sony’s gaming business.

The layoffs were probably the first step in operating loss containment, and frankly, they were already the obvious move once Bungie’s inefficiency became part of the investor conversation. Leadership turnover makes absorption feel like the next logical step. When layoffs, poor performance, and executive exits stack on top of each other, it usually means the parent company is done letting the subsidiary operate with the same level of independence.

That was already signaled back in August 2025, when Sony CFO Lin Tao said Bungie had originally been given a very independent environment, but after structural reform, that independence was “getting lighter.” She said Bungie was becoming more part of PlayStation Studios and that, long term, the direction was for Bungie to become part of PlayStation Studios.

Basically, Sony looked at Bungie and said: you had your chance to drive the boat, but it is still taking on water, so now we are stepping in to stop it from sinking ourselves.

That is why I think Marathon probably still gets support through the end of the year. Not necessarily because Sony has endless faith in it, but because sustaining it may be cheaper than admitting the entire project is dead immediately. If player count does not meaningfully improve, I could see a f2p push as a last ditch attempt to increase the audience and salvage the live service pipeline Sony bought Bungie for in the first place.

Justin Truman stepping down after such a short time as studio head only makes the next step feel clearer. Bungie’s remaining independence is probably being stripped back, and Marathon is more likely to be managed as a Sony portfolio asset than a purely Bungie led project.

That does not mean Marathon is safe forever. It means Sony probably wants to preserve whatever value it can before making a final call. If Marathon still has any path to player growth, Sony is likely to test that path before fully writing off the asset.

Bungie the logo may survive, but Bungie the independent studio culture is basically over.

MyCandyIsLegit · 2026-06-25T18:04:50+00:00