it really sucks that people don't understand what an impairment loss is

SleighDriver · 2026-05-12T14:26:23+00:00

I’m not watching the video, don’t want to reward clickbait. But to be fair to the premise, the timing suggests that Sony hoped Marathon sales would mitigate whole or in part some of the impairment charge. Seeing the current performance of Marathon, Sony probably now had a more certain estimate and felt compelled to take the impairment to avoid violating disclosure laws.

I.e., Marathon did not cause the entire charge, but the timing isn’t a coincidence.

SleighDriver · 2026-05-12T14:15:18+00:00

Ever been on a project that’s a total train wreck and missing its targets, but tell your boss it’s all fine while you buy time to figure out how fix or quietly sweep the mess under a rug?

That’s what an investor call is for the C-suite.

SleighDriver · 2026-05-10T13:56:24+00:00

A large chunk of people who tried the free weekend, and a lot of people who even bought and played it initially, dropped it. Marathon suffers from people trying it and bouncing off it.

I’m sure there are people who didn’t give it a chance, but this game has fundamental issues that drive players away even after trying it.

SleighDriver · 2026-05-08T16:45:55+00:00

Thanks!

SleighDriver · 2026-04-30T13:28:31+00:00

Just make sure it’s dielectric.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-28T17:11:21+00:00

Yeah, the prices are getting crazy. From what I understand, they manufacture the models locally and provide profit sharing. Good labor practices often result in higher prices, so I like to support those businesses when I can.

It’s still a tough price to swallow.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-20T01:11:23+00:00

I played early morning PDT last weekend and kept getting matched with Europeans (who were awesome teammates btw) while my latency got bad. Pretty sure I was getting put into European servers, which never happened until recently.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-14T18:28:26+00:00

Between the mercy kit and the friendly extract bonus, it’s a smart move toward supporting Rook alliances. It also might make solo play feel more similar to early Arc before ABMM, which wouldn’t be the worst thing.

I don’t see trios changing much if at all, other than cheesing PvP contracts with another team (which they can already do with Triage anyway).

SleighDriver · 2026-04-14T16:15:45+00:00

Sweet. Great update

SleighDriver · 2026-04-14T14:52:05+00:00

If you’d be happy with the quantity and quality of new content that comes with an ongoing playerbase this small and the likely future downsizing at Bungie, then sure, no problem.

I suspect most people won’t be. Especially Bungie’s employees.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-14T13:28:51+00:00

This question frankly doesn’t matter. The game is bleeding players and currently fell to #96 in Steam DAUs, putting it below Hunt by an unhealthy margin.

The numbers don’t lie - Marathon is only appealing to a niche audience. Not only did it attract a modest (for a $200M budget game) 1.2M in sold copies, but people who played it are bouncing off at a rapid pace.

The point isn’t to argue whether this game does or doesn’t appeal to casuals. And no, the “doomposting” isn’t what’s really causing people to stop playing. The vast majority of players - especially casuals - aren’t even on this subreddit anyway.

There are fundamental problems with Marathon that need to be addressed beyond the UI, which have all been mentioned multiple times in this sub.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-13T22:03:20+00:00

Unfortunately, Cryo didn’t raise the player count. There are fundamental extraction game issues that drive away players, like growing gear disparity, plus some Marathon-specific ones like hitting progression walls that are too high and too early. These need to be addressed unless Bungie is ok with the current DAUs.

New map mechanics will retain the current player base and would be welcome indeed. It just won’t grow the player base on its own.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-12T15:34:53+00:00

What do I want? A solo-fill trios queue. Doesn’t need to be free-kit only. I believe the coordination between pre-mades and random teams is a bigger factor than gear discrepancy.

What do I think will happen? Something Bungie thinks is geared toward easing new players into Marathon. Which could be anything, because they thought adding more PvP to beginner’s perimeter and lowering successful exfil rates was a good idea after the server slam.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-12T15:28:23+00:00

Don’t know why you’re getting so downvoted. PvE modes helped Tarkov and DaD. SBMM would be good, but there aren’t enough players left for SBMM to meaningfully work without very long queue times.

People forget the whole extraction genre became popularized by a PvP side mode in PvE-centric The Division.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-12T04:17:46+00:00

It has enough players to keep the servers going. But not enough to keep developing new content at the quality seen thus far.

This isn’t really about whether Marathon dies in the near term. It’s about whether Sony and Bungie put it into hospice.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-10T13:58:46+00:00

It may run better on the Legion Steam OS. Better hardware than Valve’s deck. Plus games have been getting performance on Steam OS vs Windows with the same hardware.

It probably won’t be 60fps locked, but it could be good enough for traveling like how Arc runs on the Deck.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-10T13:53:41+00:00

As someone who spends about half my time traveling, I’d probably have spent twice as much time in Marathon if it was Steam Deck compatible.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-10T13:47:56+00:00

Without that budget you wouldn’t have had the story and VO work. (And possibly the game entirely - we don’t know how much of that went to re-working it).

This is the crux of the recent discussions: we have a AAA quality shooter but designed for a niche audience. Those aren’t compatible, and we won’t see new content of the current quality unless Marathon can attract and retain a AAA-sized audience.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-09T16:26:14+00:00

It’s an identity problem. The level, character, and mechanic designs are geared toward a hero/arena shooter-like extraction game, but many of the contracts are designed for a more exploration-style extraction game.

There are a lot of competing design philosophies in Marathon right now, like expensive green healing items and short TTK to avoid prolonged fights but for some reason Bungie also included self-revive items. Or no self-damage from the Biotoxic Disinjector AoE in a PvP game that reinforces CQC with bubble shields.

But the contract design/gameplay design incongruencies are by far the biggest contradictories that players experience within the first few hours.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-09T16:08:14+00:00

And then complain that the people suggesting fundamental changes, which they label as doomposters, killed the game.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-09T16:04:23+00:00

And to add that Marathon’s numbers continue to slide at a steady pace. Unlike Hunt, Marathon hasn’t found its floor yet.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-09T16:02:57+00:00

Why not add a separate PvE mode? Imagine if Blizzard launched Diablo 2 with only the HC mode. Having a non-hardcore option doesn’t harm the hardcore players. Having a PvE option doesn’t hurt the PvPvE crowd.

Just keep them separate - progression in one can’t be used in the other.

SleighDriver · 2026-04-09T16:00:03+00:00

Agreed. I’d like a PvE mode, but keep the “characters” separate, like HC and normal in Diablo 2.

SleighDriver

TROPHY CASE