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Marathon will (likely) be charging for Runners starting in 2027...

For those of you interested in Marathon, what's your take?

  • All interest in Marathon evaporates. I can't support this.

    Votes: 24 51.1%

  • It's annoying but I wouldn't let it sway interest too much.

    Votes: 8 17.0%

  • Almost don't care. That's not what's interesting about the game.

    Votes: 15 31.9%
  • Total voters
    47
  • Poll closed .
Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Marathon_Midnight_Decay_Composite.jpg


I'm surprised there's not much discussion about this. According to Bungies Pre Order blog post...

"The Marathon Standard Edition includes:

  • Access to all gameplay updates (maps, Runner shells, events, etc.) as the year progresses"

As the year progresses.

Unless I'm not thinking of something, it seems likely that Marathon vanilla will cost an entry fee of $39.99 and give players access to 9 or 10 core Runners. After that, players will likely need to pay real money for any Runners released after that. The strategy is for Bungie to "play nice" when the launch spotlight is on them, and then turn heel once the media moves on and players settle in.

As the embodiment of GAAS in physical form, I have absolutely no issue with this. If anything, I might be for it. I've long felt that exclusively cosmetic MTX was both boring and left a lot on the table.

Curious to here from NeoGAF, AKA The Live Service Community of Excellence, what you think? Is there another possible reading? If not, how big of a deal is this?
 
I'm not a GaaS person, much less an MP person. Everything about this game is repulsive to me, but your continuous genuine excitement is endearing. I hope you enjoy it and don't get fleeced by Bungie.
 
Assuming runners are characters/operators?

Worked pretty well for R6 Siege over the years. Balancing will be key.

Barring massive (eg ARC Raiders) levels of success, I see the base game (or a slimmed down 'starter' version with only like 3 runners) going F2P probably in year 2.
 
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Been thinking on this. I'd be fine with charging for runners in the form of a "year two" pack and keep the maps free.

Like someone else said they need to tread carefully though and not make them OP.
 
I'll be surprised if the game has enough population by 2027 for any of this to even matter.

Maybe they can turn enough people around on the game when it launches (hope they do for the fans' sake), but I doubt this game will be as big as Destiny ever was to make its burn rate last enough to keep funding content.
 
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Game is live service and has to monetize somehow. Runners seems reasonable as long as there is a way to earn them eventually then I don't see a problem. I guess the issue might be if they release an overpowered one intentionally to boost its sales and then make a mess of the PVP.
 
I am in the "I will never trust Bungie ever again" camp after they vaulted the entire Destiny 2 collection shortly after I purchased it AND KEPT IT FOR SALE IN THE STORE.

They are absolute crooks.
 
I hope that the game doesn't grow into another Apex or Siege, where the amount of playable characters becomes hard to keep track of. It also messes with balance, both visually and gameplay wise.

Keep it simple.

Make a great game. Don't ask to much money from your player base.
Keep providing good content.
Win.

Helldivers 2 did okay in that regard. BF 2042 was great at it imho. But games like Siege and Overwatch really overstepped their monetisation strategies.
 
I tend not to get too entrenched in games like this.

If its really good, I can see spending some 100 hrs on it.

Initial set of runners should be fine. Too many and I tend to loose interest.
 
Bit weird to paywall actual gameplay like this and not cosmetics for an already premium priced multiplayer game but then again, it is Bungie/Sony.
 
Yeah i dont like it, but there is no way they can keep the game going with the awful cosmetics this game will have. I hope they will only charge money for shells at worst and all other gameplay stuff remains free
 
I mean, they will have to sell something enticing to people. You should worry what content they give you for free for an entire year.
 
Wonder how they'll balance this. It's the main reason why I stopped with R6 Siege. Was all good fun at the start and first few batch of new characters, but after a while there's way too many with out-of-place abilities.
The original "cast" was the still the greatest time in R6. Probably one of the last multiplayer games I played a lot. Liked it till the map in the South Korean tower.
 
I preordered on GMG and this thread made me cancel. Not so much the paying for runners but the reminder that oh yeah, i fall off every extraction shooter I try within a week except for tarkov. lol
Really need to wait and see on this one.
 
As the year progresses...
Jack Nicholson Yes GIF



How many people will still be playing this game a couple of months after its release? The initial CCU has to be massive, otherwise it won't be a "2027 of anything"
 
Like every other game that charges for additional character/skins post lunch? Who cares.
We as gamers have paid for this garbage and accepted this as the norm 15+ years now. People will pay to differentiate themselves from all the "noobs" running the included set.
 
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Bondo said:
Like every other game that charges for additional character/skins post lunch? Who cares.
We as gamers have paid for this garbage and accepted this as the norm 15+ years now. People will pay to differentiate themselves from all the "noobs" running the included set.
Click to expand...
Runners have different skill sets. Meaning that new runners will be behind a paywall and just like everything else Bungie does the newest thing will be more overpowered until the next thing drops. They did this every year with Destiny. That's how it's different, kind of a mixed bag on this one as with Destiny they exploited this a lot. Not a good look if true.
 
Maybe maps too, considering the wording on the article. Slightly annoying, but as long as the base game includes enough options for Runners it should be fine. I'd have been a bit worried if the base game only had like 2.
 
I've got no issues with charging for new characters. It's not the first, won't be the last. You have control of your wallet, you do you.
 
I think F2P is certainly in the plans regardless of success. Much like Destiny 2. I get the feelings it's an unspoken PoE2 situation where once they're confident it's ready for actual release they'll make it F2P and do another marketing blitz. Why beta test for free when your audience will pay you to test it?
 
simpatico said:
I think F2P is certainly in the plans regardless of success. Much like Destiny 2. I get the feelings it's an unspoken PoE2 situation where once they're confident it's ready for actual release they'll make it F2P and do another marketing blitz. Why beta test for free when your audience will pay you to test it?
Click to expand...
It's not nearly the same as PoE2, GGG's game costed 30€ and it came with 30€ worth of MTX, which, if you play it more than just a bit, it's necessary to buy the Stash Tabs to keep your items/gems/orbs, or to be able to trade if i recall correctly?

This feels more like a Diablo 4 situation where they force to pay to play, then pay more to play updates, then pay more if you want cosmetics on your character.

It's even worse since this is a PVP game and others will be able to use their advantage against you.

Kinda disgusting strategy, was thinking on getting it after i enjoyed Arc Raiders, but this is a huge red flag, already made the mistake with Blizzard's game and i abandoned it instead of paying more and more for their updates
 
owandeseis said:
It's not nearly the same as PoE2, GGG's game costed 30€ and it came with 30€ worth of MTX, which, if you play it more than just a bit, it's necessary to buy the Stash Tabs to keep your items/gems/orbs, or to be able to trade if i recall correctly?

This feels more like a Diablo 4 situation where they force to pay to play, then pay more to play updates, then pay more if you want cosmetics on your character.

It's even worse since this is a PVP game and others will be able to use their advantage against you.

Kinda disgusting strategy, was thinking on getting it after i enjoyed Arc Raiders, but this is a huge red flag, already made the mistake with Blizzard's game and i abandoned it instead of paying more and more for their updates
Click to expand...
Just as far as only being a "premium" release for the first year and then going F2P when they've got it patched up to a decent state.
 
If anything I think it will be similar to how Siege does (or rather, did) their operators.

New ones are only available for the premium players immediately and then non-premium could use in-game currency to unlock them.
 
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I think it would be much healthier for me mentally to buy all the crack cocaine I could smoke for a year than to preorder Marathon.

Never has a more toxic mash of generic nothingness better represented what GAAS actually is. A racket.
 
zaga said:
That Marathon would exist in 2027 is very optimistic
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The game isn't for me and for quite awhile I have said this game was dead too but last playtest was much better and some of the videos have looked nice

I am glad they are confident enough to have an open playtest right before launch as well.
 
Really just depends on how it all pans out, it's way too early to tell with a GaaS that hasn't shared a roadmap or trajectory yet.

If everything works out for Marathon, I don't see something like this being an issue. It's very similar to what other games have done or are doing.
 
Men_in_Boxes said:
I have absolutely no issue with this. If anything, I might be for it. I've long felt that exclusively cosmetic MTX was both boring and left a lot on the table.
Click to expand...
Kermit The Frog No GIF by Muppet Wiki


Your tag is so appropriate. It's crazy how you always have the worst takes, I really hope you're a troll account but I'm afraid you are serious.
If it were you, you'd sell the main menu, the ability to select a menu, the sound would be DLC and even gameplay elements like the ability to simply move around would be behind a paywall. All this in a game that already costs money, of course.

That's the future you want.
 
KyoZz said:
Kermit The Frog No GIF by Muppet Wiki


Your tag is so appropriate. It's crazy how you always have the worst takes, I really hope you're a troll account but I'm afraid you are serious.
If it were you, you'd sell the main menu, the ability to select a menu, the sound would be DLC and even gameplay elements like the ability to simply move around would be behind a paywall. All this in a game that already costs money, of course.

That's the future you want.
Click to expand...
You don't build a rocket ship on a boat budget.
 
Men_in_Boxes said:
Curious to here from NeoGAF, AKA The Live Service Community of Excellence, what you think? Is there another possible reading? If not, how big of a deal is this?
Click to expand...

Its the one reason why I stop Destiny.

Paid full price for first and expansion, still somehow Bungie managed to win ways to make more monetization.
 
Bungie still has ~850 employees? Napkin math tells me they need to make $100 million a year just to keep their people paid. Then add in the cost of keeping the IT infrastructure and facilities running.

Let's say this game does as well as Ark Raiders and settles in at a consistent 300k players for the long haul. If every one of those 300k paid $40 a year for a new batch of maps, skins, whatevers, that's all of $12 million dollars a year.

:pie_thinking:

Seems like they're going to have to fleece players for a lot more than that...
 
phant0m said:
Assuming runners are characters/operators?

Worked pretty well for R6 Siege over the years. Balancing will be key.

Barring massive (eg ARC Raiders) levels of success, I see the base game (or a slimmed down 'starter' version with only like 3 runners) going F2P probably in year 2.
Click to expand...

The problem with Siege was since there's a "need" for multiple operators released a year for the game, they paint themselves into a corner because they've coached their audience into expecting it. Then they release and hey look, another map getting reworked and basically ruined because the new operator breaks the map.

I have such a love hate relationship with that game. The first 2 -3 years of that game though….even with all the bugs… was still better designed than it is now
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
The game isn't for me and for quite awhile I have said this game was dead too but last playtest was much better and some of the videos have looked nice

I am glad they are confident enough to have an open playtest right before launch as well.
Click to expand...
It needs to be fantastic to survive though. Concord was quite good and lasted 2 weeks
 
Sand Dan Glokta said:
I'm not a GaaS person, much less an MP person. Everything about this game is repulsive to me, but your continuous genuine excitement is endearing. I hope you enjoy it and don't get fleeced by Bungie.
Click to expand...
It's like Gigabowser if he knew when to stfu.


But yeah, they're making weird decisions that the beta better sell me
 
I wasn't going to play this game anyway so I don't care, but man if you don't like this shit you should not be buying a bungie game. They put monetization ahead of all else.
 
After Destiny, Bungie gets not a dime from me. Doubt I'll even play the game. Not sure why I'm even in this thread.

Fart Eww GIF by Pudgy Penguins
 
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