Bungie's Marathon reboot will reportedly have $40 price tag despite Concord flop
Development "too far along" to change.
Bungie's Marathon reboot will reportedly launch with a $40 price tag, despite the recent failure of Sony's similarly priced Concord - with development "too far along" to pivot to free-to-play.
That's according to Forbes' Paul Tassi, who, citing a "source with knowledge of Marathon", claims Bungie's uncertainty around monetisation came to a head after free-to-play live-service shooter The Finals underperformed. The subsequent success of Sony's live-service shooter Helldivers 2, which launched with a $40 price tag, is said to have ultimately convinced Bungie and Sony this was the right approach for Marathon too.
That, however, was before Sony's second live-service shooter of 2024, Concord, took the same $40 monetisation approach and proved so commercially disastrous it was pulled from sale after just two weeks, with refunds being given to players. But despite Concord's failure, Bungie and Sony reportedly still plan to release Marathon with a $40 upfront cost - complete with a "standard cosmetic shop/battle pass stuff" - "barring anything seismic", because, says Tassi, development is "simply too far along to pivot back to free-to-play".
Alongside discussion of Marathon's monetisation, Forbes' report also includes a number of gameplay details. The extraction shooter is, for instance, said to adopt a class/hero system broadly similar to Apex Legends, but with a greater focus on customisation. Characters will reportedly each have a handful of unique abilities, such as double jumps and fast revives - but the emphasis is said to be on customisable guns and gear, universal character implants, and gameplay buffs earned through XP and changeable skill trees.
Forbes says this marks a shift from the game's original vision, which changed when Joe Ziegler replaced former game director Christopher Barrett this spring - after Barrett was reportedly ousted from Bungie following inappropriate behaviour. Barrett's original vision for Marathon is said to have echoed Destiny 2's Dreaming City, with puzzles and secrets to solve - but those elements were "just not coming together in practice".
It's also claimed Marathon (which will reportedly retain the well-received visual style seen in its announcement trailer) won't get a "significant" reveal until spring next year - even though its development team is said to be "very, very eager to get more in front of players and be able to talk about it." Forbes adds there's a lot riding on Bungie getting Marathon right, given a lack of goodwill from Sony following its recent failures. However, "Bungie getting Marathon out in 2025 with enough content and a high enough quality bar will also be tough."
Bungie referred to Marathon as one of its key focuses back in July, following its decision to lay off 220 staff. Those layoffs came after 100 job cuts last October, and saw many former and current Bungie employees calling for the studio's CEO Pete Parsons to resign.