Marathon sold about 1.2 million copies in weeks, failing to meet Sony and Bungie expectations.

According to Alinea Analytics, Sony ‘ s brand-new tactical shooting game, Lost Star Ship: Marathon, currently sold 1.2 million copies, generating about $55 million in revenues on PC, PS5 and Xbox X/S platforms. According to the analyst: “The marathon has failed to cause the sensation that Sony and Bungie envisaged.”

Although Marathon is the Sony’s first game, it gives people a feeling more like Bungie’s own game. In fact, it is not only Steam, but at PlayStation’s shop, the Marathon issues brands of Bungie, not Sony. Perhaps that is why 70 per cent of the estimated sales of the game comes from the PC platform, while PS5 accounts for only 19 per cent and Xbox for 11 per cent. As previously reported by IGN, Sony has decided to drop the first game under the flag and land on the PC platform. In this context, the figure of less than 20 per cent for the marathon PS5 platform is interesting. Sony’s multi-server game will continue to maintain a multi-platform strategy and will be sold in tandem with the PC and mainframe. It is not difficult to understand the reasons for this in terms of the sales of the marathon on Steam.

The question is, did the $1.2 million sales of the marathon really help Bungie and Sony make a profit? In the wake of the recent public financial failures, Bungie was under tremendous pressure to hand over his achievements for Sony. Last November, Sony stated that Bungie had failed to meet sales and user participation expectations and recorded a impairment loss of 31.5 billion yen (approximately $204.2 million) due to the poor performance of Destiny 2. The loss is large enough to slow down the profits of Sony ‘ s play and network services (and even Sony ‘ s entertainment). Last year, Peter Parsons, who had served as CEO for nearly 10 years, had announced his departure from office in Bungie for 23 years and was replaced by the former Chief Development Officer, Justin Truman. During his tenure, Parsons experienced many years of Bungie’s turmoil: In 2016, he began to be CEO and led the 2019 split between company and vision. In 2021, he witnessed a further $3.7 billion acquisition by Sony of Bungie, ending the independence of the studio.

Bungie announced that she was moving away from her vision to keep Destiny IP

“The marathon was not as sensational as Sony and Bungie envisaged, even though its kernel design was enough to become a masterpiece,” said Alinea Analytics’ Market Analyst, Reese Elliott. “The marathon has much to praise, and its story is far from over.”

According to Alinea Analytics data, Marathon does display a strong user viscosity. Playday active players stabilized at 345,000, with an average of 380,000 active daily players on weekends. On Steam, the average time of the marathon has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly exceeding the averages of the PS5 (16.5 hours) and Xbox (17.3 hours) mainframe platforms.

As to whether the data would satisfy Sony, they might not be known until the next financial report. For Bungie, they may have built an overly hard-core game, so that Marathon has difficulty getting the same kind of performance as the ARC Raiders of last year’s fire. As a “search-and-take-out” shooting game, Marathon is quite difficult. The game does not provide insurance, which also means that, in the event of death, the player loses all his equipment. This includes not only the items which were scrapped inside the station, but also the equipment that was carried before departure. Given the high risk of death in the game, this punitive nature makes the player feel frustrated. Will the player leave the pit? Or the steep learning curve? Bungie has repeatedly indicated that, despite the steepness of the marathon learning curve, over time players can easily recover from defeat. However, the game ‘ s recently updated cryo archive (Cryo Archive) further strengthens the hard core and sets a number of participation thresholds: player season levels need to be up to level 25, all camps unlocked and equipped with at least 5,000 credit points. The model was initially open only on weekends, although Bungie has subsequently adjusted time to lower the threshold.

The former Anti-Terrorism Elite professional Shroud stated that the cold archives provided incredible experience but were too difficult for leisure players. “The cold archives are crazy.” This is the most sophisticated search and evacuation map I’ve ever seen. The cycling route they have built is indeed very special. But the question is, isn’t it a little too subtle? It’s too complicated. It’s too livery. Can the working-age people play? I don’t know.” Where does Bungie go next? Marathon is far from a epic disaster like the Starings, but Bungie clearly needs to take measures to increase sales. A simple reduction in the difficulty of playing may not be sufficient and there is a risk of hitting existing hard-core players. Can the single battle or the PvE model inspire new interest? Can the traditional PvP model help? In view of the fact that a number of players are discouraged by the bad mission of the marathon and the UI interface, Bungie also seems to have to revisit the new hands-on guidance system.

“The Wonder” mission interface and UI design