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.