Former Concord developer responds to claims Bungie's Marathon is Concord 2

Bungie has unveiled its new extraction shooter Marathon and it has been received with mixed opinions from gamers, some calling it a project that's dead on arrival, and others saying it looks like an interesting take on the extraction shooter genre.

The contentious nature of the project has sparked a debate among gamers, with some comparing Marathon to Concord, the disastrous Sony title that launched to less than 2,000 concurrent players and failed to hit critical mass, resulting in Sony having to refund all buyers of the title and shelf the entire game. As a result, the developers of Concord, Firewalk Studios, were shut down.

Now, a former Concord developer has commented on the debate surrounding Marathon by taking to Reddit to plead with gamers not to judge Marathon too quickly without having first played it, while simultaneously saying not to punish Bungie for Concord's failure.

"I worked on Concord, and did my best. We came up short, please don't punish others for our mistakes. We are all human beings who are trying to create something special, and Marathon is no different. Be kind, and be cool, as videogames are meant to be fun," wrote MrSpug, former Firewalk Studios senior VFX artist Stephan Williams

One of the biggest points of contention surrounding Marathon is it being a premium title, meaning it won't be free-to-play. Bungie has confirmed this in a recent X post on the official Marathon account, but clarified it will not be full price, ruling out the traditional $70 price tag. Gamers are conflating the fate of Concord with the fate of Marathon, as Concord had a $40 price tag, which was arguably one of the biggest reasons why the game failed to attract enough attention to sustain itself.

2

Since Sony owns Bungie, it's likely the price point for Marathon will fall around the $40 mark, possibly even lower, as that is the price Helldivers 2 also launched at, but the history of Helldivers 2 and Concord couldn't be more opposite. As for the price of Marathon, Bungie hasn't released anything official yet, but we do know the game will feature a Battle Pass, and that it will release on September 23.