After a tumultuous development cycle filled with twists, turns and scandals, Marathon was released last week to decent acclaim, with particular acclaim for the game's aesthetic and visual direction.
It's certainly not an easy time to be a live-service game, especially a shooter. The high-profile failures of Concord and Highguard hang over the industry, and every live service now has to grapple with people predicting an immediate failure regardless of the game's quality.
Marathon is certainly performing better than the aforementioned games—though Highguard actually does have a higher concurrent player count on Steam, albeit as a free-to-play experience—but is a daily peak of 60,400+ good enough for a studio like Bungie? A string of successive controversies for the studio, coupled with Destiny 2's declining fortunes, has piled pressure on Marathon to succeed.
Unfortunately, the numbers are beginning to dwindle. It's inevitable for any live-service game — players leave and then return when there's new content to play. However, just a week from launch, a burn rate of over 20 per cent is sure to worry Bungie. Marathon is now dipping down to 20,000 players at off-peak times, while maintaining 60,000 players at peak times (down...
