Tuesday was a really wild as we speak for Bungie, the place they had been debuting new Future 2 Into the Mild content material whereas concurrently asserting a change in Marathon’s sport director in an effort to get out forward of a pending IGN story.
IGN’s Rebekah Valentine revealed an article in regards to the state of Bungie and one vital change, that former Valorant sport director Joe Ziegler, who joined Bungie in 2022, was now sport director of Marathon, changing Christopher Barrett.
What’s bizarre about that is the timeline, as Ziegler says he has been sport director for 9 months, which was by no means introduced till this IGN article forcibly revealed it, and that will have been simply weeks after Barrett premiered Marathon in a showcase in Might 2023. There aren’t any causes given for the change, and Barrett is now merely listed as “Government Artistic Director” at Bungie, with unclear obligations.
However what caught the eye of gamers themselves was a notice about an obvious change in route for Marathon, that the sport is “shifting away from customized participant characters in favor of a selectable solid of heroes.”
The thought right here appears to be that as a substitute of the promised participant customization that was spoken about through the reveal, this could as a substitute be a hero-primarily based extraction sport as a substitute, channeling Ziegler’s former sport, Valorant.
Whereas video games like Valorant and Apex Legends have been profitable with the hero shooter mannequin, I’ve not see a single constructive remark about this alleged change from anybody, particularly a bunch of Future gamers and content material creators who’ve all expressed disappointment or concern in regards to the thought.
It was all the time going to be a tall order to attempt to convert Future gamers over to a PvP extraction sport, however now if nothing else, Future has been all about participant customization for ten years from loadouts to appears. If Marathon ditches that in favor of Valorant, Overwatch or Apex model heroes with fastened kits, that may be a large turn-off to that total neighborhood.
One thought is that Bungie is doing this to distance itself from Tarkov, the opposite highest profile PvP extraction sport, however I believe there are seemingly different issues at play. First, that is clearly Ziegler’s talent set, and if he’s sport director now, it might be a imaginative and prescient he’s extra comfy with versus Barrett’s customized idea. Second, my intestine tells me this may occasionally have one thing to do with monetization, as hero video games promote extraordinarily expensive skins, with Valorant getting wildly costly with issues like weapon pores and skin bundles, or Apex’s Heirloom system. Which may be the form of monetization Bungie desires and wish right here with Marathon.
From the skin, switching to a hero-based sport doesn’t appear sensible. Doing that forces you into competitors with large, present video games, even you probably have a unique idea with extraction. And when you could possibly pursue new gamers, you will lose the curiosity immediately of lots of Future gamers which have caught with you for a decade, and earlier than that, Halo gamers, which this can even be nothing like.
Once more, Bungie has not confirmed this however Ziegler says extra of Marathon shall be proven quickly, and with Bungie needing to get the sport out in 2025, there may be nearly no means it adjustments course once more now.
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