State of Play is a Bad Omen for Big 2025 PS5 Game

Summary

  • Bungie’s new game Marathon has an uphill battle ahead of it.
  • Marathon has found itself at the center of a plagiarism controversy and its gameplay has received a lukewarm reception.
  • In the wake of these events, Marathon was completely absent from the latest PlayStation State of Play presentation.

The recent Sony State of Play event passed without any news regarding Bungie’s upcoming game, “Marathon,” which could signal potential concerns for its launch as a sci-fi extraction shooter. Developed by the esteemed studio behind “Halo” and “Destiny,” this new project has been causing some stir due to its striking visual style. However, it seems that this style has led to some controversy.

It appears that a past Bungie worker copied certain art from the game ‘Marathon,’ which was subsequently uncovered. This revelation prompted an apology from Bungie and their decision to thoroughly inspect the game to find and eliminate any other questionable assets that might have been plagiarized. The controversy surrounding the allegations of art plagiarism from ‘Marathon’ has negatively impacted the public’s view of the game, a sentiment not improved by its lackluster performance during alpha testing.

In light of the plagiarism allegations and underwhelming initial tests for Marathon, Bungie’s new shooter faces a steep climb in terms of gaining acceptance. There have been whispers that Sony abandoned promotional strategies for Marathon, although this hasn’t been officially acknowledged. However, the game’s absence at the recent State of Play broadcast suggests something may be amiss. Although Marathon is scheduled to launch on September 23rd, its conspicuous absence at the State of the Play event could indicate a lack of faith in its ability to recover before its release date. However, it might also mean nothing significant.

Marathon Was Nowhere to Be Seen at the State of Play

As a gamer, I’ve noticed that Sony’s live-service games haven’t quite hit the mark. Helldivers 2 was a smashing success, but Concord crashed and burned so hard that the game was pulled off digital shelves almost immediately after launch. Now, Marathon is Sony’s latest live-service endeavor, but it’s struggling to gain traction. The community is clamoring for a delay in its release and a shift to a free-to-play model, but whether or not those changes will occur remains uncertain.

The video game Marathon, which is developed by Bungie (a subsidiary of Sony), is scheduled to be released not just on PlayStation, but also on personal computers (PC) and the Xbox Series X. Players using PCs or Xbox Series X won’t require a PlayStation Network account to play.

The silence of Marathon during the State of Play may indicate a possible delay in its release date. If this game doesn’t manage to attract an audience and ends up being cancelled like Concord, it would be a significant blow to Sony, considering they invested $3.6 billion in purchasing Bungie initially. As for Marathon, things don’t seem promising at the moment for the upcoming shooter.

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2025-06-05 02:36