The extraction shooter genre is notoriously hard to break into, but if any studio can give it a good shot, it’s Bungie withMarathon. Launching as a premium game with a boxed price,Marathonwill have a lot of competition from the likes ofEscape From TarkovandHunt: Showdown, two similarly premium games, and titans of the genre.
Bungie’s decision thatMarathonwill not be free-to-playhas created some discussion, but the veteran studio is sticking to the plan, saying that it believes the choice is right for the future content schedule of the title. However, as it goes up against well-entrenched games with loyal player bases, Bungie may have to adopt some new tactics to get people to tryMarathonin the hopes of turning them into paying customers.
Bungie Is Sticking by Marathon as a Premium Release
Bungie revealedMarathon’s gameplayrecently, showing off its vision for an extraction shooter. A number of videos were put out marketing the game, while content creators were invited to Bungie headquarters to get a hands-on look. While there has been much discussion about the gameplay, visual design, and its relationship withDestiny, one question has been posed by commentators.
Bungie’s decision to makeMarathona premium game has caused some people to comment on how well it will fare in the difficult extraction market. Citing examples likeSony’s ill-fatedConcordshutting down, some people believe thatMarathonnot being an accessible free-to-play title will hurt its ability to sustain itself in the long run.
In response to this,MarathonGame Director Joe Zieglersaid that the choice to price Marathon this way was appropriate, citing the work the studio is doing to support the game with a seasonal model “without an increase to the boxed price.” Bungie seems confident that players will be excited enough aboutMarathonthat they will want to jump in regardless of the revenue model, and that the choice between free-to-play and boxed price has not changed a title’s success or failure within the genre in the past.
There is merit to this philosophy too.Hunt: ShowdownandEscape From Tarkovare hugely successful extraction games that do not use a free-to-play model.Escape From Tarkovis not even on Steam, which is often cited as a reason for games not succeeding, whichMarathonwill be on. Despite its success, it has famously caught flak for its high price of entry, with thecontroversy aroundTarkov’sThe UnheardEditionreplacing theEdge of Darknessversion that was previously the game’s highest price tier.
Marathon’s Premium Plans Shouldn’t Rule Out The Free Weekend Strategy
With Bungie committed, there is still one strategy that the developer has to onboard new players. A popular tactic among live-service paid games is the free weekend, where new players can download the game for free for a limited time, test it out, and then pay for it if they want to keep playing.
Free weekends have historically provided large boosts to games that use them, in many cases doubling, tripling, or multiplying the player base even more, as the window of time gives people who are curious a taste of what they are missing. Free weekends can also extend to holidays, and Bungie should be mindful of deploying them during windows before large seasonal content drops as a way to get new players excited about the upcoming content, as well as inject some extra life into the community.
There is one elephant in the room with this strategy though, and that isDestiny 2, which went free-to-playtwo years after launch. Originally a full-priced release, the switch made getting new players much simpler. ButDestiny 2has a hefty expansion model to build upon, ensuring that even when free-to-play, money will still come in. PerhapsMarathonwill follow in the same footsteps one day, but as it stands, free weekends could be a secret weapon in the fight for space in the crowded extraction shooter market.
