Sony Promises Marathon Won’t Repeat Concord’s Mistakes—Here’s What’s Different
After the bumpy ride with Concord, Sony wants gamers to know: Marathon won’t share the same fate. Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group, made it clear in a recent fireside chat with investors that the Concord mishap was a wake-up call for PlayStation’s approach to live-service shooters. This time, with Bungie’s Marathon, Sony is promising a smarter, more precise launch process—and lots of lessons learned.
- Sony addresses lessons learned from Concord’s failed launch and cancellation
- New, rigorous validation processes are now in place for Marathon
- Bungie’s Marathon aims to stand out in a competitive market
- Release is planned for September 23 on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X
Concord’s Flop, Marathon’s Opportunity
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Concord’s launch in August 2024 was rough. The hero shooter failed to meet expectations, leading Sony to issue refunds and shut down Firewalk Studios. Hulst was open about it: “I think some really good work, actually, went into that title, some really big effort. But ultimately, that title entered into a hyper-competitive segment of the market. I think it was insufficiently differentiated to be able to resonate with players.”
Marathon: Not Another Concord
With Marathon, Sony is hitting the reset button. According to Hulst, “We have reviewed our processes in light of this to deeply understand how and why that title failed to meet expectations, to ensure we’re not going to make the same mistakes again.” The company’s new strategy? More frequent checks, ongoing feedback, and a focus on what gamers really want. “We’ve introduced much more rigorous processes for validating, for re-validating our creative, our commercial, our development assumptions and hypotheses, and we now do that on a much more ongoing basis,” Hulst explained. This means less guesswork and more data, all to give Marathon the best shot at success.
Testing, Testing—and Listening
Right now, Marathon is deep in its closed alpha phase. Sony is watching every step, soaking up feedback—good, bad, or mixed. Hulst admitted, “That’s why you do this testing. The constant testing, the constant re-validation of assumptions that we just talked about, to me is just so valuable to iterate and to constantly improve the title, so when launch comes, we’re going to give the title the optimal chance of success.”
Developers Speak Out
Even former Firewalk Studios devs are chiming in. One wrote on Reddit: “I worked on Concord, and did my best. We came up short, please don’t punish others for our mistakes.” On Marathon, the same dev added, “But to call [Marathon] a failure before it’s even out is wild to me.”
Release Date and Platforms
Marathon is set to launch on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on September 23. Sony’s message is clear: they’re determined to get it right this time. Will Marathon break the hero shooter curse? We’ll find out soon enough.
