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The long-term monetization of a live-service game is always a little contentious, because it's hard to find ways of delivering value while still ensuring a game's financial viability. Marathon is no different, and mere days into the full launch, some players aren't happy about the cosmetics in the FPS or the battle pass.
On the note of visual customizations, there are stickers and charms you can get to put on your weapons. Though nice little decorations, they've irritated the community because you have to collect duplicates - mostly available through monetary means - in order to put the same ones on multiple weapons.
"Not only does this make customising your weapons feel bad, Bungie also use it as a way to pad out the reward pass with duplicates of the same item, because technically you are getting multiple of it to use on multiple weapons," says a player on Reddit. "This really takes away from how rewarding the 'reward pass' feels to progress through."
A fundamental problem here, for instance, is that these limitations apply to Twitch drops and preorder bonuses, leaving you with just one charm or sticker to use on your inventory. You can move them around, but doing that's a pain. It's reminding people of how Bungie approached Destiny 2.
"Welcome back launch D2 shaders," says a top commenter on the Reddit thread. "Wouldn't be Bungie if they didn't completely fail to learn from their mistakes for the 100th time," another adds.
In that instance, the studio was even more restrictive, making shaders single-use items that only worked on one piece of armor at a time. You needed five for a full suit, and you couldn't recycle them afterward. Marathon isn't quite as predatory, but that this is where the community's mind jumped is not a good sign.
This compounds deeper criticisms with the battle pass, which has been hyperbolically called out as the "worst value for your money" some ever encountered. "One single character skin. Seriously? Only one?" a fan notes on Reddit. "I've never seen a paid battle pass in any game giving you less than two."
They point out the charms and stickers, and the fact you don't get the money spent back in in-game currency. Currently, the pass is bad enough, it's souring people's impressions of the shooter. "I fell in love with this game during the server slam and even upgraded my preorder to the deluxe edition," says a commenter. "What can I say: lesson learned."
Bungie has yet to comment. We'll see in the coming days or weeks if any changes come as a result of this pushback.
