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A former Square Enix exec reckons Sony's lack of marketing for Marathon suggests a lack of faith in Bungie's latest game from PlayStation.
On Twitter, Jacob Navok (former director of business at Square Enix Holdings) commented on Marathon's Steam player count, calling it "brutal." And while the numbers on PS5 and Xbox aren't available, Navok reckons Sony's marketing push behind the game isn't doing the job. "Sony owns a ton of digital real estate on the PlayStation dashboards to push Marathon," he says, adding that "Its lack of marketing push to support the numbers speaks to the lack of faith from the platform holder."
The #1 most played game by hours on Xbox this past month was Marathon. If MS owned it, it would be the biggest game since Halo.Sony doesn't even try. MS would have it front page, and on Gamepass indefinitely. Marketing was non existent. The least they could do is free for PS5April 28, 2026
Of course, Sony has seen a few misses with live service games, but Marathon isn't quite Concord, as there is a section of players who do really seem to love its punishing gameplay loop.
As a user points out in the replies, Marathon was the most-played game on Xbox in the past month, and when it comes to the Xbox dashboard, typically puts its full weight behind whatever the new first-party tentpole launch is. That is, much like PlayStation does for its flagship single-player games, but hasn't here considering Arc Raiders has been at the forefront of the PlayStation Store for the majority of the time Marathon has been out.
That's not to say it's entirely on Sony. Clearly, there are a lot of people who don't really like Marathon, but when you cut through the tired "dead game" comments that everything faces, it does have a strong fanbase too – albeit one that's pretty small in the live-service pantheon. The issue is that you need to support that small fanbase and the game behind it if you ever want a chance at bringing it back.
Final Fantasy 14 was a failure when it first launched, but Square Enix invested in it, took a look at what wasn't working for people, and now it's extremely popular and probably the only MMO that has ever challenged World of Warcraft for the genre crown. I haven't played Marathon; I don't know if it has the sauce, but it won't matter if it gets the plug pulled pre-emptively.
Bungie makes Marathon's Cryo Archive less brutal, blocking spawn rush strats and giving free kits.
