{"id":1875501,"date":"2026-04-10T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1875501"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:00:35","slug":"this-is-not-a-game-that-is-about-to-face-some-sort-of-imminent-shutdown-marathon-reportedly-had-a-budget-of-200m-and-while-player-numbers-are-dipping-team-morale-remains-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1875501","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;This is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown&#8221; &#8211; Marathon reportedly had a budget of $200m, and while player numbers are dipping, team morale remains good"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/marathon-2025\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Marathon (2026)<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;This is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown&#8221; &#8211; Marathon reportedly had a budget of $200m, and while player numbers are dipping, team morale remains good<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">High stakes.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/bungie-marathon-wwbp.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"bungie-marathon-wwbp.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"320\"><\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Connor Makar avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/tAtwiaBo_400x400.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"374\" height=\"374\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Connor Makar avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"tAtwiaBo_400x400.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"374\" height=\"374\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/connor-makar\">Connor Makar<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Staff Writer<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-04-10T10:00:35+00:00\">April 10, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-budget-over-200-million-dollars-likely-250-million?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          9 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"22d4da80-cbfb-48da-8b63-ca4c6bd7817c\" data-name=\"Marathon (2026)\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Marathon (2026)\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Marathon (2026)\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Marathon (2026)\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Marathon (2026)\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Marathon (2026)\" title=\"Follow Marathon (2026)\"><br \/>\n  Follow Marathon (2026)<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Marathon reportedly had a development budget of over $200m, and likely over $250m, not including ongoing development costs post-launch on game maintenance and new updates.<\/p>\n<p>This comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2026\/04\/09\/checking-in-on-marathon-a-month-after-launch\/\">a new report from Forbes<\/a>, where writer and Bungie beat reporter Paul Tassi spoke to sources who provided the figure, echoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-may-have-sold-roughly-12m-copies-worldwide-with-the-majority-on-steam-rather-than-playstation-according-to-analyst-estimates\">prior estimates from industry analysts<\/a>. These sources also confirmed that over 70 percent of players were on Steam were correct, aligning with analysis from roughly the last month.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Marathon - Official Beautifully Brutal Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2rY9qbQxCn0?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/2rY9qbQxCn0\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Marathon &#8211; Official Beautifully Brutal Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Check out this short Marathon cinematic trailer!<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2rY9qbQxCn0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As Tassi notes, peak player figures on Steam have dropped roughly 68 percent since the game&#8217;s launch. As of writing, <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/3065800\/charts\/\">the game&#8217;s 24 hour concurrent player peak is 26,913<\/a>. The end game Cryo Archive activity hasn&#8217;t been able to grow this concurrent figure, which Tassi suggests is due to the overall difficulty of the game. This shouldn&#8217;t be a major surprise, given the evident embrace of intense difficulty from Marathon from minute one.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Cryo Archive map is an exceptionally challenging activity. With the greatest challenges in the game present there, and without solo queue available, it&#8217;s both the source of the most valuable loot and most devastating loses. As such, for those dedicated Marathon players enraptured with the game&#8217;s challenge, it&#8217;s a great source of fun. For those already struggling to overcome the game&#8217;s difficulty, it&#8217;s an even greater hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it doesn&#8217;t look like the game is set to shutter any time soon, like prior ill-fated releases like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/concords-sudden-shutdown-is-such-a-big-deal-its-been-brought-up-during-uk-government-debates-on-video-game-consumer-laws\">Concord<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/highguard-will-shut-down-permanently-next-week-because-it-doesnt-have-enough-revenue-to-keep-anyone-employed-to-work-on-it\">Highguard<\/a>. A relatively recent statement from Bungie developers said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathons-developers-say-they-are-in-it-for-the-long-haul-amidst-fears-the-game-has-underperformed-in-this-live-service-hell\">they&#8217;re in it for the long haul<\/a>, and Tassi&#8217;s own reporting says morale at Bungie is better than it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/bungie-morale-reportedly-in-free-fall-as-it-grapples-with-stolen-marathon-assets-fallout\">during the pre-launch plagiarism fiasco<\/a>. Fears around Marathon&#8217;s eventual closure lurk largely due to a combination of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-cancels-two-more-live-service-games-including-one-based-on-god-of-war-report\">Sony&#8217;s history of game cancellations<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/how-on-earth-do-you-find-lasting-meaningful-success-with-a-live-service-game-developers-answer-the-billion-dollar-question\">wider live service perils<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote: &#8220;On Bungie&#8217;s end, there is less panic than when the game was flailing with multiple controversies last summer. They are mostly heads-down, working on new content, and whatever the case may be, this is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown. And these days, that&#8217;s enough to qualify as a win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, even with these staggering triple-A development costs, the game remains a high quality experience for those will to take the leap and try it out. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-review\">Eurogamer noted in our Marathon review<\/a>: &#8220;With spellbinding combat and high-concept maps, Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Marathon reportedly had a development budget of over $200m, and likely over $250m, not including ongoing development costs post-launch on game maintenance and new updates.<\/p>\n<p>This comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2026\/04\/09\/checking-in-on-marathon-a-month-after-launch\/\">a new report from Forbes<\/a>, where writer and Bungie beat reporter Paul Tassi spoke to sources who provided the figure, echoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-may-have-sold-roughly-12m-copies-worldwide-with-the-majority-on-steam-rather-than-playstation-according-to-analyst-estimates\">prior estimates from industry analysts<\/a>. These sources also confirmed that over 70 percent of players were on Steam were correct, aligning with analysis from roughly the last month.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Marathon - Official Beautifully Brutal Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2rY9qbQxCn0?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/2rY9qbQxCn0\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Marathon &#8211; Official Beautifully Brutal Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Check out this short Marathon cinematic trailer!<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2rY9qbQxCn0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As Tassi notes, peak player figures on Steam have dropped roughly 68 percent since the game&#8217;s launch. As of writing, <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/app\/3065800\/charts\/\">the game&#8217;s 24 hour concurrent player peak is 26,913<\/a>. The end game Cryo Archive activity hasn&#8217;t been able to grow this concurrent figure, which Tassi suggests is due to the overall difficulty of the game. This shouldn&#8217;t be a major surprise, given the evident embrace of intense difficulty from Marathon from minute one.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Cryo Archive map is an exceptionally challenging activity. With the greatest challenges in the game present there, and without solo queue available, it&#8217;s both the source of the most valuable loot and most devastating loses. As such, for those dedicated Marathon players enraptured with the game&#8217;s challenge, it&#8217;s a great source of fun. For those already struggling to overcome the game&#8217;s difficulty, it&#8217;s an even greater hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it doesn&#8217;t look like the game is set to shutter any time soon, like prior ill-fated releases like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/concords-sudden-shutdown-is-such-a-big-deal-its-been-brought-up-during-uk-government-debates-on-video-game-consumer-laws\">Concord<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/highguard-will-shut-down-permanently-next-week-because-it-doesnt-have-enough-revenue-to-keep-anyone-employed-to-work-on-it\">Highguard<\/a>. A relatively recent statement from Bungie developers said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathons-developers-say-they-are-in-it-for-the-long-haul-amidst-fears-the-game-has-underperformed-in-this-live-service-hell\">they&#8217;re in it for the long haul<\/a>, and Tassi&#8217;s own reporting says morale at Bungie is better than it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/bungie-morale-reportedly-in-free-fall-as-it-grapples-with-stolen-marathon-assets-fallout\">during the pre-launch plagiarism fiasco<\/a>. Fears around Marathon&#8217;s eventual closure lurk largely due to a combination of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-cancels-two-more-live-service-games-including-one-based-on-god-of-war-report\">Sony&#8217;s history of game cancellations<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/how-on-earth-do-you-find-lasting-meaningful-success-with-a-live-service-game-developers-answer-the-billion-dollar-question\">wider live service perils<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote: &#8220;On Bungie&#8217;s end, there is less panic than when the game was flailing with multiple controversies last summer. They are mostly heads-down, working on new content, and whatever the case may be, this is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown. And these days, that&#8217;s enough to qualify as a win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, even with these staggering triple-A development costs, the game remains a high quality experience for those will to take the leap and try it out. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-review\">Eurogamer noted in our Marathon review<\/a>: &#8220;With spellbinding combat and high-concept maps, Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Marathon (2026) &#8220;This is not a game that is about to face some sort of imminent shutdown&#8221; &#8211; Marathon reportedly had a budget of $200m, and while player numbers are dipping, team morale remains good High stakes. News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on April 10, 2026 9 comments Follow Marathon (2026) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1875501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1875501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1875501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1875501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1875501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}