The game was reportedly refunded 500 thousand times on steam.

SteamDB doesn’t track refunds. Only developers have access to those metrics. You can’t just believe any random shit you read on Twitter.

I think Marathon has indeed succeeded in being fun… for a very particular kind of audience.

Which is what Bungie should have expected. Perhaps they could have hoped that somehow the extraction shooter genre would see a boom like the battle royale genre did, but the nature of the genre made that less than likely. If their bet on Marathon hinged on extraction shooters becoming mainstream, they lost before they even launched the game, and that's that.

I haven't played it myself (as I've said before, it's just not up my alley), but user reviews are good and the player base seem to really enjoy what they've been given. In other words: It looks like it has succeeded at being fun.

The game was reportedly refunded 500 thousand times on steam. The reviews you see are from the players who liked the game from the server slam and bought in. Since steam requires you to have bought the game to leave a review, this is self selecting for the people who knew they were going to buy and like the game.

Look at the metacritic rating, It is 70 critic, 5.6 audience.

I think Marathon has indeed succeeded in being fun… for a very particular kind of audience.

Curious to know what people think of it now that the game is real and not just a beta, especially those who are bought-in.

Are you having fun? Are you getting phat loots? Dying too much?

Do you see yourself sticking with it in the near-term?

I've just been watching people play it on twitch. It's fun to see people who are way more skilled that you, in the same way it was fun to watch those people play Trials of Osiris... but it's not making me want to pick it up, it looks very stressful (again, much like Trials).

I think it's a solid enough game, I just dunno how long I'm going to stick with it. I'm playing solo 99% of the time (the couple of times I tried Fills it sucked), which isn't bad, but really has only been enjoyable for me on Perimeter. The aggressive player-hunters don't seem to play on that map too much.

I understand why wipes are necessary but my vendor/upgrade progression has been slow enough that I don't think I'll be able to make enough meaningful progress without consistent regular play, and I don't think I'm going to be motivated to keep up that kind of grind in a second season, so my time with the game feels like it'll come to an end sooner rather than later.

I might stick with the game longer term if it was PvE-only, but I'm just not good enough at PvP to overcome the sweats.

It's just not for me. PvP-only is not my thing. The people who are into that sort of thing (and have actually purchased the game) are saying it's very fun, though.

Are you having fun? Are you getting phat loots? Dying too much?

Do you see yourself sticking with it in the near-term?

I've just been watching people play it on twitch. It's fun to see people who are way more skilled that you, in the same way it was fun to watch those people play Trials of Osiris... but it's not making me want to pick it up, it looks very stressful (again, much like Trials).

You don't just build Halo 2 and a rabid player base. It just happens. It's a lightning strike. It happens organically.

Make your game fun first. Keep the price reasonable. People will play, they'll get their friends to play. That's the best you can do.

I wish Marathon the best of luck, because that is what it mostly comes down to.

Sure there are way more games now, but the huge majority of them are junk garbage nobody would want to play. They aren't your competition if you make a decent game, the same way some random shitty show on Netflix isn't going to compete with Severance.

While the playerbase has been gradually trending downward every day (as the barrier to entry slowly grows as well), Rebecca Ford (the ever-wonderful and fearless), Creative Director of Warframe, has chimed in to defend Marathon's uphill battle in the packed gaming landscape of today:

Ford: “Naming the next Warframe we release “Player Count” to pollute the searches and defend against the discourse.”

Twitter Dork: “Or devs could do what you and yours did. Make a good/decent game that gets enough retention to fund further development.”

We got incredibly lucky. We were broke. There were less than 500 other games released the year Warframe released. Every day people care about Warframe is a gift and we’re only as good as our last update.

— rebb ford (@rebbford) March 10, 2026

Here's hoping that Cryo map pulls a Vault of Glass for player hype, otherwise- I dunno what Sony will do given the fact that they need a significant Return on Investment from Bungie...

I hear the gunplay is super solid, and the controls are tight!

My concern is for Bungie.

It has nothing to do with the quality of Marathon itself. Sony has been laying off staff and shutting down games and studios at an alarming pace. Just this last week or so, I saw that they closed Bluepoint Games, who made one of THE best remasters ever released on par with Capcom's Resident Evil remakes.

The trend is clear: Sony wants breakout hits. Modest successes are seen as failures to them. Studios that fail to deliver breakout hits get hit.

Well, maybe we can get a Clair Obscur situation where a bunch of ex-Bungie talent go make a killer game. They’ve tried before with… varying degrees of success. It always seems like the Bungie magic is with the whole, not with the parts.

It has nothing to do with the quality of Marathon itself. Sony has been laying off staff and shutting down games and studios at an alarming pace. Just this last week or so, I saw that they closed Bluepoint Games, who made one of THE best remasters ever released on par with Capcom's Resident Evil remakes.

The trend is clear: Sony wants breakout hits. Modest successes are seen as failures to them. Studios that fail to deliver breakout hits get hit.

Because most places will only write one review on it, and they want the Cryo Archive (and the player experience of getting access to it) to be part of that review. It's also a bit of a risk, as there will not be reviews available for the first few weeks it is available, and that's when it would synergize best with the marketing campaign. It's a decision to think longer-term and it's something I am glad to see for a live-service game.

Ideally, I think anyone reviewing games who takes it seriously would do both. Here’s what the game is right now, more to come in a few weeks. I understand games reviews is basically a dying business, but that makes it even more unreasonable to wait. People care about Marathon now, now is when you’re going to get the eyeballs. Will that be true in a month?