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[STEAM] Sony Admits Marathon Feedback 'Has Been Varied,' but Insists It Will Avoid Repeating Concord Mistakes and Commits to Launch by End of March 2026

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, and insisted
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will be out before April 2026 despite admitting the recent alpha had seen “varied” feedback.

Sony’s live service hero shooter Concord is one of the biggest flops in PlayStation history. Amid disastrously low player numbers, Sony pulled Concord offline just two weeks after launch, with one estimate suggesting it
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. It has proved a costly failure for Sony, with hundreds of millions of dollars wasted amid the closure of its developer, Firewalk Studios.

What has Sony learned from the Concord disaster, and how does that relate to Marathon, Bungie’s in-development extraction live service shooter? Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group, was asked that question during an investor focused interview. Responding, Hulst admitted that feedback to Marathon’s recent alpha test had been “varied,” but insisted the game will be released during Sony’s current fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, and promised that the mistakes it made with Concord would not be repeated.

“Live service, we really see that as a great opportunity for us,” Hulst said. “But with this great opportunity are some unique challenges associated. We talked about some early success as with Helldivers 2. We’ve also faced some challenges, as with the release of Concord.

“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.

“And so we have reviewed our processes in light of this to deeply understand how and why that title failed to meet expectations and to ensure we’re not going to make the same mistakes again.

“As I said earlier, 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. That’s the plan that will ensure we are investing in the right opportunities at the right time, all while maintaining much more predictable timelines.

“For Marathon, it’s our goal to release a very bold, very innovative, and deeply engaging title. It’s going to be the first new Bungie title in over a decade. So we’re really excited for that release. We’re monitoring, we’re going through the test cycles. We’re monitoring the closed alpha cycle the team has just gone through. We’re taking all the lessons learned, we’re using the capabilities we’ve built and analytics and user testing to understand how audiences are engaging with the title.

“Some of that feedback, frankly, has been varied. But it’s super useful. 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.

“This cycle of test, of iterate, test again, that is such a key component of the live service success, both leading up to launch but also throughout the life of the game. And we’re committed to continuing to leverage our learnings, to maximise engagement and player satisfaction throughout the lifecycle of the title.”

Hulst failed to address
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, however. Last month, Bungie was left scrambling to recover its reputation after yet another independent artist accused the studio of "lifting" their artwork in Marathon.

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prompted an "immediate investigation" and acknowledgement from the studio that a "former Bungie artist" had indeed used Fern Hook's work without compensation or credit. Soon after, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross apologized on a painfully uncomfortable
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that featured no Marathon art or footage at all, as the team was "still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation."

Sony’s live service plan has seen significant success but also catastrophic failure. The Concord flop came after Sony had already canceled Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game. And earlier this year,
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, one a God of War title in development at Bluepoint, the other in the works at Days Gone developer Bend, which recently suffered mass layoffs as a result.

Sony announced plans in February 2022 to
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, later saying
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. It spent big on studio buyouts as part of the drive, bringing in Destiny developer Bungie, ***** Raymond's Haven Studios (
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), and the now shuttered Firewalk Studios.

But in 2023, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the company was reviewing the 12 live service PlayStation games it had in the works, and committed to launching only six of them by the end of financial year 2025, meaning by the end of March 2026. Totoki said Sony was still working on when the other six live service games would come out, adding: "It's not that we stick to certain titles, but for the gamers quality should be the most important.”

Earlier this month,
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, which is a live service incubation project. Guerrilla’s Horizon multiplayer game is also in development.

Speaking more generally about Sony’s live service ambition, Hulst said the company remains “very, very committed to building a diverse and a resilient live service portfolio.” He pointed to MLB The Show, Destiny 2, and Helldivers 2 as “really good examples of the type of titles we’re looking to develop.”

“These titles have already established an enduring set of player experiences and communities across quite a wide range of different genres,” he said. “Together that provides a really good foundation for our ambitions in this category.

“I would say additionally we are continuing to invest in new live services, with Helldivers 2 providing such a great example of the level of success we can achieve — if we get everything right.

“That game has been a true breakout success, it’s been attracting and retaining significant community and very engaged players since we launched that back in February 2024. And its ongoing success I think is further evidence in how we deal with the monetization. Microtransactions now in that game make up more than half of the revenue.”

And then, the kicker: a commitment to releasing Marathon by the end of March 2026: “We’re also very excited about Marathon’s anticipated launch in this fiscal year,” Hulst confirmed.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on
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at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld.

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