Sony Says Marathon Won't Be Another Concord

I played the Concord beta back in the day, and while it wasn’t terrible, it was just bland. Another hero shooter, with nothing new to offer. Marathon seems to be heading in a different direction, and I like that. I like that Sony's putting it through tons of internal testing and feedback cycles. They’re not just building hype off a cinematic trailer. It’s real feedback from players that’s shaping the game right now.

So I watched the full investor talk Sony did, and yeah, the way they’re talking about Marathon makes it pretty clear they’ve learned from the Concord mess. Hulst was upfront — they didn’t pretend Concord was some misunderstood masterpiece. He literally said it failed because it didn’t stand out. And that kind of honesty? That’s not something we usually get.

Also, that Reddit post from the ex-Firewalk dev hit me. You could feel how much the team cared. It sucks to see their work fall apart like that, but it was cool to see that same person back Marathon and say it deserves a shot. That tells me Bungie’s doing something right this time.

On the business side, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst addressed Marathon’s development in a recent investor chat. He acknowledged that Concord, the August 2024 hero shooter, failed to meet expectations. The game was launched into a crowded market and ultimately shut down, with Firewalk Studios closing shortly after.

Hulst stated:

"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, to ensure we’re not going to make the same mistakes again."

Sony is implementing new internal strategies to avoid another misstep with Marathon. According to Hulst, the company has instituted more rigorous procedures to evaluate creative, commercial, and development-related decisions on a continuous basis, not just at milestones. This includes extended playtests and audience analytics during early phases of development.

Hulst emphasized that:

"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."

Bungie, which has a storied legacy thanks to the original Marathon series and Destiny, is spearheading this new extraction shooter. Marathon will be the studio’s first new IP in over ten years. While it revives the name of Bungie’s early '90s FPS trilogy, the new game is a fresh take: an extraction shooter with a sci-fi focus and PvPvE elements.

Hulst further added that the studio is:

"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."

He admitted that feedback from early testing has been mixed but noted its value in shaping the game. Marathon's development is being iterated constantly with those insights, a move meant to ensure a successful launch later this year.

In a separate Reddit post, a former Firewalk Studios developer also commented:

"I worked on Concord, and did my best. We came up short, please don’t punish others for our mistakes."

The developer continued, expressing support for Bungie:

"But to call a failure before it’s even out is wild to me."

Marathon is scheduled for release on September 23, 2025. It will be available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. With Bungie at the helm and a strong push for innovation and polish, both fans and critics are watching closely. This isn’t just a redemption arc for Sony’s live-service ambitions — it’s Bungie’s opportunity to show they still lead in multiplayer shooter design.

So yeah, from everything I’ve seen, it looks like Marathon might be the game that proves Sony can pull off a live-service shooter if they actually listen, iterate, and don’t rush it out the door. We’ll see in September.