PlayStation’s big new live-service game, Marathon, is finally out today after a delay and a ton of cool-looking trailers. The Bungie-developed sci-fi extraction shooter isn’t free-to-play, instead costing $40. But that’s not stopping Bungie from selling $15 cosmetic packs on day one.
I booted up Marathon earlier today, soon after the servers went live, and I didn’t encounter any queues or disconnects in my first hour with the game. But unlike in the recent Server Slam open beta, the main menu now featured a store tab. So I hopped over there to see what was on sale. At the moment, Bungie is offering around a dozen different weapon camos, runner skins, and cosmetic bundle packs in Marathon’s store. To buy this stuff, you’ll need to purchase Lux, which is Marathon’s premium currency. 100 Lux equals one US dollar and the smallest amount you can buy is 500 Lux for $5.
The cosmetic bundles, which include a runner skin, a weapon skin, a small cosmetic trinket, and a player profile image and banner, cost 1500 Lux or $15 in real money. You can also buy runner skins separately for around $12. While that is comparable to what skins cost in games like Bungie’s own Destiny 2, Fortnite, and Rainbow Six Siege, the difference is that those are free-to-play experiences. Marathon is $40.
Reaction to the skin costs has been mixed. Some players on Reddit seem to really like the skins and are happy Bungie is charging for cosmetics and not locking content behind paid expansion packs. Others aren’t happy with the idea that a $40 video game is packed with $15 cosmetic packs and $10+ skins on day one. This isn’t the first time a premium video game has sold skins; Call of Duty does it every year. But that doesn’t change that for some, this all feels a bit scummy.
Of course, with how expensive Marathon’s development has been, I’m not surprised to see Bungie and PlayStation squeezing willing players for a few extra bucks on day one, even after they spent at least $40 to play the game.