Marathon players have been begging Bungie to do some sort of free trial for the struggling extraction shooter and the studio is finally taking them up on it for the kick-off of season 2. The sci-fi game will go free-to-play for exactly one week so every Marathon sicko like myself can badger their friends into finally giving it a shot.
“Season 2 begins on June 2 and kicks off with an Open Play* Week from June 2 to June 9,” Bungie wrote in a new blog post. “During the Open Play Week, the full game will be available to play on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and any progress you make will carry over into Season 2. This will be a great time to invite your friends to crew up as everyone will be starting out on a clean slate.”
While Bungie is stopping just short of calling this “Open Play Week” free, that’s essentially what it is. All players need is their console’s paid subscription service to access the online multiplayer, unless they’re on PC where that stuff has always been free.
Marathon did have a free beta back before it launched, but that only included a reduced version of the game. It didn’t allow players to access all of the maps and runner shells, and progress was wiped out at launch. This new trial period will hopefully give prospective players a better sense of what to expect from Marathon and potentially hook them with that initial sense of progression and the dopamine from their first loot exfil.
And…well, Marathon could really use an influx of fresh meat. Steam chart watchers have been quick to note throughout season 1 that the concurrent player numbers have continually declined. They now hover at around 10,000 instead of the initial 80,000 peak. It’s the end of the season, so that’s not shocking. But other reporting suggests the game is struggling overall to meet expectations at the moment, especially as Bungie prepares to sunset its main breadwinner, Destiny 2.
“Engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level,” Sony said during its last earnings call. “Going forward, we aim to improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience and expansion of the user base.”
Bungie looks to be committed to Marathon at least through its first year, and it already has plans for storytelling that go well beyond that.