LogInBungie has gone radio silent following the latest controversies.
Each and every day, it's becoming harder and harder to pretend that Bungie's Marathon won't be dead on arrival, as the fourth art theft scandal and new reports of toxicity within the studio and a growing divide between its developers and executives have all but erased the remnants of goodwill and hype the upcoming extraction shooter had left.
Apparently, Bungie's parent company Sony also agrees with that assessment and, in what seems like a desperate bid to save as much money as possible without canceling the game altogether – which would arguably lose them even more money in the long run – is now reportedly scaling down Marathon's marketing budget.
Bungie
As reported by Colin Moriarty during the latest episode of the Sacred Symbols+ podcast (via The Game Post), Sony has canceled all paid marketing plans for Marathon, a move Colin describes as "unusual" for a AAA game from such a high-profile team.
Citing an anonymous source familiar with Sony's marketing strategy, Moriarty noted that he's unsure whether the budget cuts come as a direct response to the recent controversies or if they were always planned, however, given Bungie's renown and one of the recent report suggesting that the studio "absolutely cannot afford" for Marathon to fail, it is almost a certainty that the cancellation of paid marketing is reactionary and wasn't planned in advance.
"I was told by someone familiar with marketing plans in a key overseas market that there are now no plans to do paid marketing for Marathon at all," reads Moriarty's full statement. "I don't know if those plans were affected by what has recently happened, or if that was always the plan or whatever. But it is considered a fairly unusual move for a game of this high profile."
While Moriarty's report is based on an anonymous source and, as such, shouldn't be taken as a 100% factual statement, it's given weight by the fact that the Marathon team has gone radio silent in recent days.
Following the May 16 announcement of its PlayMA stream – where Bungie addressed the theft of Antireal's art to create Marathon's assets – the studio has gone completely dark, offering no new updates, announcements, gameplay showcases, or any other communication across Marathon's official News site, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or other channels.
Considering that maintaining numerous large-scale social media accounts requires money and manpower, they can be considered a form of "paid marketing," and, in that context, the lack of new posts could be seen as a confirmation of Colin's claim. Still, much like the original report itself, take this information with a grain of salt.
Marathon's Art Director Joseph Cross during the aforementioned PlayMA stream
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