Sony has released a statement today that confirms its commitment to live service despite failures like Concord, and commits to March 2026 for Marathon launch.
Sony and live service have not had the greatest track record as of late. Just four years ago, Sony promised gamers everywhere that they would deploy a total of 12 new live service offerings by the year 2026, and many of those have since been cancelled, delayed, or otherwise. One of the titles, Concord, was regarded as a colossal failure. Firewalk Studios reportedly had a $400 million budget (Forbes says) for Concord, and the title reportedly sold only 25,000 units before being completely removed from the marketplace.
Fans have notably placed worry on another upcoming live service shooter, Bungie’s Marathon. PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst attempted to stifle those worries in a business call where he claims live service remains “a really great opportunity for us.” Hulst also admitted current feedback for Marathon has been “varied”.
Hulst continued with “I think some really good work, went into that title[Concord], 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. 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” regarding their previous live service mistakes with Firewalk Studios’ Concord.
It’s worth mentioning Marathon recently went through its own season of controversy with accusations of stolen art being used in their assets. That was followed with a confession and apology from Marathon Game Director Joe Ziegler and Art Director Joe Cross, on a tense livestream that had nearly zero Marathon assets shown in live stream view. This was then due to the team undertaking a “thorough review” of their existing assets to ensure they were original and not lifted from the internet without credit. That live stream can be seen below.
Hulst concluded his point about Bungie’s Marathon by committing to a release date, he said “We’re also very excited about Marathon’s anticipated launch in this fiscal year.” Marathon will be out by the end of March 2026.
