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Gameplay of Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon was finally revealed over the weekend, and while there’s plenty of excitement for it, a not-negligible number of gamers have jumped into the conversation to make unflattering comparisons to Concord. Spurred by those reactions, a former Concord developer has taken to Reddit (via VG247) to encourage everyone to give the game a chance—and, maybe more importantly, to show some empathy for the people working on it.
“After reading the comments about Marathon being Concord 2.0 on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch, I just wanted to share a little insight into what a forty year old man is feeling after dedicating a large portion of his life to making videogames,” MrSpug—former Firewalk Studios senior VFX artist Stephan Williams—wrote in the Marathon subreddit.
“Concord failed to inspire players, and the message was heard loud and clear. It was gut wrenching to see our project fail, and be the laughing stock of many online. I have learned that failure is what drives me to succeed. No one feels as bad as the people who put their time on the line, hoping it will entertain the masses of gamers across the globe.”
Concord failed to inspire players, and the message was heard loud and clear. It was gut wrenching to see our project fail, and be the laughing stock of many online
Concord VFX artist Stephan Williams
Concord, you’ll recall, wasn’t just a failure, it was a spectacular flameout: It launched to virtually zero interest and was pulled offline less than two weeks later. The initial plan, at least as publicly presented, was to figure out what went wrong and try again, but in the end Sony decided to put it down for good and pulled the plug on Firewalk too—an especially ugly outcome given that Sony had acquired Firewalk less than two years earlier.
One of the drivers of the Concord comparisons is confirmation that Marathon will be a premium-priced game rather than free to play. Sony had huge success with Helldivers 2, also a premium-priced online game, but it’s really the exception to the rule, and its $40 price tag was a big knock against Concord.
Some people are clearly expecting the same from Marathon: It’s not a massive backlash, but there is a strain of persistent negativity out there, which is what prompted Williams to post his message. He acknowledged that talking about his work at Firewalk exposed him to being “roasted” for Concord, but said he hopes that instead of going after him for it, readers “see that people create these projects, and work very hard to be the next big thing.”
“Seeing the faces of the developers on the Bungie stream gave me hope, and excitement for what is to come for Marathon,” Williams wrote. “I commend them for taking a chance, trying something foreign to them, that isn’t proven, nor guaranteed to succeed. It takes a lot of courage.”
In response to one of the replies to his message—which, happily, have been almost exclusively positive—Williams said he didn’t want to call attention to himself with the message, because he doesn’t have a horse in the race at all. “But to call this game a failure before it’s even out, is wild to me,” he wrote. In another, he expressed confidence that Bungie will get it right.
“I am stoked to see the fully polished product,” he wrote. “Bungie will cook. They always do.”
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Kurt Indovina
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