They're a business. What are you talking about? Destiny made Bungie what they are today and that was GaaS. Mocking and ridiculing doesn't change the truth or the fact that these are businesses with intentions of being as successful as possible. Seriously, what is your point? What's the point of making emotionally driven digs?

I hear this a lot. This concept that a business can't care. Well, businesses certainly can care. It's uncommon, but it's totally possible for someone to both want to make money and care about the goods they are selling, and the people who are buying them.

Actually, I'm going to take bavk my yes, it has extreme attention. All the big Destiny streamers and Bungie fanatics won't shut up about it. I suspect all this needs is good reviews. This may not be a Concord situation as that only had the attention of very hard-core gamers who keep up with the industry news and happenings. I feel Marathon has the casuals attention but it's such a niche genre to stake the future of your company on. Same with the new Bungie off shoot, like why the fuck are they choosing to go so damn niche. It's not long ago Valorant shut down and so many failed in the hero shooter genre but to go for a genre that has one or two big titles, idiotic. 

Well of course they care about public perception. They didn't expand their studio to 1600 employees off of well regarded standard single player games or non GaaS multiplayer games though. They could have made the most well regarded single player game in history, and it still wouldn't have done as well for them as Destiny did. It was a major cash cow and still is to some extent. 

I agree that marathon doesn't look amazing, it just looks OK. I wish they were a bit more creative and ambitious but it's releasing on Xbox unlike Concord so that's another large playerbase they have access to. I don't see anything in Marathon that is just going to completely destroy Bungies reputation.  

I wasn't really referring to Bungie. I have no clue if they give a damn about the players, or not. I was speaking in general terms about all companies.

As for Marathon destroying Bungie's reputation, I would say no... their rep has already been destroyed. How long has it been since we thought of them as being kings among men? Halo 3? It's been a long, long time. And most of the original people that made those first three Halo games are gone. It's mainly a name, now. A brand. Like Rare.

Look what public perception and sentiment did for the Xbone in 2013. You have to care about it to some extent, but there are other times when ignoring what people want is more profitable in the end. Do you think MS changed course with DRM in 2013 because they cared about the gamers? Or just because they cared about not losing the whole Xbox brand right there and then. That's what would've happened if they didn't remove the DRM always online policies. They only care when ignoring the people becomes too consequential. 

I think saying their reputation is destroyed is too extreme and dramatic for their situation today, but if Marathon completely bombs instantly on release, then their reputation would be destroyed I agree with that. 

Because it's coming from Bungie, it's going to get some attention. So, if it's a decent game, it'll at least do okay. There's no chance of it just getting lost, because of the Bungie pedigree. If it's a below average game, that same Bungie pedigree is going to result in amplification of that bad news, just as it has with all the bad news over the last few months.

But then when you consider that Bungie doesn't make bad games, it would seem unlikely that it's going to suck. Combine that with the fact that it's going to get attention, and I would say there's a pretty good chance of it being at least a decent success. I would bet against it being a Destiny level success, because very few games can reach that level. But, I would also bet it against it being a disaster.

Yeah but, they're only Bungie in name. The people who made the OG Halo trilogy are gone. So I really don't get this pedigree thing. There is no pedigree. They've left the building.

Destiny 2 has elite tier gunplay and movement, the gameplay is generally exceptional. It’s the issues outside of the gameplay that are the problem. Systems encouraging too much grind, key storylines told through seasons, overly monetised. 

The Final Shape is a 91 on OpenCritic and the Witch Queen was an 89. Lightfall was terrible filler though. That’s 2 out of the last 3 expansions getting very high ratings despite how many poor decisions are made outside of core gameplay and story issues. That speaks a lot about the quality of the core gameplay. I’d go so far as to say they probably still make the best first person shooter gameplay on anyone in the world. Probably on par with ID Software, and potentially some of the top tier live service shooters(that people won’t acknowledge I’m sure)

There are loads of key people that worked on the OG halo trilogy currently working on marathon. HiddenXperia Listed off a whole bunch of them and more he didn't even have time to name.