Bungie’s upcoming Marathon hasn’t had the best start so far. Its beta got a lukewarm reception, and then the game and Bungie was hit by a massive controversy over stolen artwork, the 4th plagarism scandal to rock Bungie over the years. The company announced a full audit of Marathon to remove all of the stolen art, and Marathon was indefinitely delayed.
Because of this, there has been some speculation that Marathon could be cancelled entirely as a way to mitigate the damage and avoid pulling a Concord. However, Sony themselves have stepped up and reiterated that Marathon will be released, hopefully within the financial year.
As transcribed by Chris Scullion of VGC, Sony CFO Lin Tao addressed the topic in the company’s latest financial Q&A.
“First, about Marathon, how we factored it in the forecast, we expect the launch to happen within the fiscal year,” she said. “But, having said that, this is not a commitment. No official announcement has been given yet.”
She goes on to say that they are “doing modifications” to the game, and expect that “in the autumn timeframe”, they will be able to reveal a release date or window.
Tao was even asked directly if Marathon might be cancelled. She replied: “We are now fixing the problems, so we believe this launch will happen. If this launch is cancelled we’d need to do the revision of the valuation, however as of now this is not expected.”
As for Bungie, it seems like their freedom is being eroded. Bungie was originally given the freedom to operate independently with minimal interference from Sony. Since then, though, Destiny 2 has struggled and insider reports have suggested leadership problems within Bungie. As such, Sony has been slowly increasing its presence at Bungie, and looks to continue to that.
“About the governance of Bungie, at the time of acquisition we were offering a very independent environment, so that was one way of thinking,” Tao told investors. “However, thereafter, we have gone through structural reform, as we announced last year, so this independence is getting lighter, and Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios, and integration is proceeding.”
She goes on to outright state that the long-term goal is for Bungie “to become part of PlayStation Studios.”