So yes, Bungie’s latest live-service game appears to have long-term narrative plans in place, even if actually delivering that content is an entirely different matter…
Bungie says it already has a multi-year story plan for Marathon. The shooter launched two months ago on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC, and estimates suggest it sold around 1.2 million copies in its opening weeks and has likely passed the 2 million mark by now. The studio had already committed to supporting the game over time, but in a new interview with GamesRadar, creative director Julia Nardin explained that the team has already mapped out the broad strokes of a story arc that stretches several years into the future.
According to Nardin, the backstory of what happened on Tau Ceti is already in place, and Bungie plans to keep feeding players more clues about the planet’s past while the game evolves around both its lore and the future mysteries meant to keep players engaged. She also stressed that it is crucial for new players to be able to jump into the shooter without feeling lost. That was one of Destiny’s recurring problems, since older content often became gated off or difficult to follow, which made the experience more confusing than welcoming for newcomers.
“We know where we want to take the story over the next few years, but I don’t want to say it is completely locked in, because it matters to us that players can help shape it as well. Letting player feedback influence the narrative is part of the magic of a live-service game. It is also important that players can jump into Marathon at any time. They should always be able to uncover the mysteries of Tau Ceti’s past while understanding its present. We want every season to serve as a new point of entry, and we want new players to understand what is happening no matter how long the rest of us have been playing”, Nardin said.
Bungie also claims it would rather push smaller updates more regularly than hold everything back for fewer, larger drops. In other words, the plan is to get improvements and additions out the door as quickly as possible instead of waiting until they can release everything at once, even if that means those updates feel less dramatic on the surface.
Source: VGC, GamesRadar
