Sony and Bungie’s big new live service bet has been met with an icy reception from PS5’s core fanbase, with a staggering 34% of Push Square readers saying they’d need to be paid to play the title.
Of the more than 2,000 fans polled, a further 37% said they don’t think the extraction shooter’s for them, with just 8% saying they’d buy the game day one.
To be fair, the remaining 22% are open to being convinced: they said they either want to try the title out in one of its upcoming beta tests or need to know more about it before committing to a purchase.
But 60% said they don’t think the game has a bright future, with 24% of that group believing it’ll have a lifespan similar to the ill-fated Concord, which was released and nuked within the space of a few weeks.
Only 4% of those voting thought Marathon would have the staying power to stick around.
These are staggeringly negative statistics, and while they may not represent the entire PS5 fanbase, they’re still reflective of Sony’s bread and butter consumers, who evangelise platform exclusives like God of War and The Last of Us.
The Push Square community does tend to prefer large-scale single player games, so an online-only live service will always face an uphill battle. But the sentiment on social media is not particularly positive either: many feel the game will struggle in a competitive market with a premium price point.
It’s perhaps worth remembering that few thought Helldivers 2 would be a success either, and it went on to become Sony’s best-selling first-party game of all time.