At this point, make Marathon a looter shooter

I know I am going to get so much insane hate for this, especially posting this on a Marathon sub. I know this sub hates talking about player counts, but it’s an unfortunate reality to talk about for live service games.

It’s clear that extraction shooters are a niche genre. Even with Marathon being as good as it is, player numbers are still not reaching the highs that anyone wants. While Arc Raiders had a big explosion, it’s been losing players massively and is almost matching Marathons player numbers. The entire genre is just not popular.

The bones are already there. You have a world with incredible lore, classes, and a gear/loadout system that already rewards progression. The extraction mechanic doesn’t have to be removed it could become one mode among several. But the core loop needs to expand beyond “extract or die.”

A looter shooter framework would give casual players a reason to stay. Not everyone wants the punishing, high-stakes tension of extraction every single session. Give people a PvE campaign, loot tiers, build crafting, and endgame activities. Let people feel rewarded just for playing, not just for surviving.

Bungie literally built this formula with Destiny. They know how to make a live service loot game that keeps people logging in. The extraction mode would actually hit harder as a playlist if players had more to lose gear they’ve grinded for.