Marathon has somehow found ANOTHER new low. Bungie's extraction shooter peaked at just 3,507 concurrent Steam players Wednesday, down from 4,143 the week before and a staggering 96% from its March peak. Ordnance Heist and the six-shot Firestorm were supposed to give players something new to chase, but the response has been underwhelming and the population keeps disappearing. With 33 days until Season 3, Marathon is eating them! Sources; - https://steamdb.info/app/3065800/charts/#1w - https://steamdb.info/app/1085660/charts/#1w - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2090349782267306074 - https://x.com/LordCharizard33/status/2090622867318657335 - https://x.com/TauCetiGG/status/2090502302675374436 - https://thegamepost.com/marathon-player-count-96-launch-bungie-season-3/ - https://x.com/PolishTamales/status/2090602614144799027 - https://x.com/_Tom_Henderson_/status/2090585899629240373 - https://x.com/PaulTassi/status/2090470023462592907 - https://x.com/PolishTamales/status/2090408518516138057 Thumbnail by @NobodyHasSpoken

Former Naughty Dog developer Benson Russell is sounding the alarm over Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, warning that the game may need changes to avoid “another Last of Us 2 situation.” After roughly SIX YEARS of development, Russell says Naughty Dog's massive development cycles are “absolutely not” sustainable and suggests Intergalactic may be trying to cram too much story and gameplay together. I react to his comments and why Naughty Dog's next massive PlayStation project is already raising serious red flags. Sources: - https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2089910725812605201 - https://x.com/DeepSpaceDread/status/2089905525060219164 - https://frvr.com/blog/the-last-of-us-designer-believes-naughty-dogs-release-structure-is-unsustainable-as-they-witness-waste-scope-creep-and-siloed-teams-across-the-games-industry/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benson-russell-91ab08/ - https://youtu.be/VLGy63pt9vA?si=dL-OMMJvP7BVczyh - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2072095269957841054

THE CONCORDIAN TIMELINE IS NEARLY COMPLETE. Bloomberg reports that Guerrilla Games has been rebooting Horizon Hunters Gathering following poor feedback from private playtests, and the biggest reported change is incredible: the LIVE-SERVICE component is being removed. The project is reportedly being scaled back into a more traditional cooperative multiplayer game with a story mode. After Concord, cancellations, reboots and Sony's live-service ambitions getting repeatedly scaled back, another piece of the timeline falls into place. Sources: - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2090073684916728201 - https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/2090061805330768170 - https://x.com/EndymionYT/status/2090099757373165954 - https://x.com/ALegendaryDrops/status/2090209757168603159 - https://x.com/PigeonGoGaming/status/2090112902594224370 - https://youtu.be/JubgL46Xkmk?si=2tbVhexZkH7-3h9B - https://x.com/ShitpostRock/status/2090260530409722332 - https://x.com/Grummz/status/2090125153607012575

Marathon peaked at just 4,020 concurrent Steam players Tuesday, down more than 95% from its March high, while Destiny 2 has now beaten it for 73 consecutive days. Then Bungie's new Ordnance Heist arrived: grind multiple objectives for the Firestorm, survive the lobby, get SIX explosive shots... and lose the weapon when you extract. Even worse, the update launched with major matchmaking problems that prevented players from accessing maps for hours. Season 3 is 34 days away... Tick Tock. Sources: - https://steamdb.info/app/3065800/charts/#1w - https://x.com/LordCharizard33/status/2090219474670530689 - https://x.com/PolishTamales/status/2090186238921969721 - https://x.com/LordCharizard33/status/2090047277179994130 - https://x.com/JayViperTV/status/2090146499246051476 - https://x.com/PolishTamales/status/2090237890169278694 - https://x.com/DestinyBulletn/status/2090173628663087139 - https://x.com/PaulTassi/status/2090180273908470223 - https://x.com/PolishTamales/status/2090046126690857321 Thumbnail by @NobodyHasSpoken

Shift Up has reportedly hired longtime Sony/PlayStation executive Jerome Benzadon as Head of Global Communications. Benzadon spent roughly 13 years at Sony and has been associated with DEI-related initiatives during his time there. After receiving information about the hire in my DMs, I started digging into his background and what his new position could mean for Shift Up and the future of Stellar Blade. Does this prove Stellar Blade 2 will be censored or Shift Up is suddenly “cooked”? No. But given the existing censorship controversy surrounding Stellar Blade and Shift Up's increasingly close relationship with Sony, it's absolutely something worth watching. Red flags are here. Sources: - https://x.com/ChibiReviews/status/2090301128789368854 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerome-benzadon-29409b5/?skipRedirect=true - https://www.instagram.com/jeromebenz/ - https://x.com/retryall2/status/2090234643907858866 - https://x.com/silva1983_da/status/2090310420686950644 - https://x.com/Jeromebenz

Is games journalism having a midlife crisis? Insider Gaming's Mike Straw is confronting an uncomfortable reality for traditional games media: simply breaking news isn't enough anymore. The information is everywhere and usually free. What audiences increasingly show up for is personality, interpretation, discussion and opinion. In other words... basically what independent creators have been doing for years. I react to his comments and what they say about the identity crisis facing modern games journalism. Sources: - https://x.com/MikeStrawMedia/status/2089152120419135722 - https://x.com/longislandviper/status/2089462482033422464 - https://x.com/MikeStrawMedia/status/2087398318565474555 - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2089486415444992440

The Wolverine situation keeps getting stranger. Brittany Morris, who worked on the story for Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine, left the studio in February 2025, saying the departure was for personal reasons. Meanwhile, former Firewalk Studios character artist Mackenzie Patrick, who worked on Concord, ended up working on Wolverine. And now we learn Insomniac even included an accessibility option that selectively removes blood and dismemberment from WOLVERINE. I go through the people behind the game, the creative decisions and why the red flags... Sources: - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2089465953000243543 - https://x.com/Gazz_54/status/2089476485253919134 - https://x.com/poliwa_93/status/2089383752946635066 - https://x.com/Cyael/status/2089438643421081986 - https://x.com/khaliltooshort/status/2089439508353728619 - https://x.com/tokyosdaughter/status/2089435623769710848 - https://www.authorbrittneymorris.com/videogames - https://x.com/SmashJT/status/1971311082380943823

ROCKSTAR IS PISSED. The group behind the latest GTA 6 leak is attempting to frame its actions as a crusade against digital pre-orders, locked content and games becoming unplayable when servers shut down. But before anyone turns this leaker into some kind of consumer-rights hero, there are some HUGE red flags surrounding the apparent meme-coin angle behind all of this. I break down the manifesto, the alleged grift and why picking a fight with Rockstar over GTA 6 may have been a catastrophic mistake. Sources; - https://x.com/NikTek/status/2089836599421120565 - https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2089822102962471080 - https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2089793787451347421 - https://x.com/videotech/status/2089785119120761202 - https://x.com/NikTek/status/2089843544928502215 - https://x.com/StopKilingGames/status/2089892615923622375 - https://x.com/NikTek/status/2089774599001288795 - https://x.com/videotech/status/2089809565923631309 - https://x.com/8biteric/status/2089806878603674003