Marathon reportedly had a budget of over $200 million

Following plenty of controversies, Bungie’s Marathon finally launched just over a month ago to solid reviews and a decent playercount. Whether or not the live-service extraction shooter is a success or not remains to be seen, with insiders claiming that the title cost over $200 million to develop – possibly $250 million.

As reported by Bungie insider Paul Tassi via the publication Forbes, a ton of details pertaining to Marathon’s first month on the market have been shared.

Alongside ‘confirmation’ that the live-service extraction shooter managed to sell roughly 1.2 million copies in its first two weeks, Tassi revealed just how much money Sony/Bungie have put into the project so far, stating: “I can confirm Marathon’s budget is over $200 million. Likely more than $250 million.”

While perhaps an unsurprising figure given the inflated costs of developing AAA games in today’s day and age, Tassi also claimed that these costs do not account for ongoing post-launch support, meaning it’ll only increase with time.

In doing some very basic maths, Marathon’s 1.2 million sales represents a revenue of just under $50 million. Of course while the game costs $40 to purchase, a Deluxe Edition is also on offer for $60. Combine this with ancillary sales of various in-game cosmetics and the real figure could be much higher.

Still, it appears as though Marathon has quite the journey to go on if it wants to make its money back and turn a profit. It will be interesting to see whether we get official sales data at some point in the future.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Marathon so far? Could it have long legs? Will PlayStation make back its $250+ million? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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