The Ringer-Verse
Are 'Marathon' and 'Pokémon Pokopia' What Sony and Nintendo Needed? | Button Mash
06 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
If you're a fan of the inner workings of Hollywood, then check out my podcast, The Town, on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name's Matt Bellany. I'm founding partner at Puck and the writer of the What I'm Hearing newsletter.
Chapter 2: What are the first impressions of Bungie's 'Marathon'?
With my show, The Town, I bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week, we've got three short episodes featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you what people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite show was canceled overnight, which streamer is on the brink of collapse, and which executive is on the hot seat.
Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who will never eat lunch in this town again. Follow The Town on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lindberg, senior editor and voice of video games at the Ringer, if that doesn't sound too self-aggrandizing. And today, Button Mash becomes a marathon, not a sprint.
As we discuss Sony's big new live service bet on Bungie, the long-awaited and initially much maligned online shooter Marathon. We'll share our impressions of the game. We'll discuss how it fits into the ever-shifting live service landscape. RIP Highguard, we hardly knew you. And we'll examine whether there's actually a little life left in the console wars.
All of which will be a prelude to a Pokemon conversation. As Charles Pulliam Moore from The Verge joins me to discuss Pokemon Pocopia. and the 30th anniversary and future of the franchise. But before I welcome a second Charles to the Ringiverse, let's head to Tau Ceti 4 and welcome our runners for this first segment. In Marathon, you spend a lot of time in trios, and so we will today.
Backing me up, and potentially turning on me to take my loot, are The Ringer's Deputy Art Lead, Matt Jigglypuff James. Hello, Matt. I would never turn on you, Ben, and I humbly accept the title of Jigglypuff. You are cute and cuddly. Also spawning in is Senior Audio Producer and Midnight Voice Activist, Steve Arceus Allman. Hello, Steve.
I'm unfamiliar with that Pokemon, but I will be saying my name constantly throughout this podcast. So I could be excellent. Fellas, this is a momentous time. Hot on the heels of Resident Evil Requiem, which has deservedly sold five million copies in one week. We had Marathon and Pocopia drop on the same day. And that wasn't all. Move over, Mugenics.
There's a new king of Steam roguelikes, and it's Slay the Spire 2. We don't always cover early access releases. With Hades 2, for instance, we waited for the full PC and Switch release, but more than 400,000 people are playing Slay the Spire 2 as we speak.
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Chapter 3: How do live service games impact the gaming landscape?
So we may have to adjust that policy at some point. Anyway, with those three, plus smaller games that are quite intriguing, like Esoteric Ebbe, and Planet of Lana 2, and Scott Pilgrim EX. March is coming in hot, not to mention all the intriguing trailers and demos out of Steam Next Best, and an enticing Nintendo Indie World Showcase, Matt.
Chapter 4: Are the PlayStation/Xbox console wars making a comeback?
Mini Shoot Adventures, the 2024 game I felt worst about not playing at the time. has finally come to consoles, and I will rectify that oversight belatedly. So I wish we could catch them all, and maybe we will eventually, but we have accepted a different contract for today. We have been waiting quite a while for Marathon.
Not the 1994 bungee shooter, but the brand new one, which is a player versus player versus environment, online multiplayer first-person shooter.
Chapter 5: What is the backlash regarding promotional images for video game adaptations?
This one was announced about three years ago, originally slated to release last year until the game got flamed in a closed alpha test and delayed indefinitely or until it turns out this week. So hundreds of thousands of people played it concurrently in a server slam that wrapped up a few days before the full debut.
And now it's here on PS5, Windows, and Xbox Series with full cross-play and cross-progression support. Guys, big game, big studio, big stakes for Sony considering the company's live service struggles, the decline of Destiny 2 since Sony acquired Bungie, the general skepticism about live service shooters in the wake of Concord and High Guard, and the bad buzz about Marathon last year.
This is not a free to play shooter like High Guard. It's 40 bucks for the standard edition, 60 for deluxe. So more of the Helldivers 2 model or the Concord model for that matter. So based on what we've seen and played so far, is Marathon a good game? Will it be the hit Sony needs?
Chapter 6: What are the initial thoughts on 'Pokémon Pokopia'?
Or is it destined to end up on the live service scrap heap? What say you, Steve? I barely know any of those answers, but I also it makes me feel comforting to know that even Sony didn't know that even making this game. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it going to last? Lord, I do not know. Is it going to be a hit? That's actually going to be remaining to be seen.
And I think that it's actually probably best measured in the short term because we only have to go by the short term now with the high guards of the world. being less than about a month's worth in its lifespan, I think Bungie really needs to be paying the most attention to this game at the beginning and addressing every single thing that it could possibly do moment to moment.
And from what I've played and what I've enjoyed, it seems to be doing that. Do I know if this game is for me? Actually, probably not. But I've enjoyed what I've had. And it's mainly just a mental exercise. Matt, am I crazy? Or is this kind of just going to be something that we axe at the end of the year? Yeah, it's hard to say so far.
But I think that based on the debut, there were some posts going around about how the current Steam users were about dead even for Slate Aspire 2 and Marathon at launch, which is not where you'd want ideally marathon to debut, I think, given the budget and the time it's taken to make this.
But ultimately, you know, with High Guard, which came out the gate as a free-to-play, so it is not exactly apples to apples here,
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Chapter 7: How does 'Pokémon Pokopia' relate to the Switch 2?
Big numbers at the start, fast drop off. We're going to have to see in the next few days what those player counts look like with Marathon. Again, we talked about this on the pod.
Chapter 8: What does the future hold for the Pokémon franchise?
I feel like the $40 entry point for an online shooter If you're dropping $40 to play Marathon, you're not going to give it up the next day, right? You're at least going to put some time into this purchase you've made. So that should at least help keep the player count going for a good amount of time. I feel like this game plays very well.
My problem with it is that I simply don't like extraction shooters. And everything about this game aside from that
I'm into it feels great to play I do like the art style quite a lot I actually really like the world that they've created here in the lore that they sprinkle throughout and I'm going to keep putting some time into this even though I'm not really into extraction shooters because I think that the.
The loop of the game is quite good, the way you're given missions and you complete the missions and you unlock new levels of gear. And I'm finding it definitely something I want to come back to, which is not something I could say at the launch of High Guard. How about you, Ben? Yeah, I think...
We're hedging because it's so hard to predict whether a game will be a success, a game that's built to be a long-term success. It's very difficult to say in the early days whether it will prove to have staying power. However, you can sometimes predict whether it will be an enormous flop. At least I think Marathon has avoided that fate thus far. Concord and High Guard are different stories.
As you said, one is free to play, one is not. They were sprints and not marathons. Yes, it's true. I mean, I don't know that you could call Concord a sprint at any point either, really. It was sort of, you know, shuffling from the starting gate, essentially. But the difference there, because of the pricing, is that really nobody ever played Concord.
Like the peak concurrent user, it was laughable, right? The count. Whereas plenty of people played High Guard, thanks in part to... the blessing and a curse publicity that it got at the Game Awards, but almost immediately everyone deserted it, right?
But one way or another, if no one plays your game or a lot of people try it out and decide they don't like it, well, that's going to be a death knell for you. And it's very tough to come back from that. And it seemed last year like Marathon might end up in that boat because there was such a backlash to the gameplay, the art, to everything really about the closed beta that
And I think to Sony's credit, to Bungie's credit, they went back to the drawing board a bit. It's not a completely different game, but I think they took that feedback, something that High Guard was lacking, right? Because High Guard did not do broad public testing in that way, didn't get that kind of feedback.
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