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Handcrafted art helps fight hunger
Buy a soup bowl to help combat local hunger, visit a new spot to make pottery, and stock up on some holiday gifts when Rainbow Springs Art in Dunnellon opens
“Something Out of Science Fiction”: A Ghostly Green Star Has Been Revealed for the First Time
White dwarfs glow in a rainbow of colors, one recorded for the first time in new research showing how these stars can defy expectations.
'White' dwarf stars can be purple, pink and even green, surprising new study finds
Stellar remnants called white dwarfs appear to come in a rainbow of colors, according to a new study.
'Reading Rainbow' host Mychal Threets shares concerning update
Viral librarian and ‘Reading Rainbow’ host Mychal Threets says he is 'trying to stay' amid ongoing mental health battles.
'Reading Rainbow' host Mychal Threets shares concerning update
Viral librarian and ‘Reading Rainbow’ host Mychal Threets says he is 'trying to stay' amid ongoing mental health battles.
Ubisoft plans cuts at German studios, adding to wave of workforce reductions
Ubisoft is planning to reduce its workforce in Germany, where it operates a trio of studios, by about 100 workers, Game File has learned. The company wants to offer employees buyouts to, should enough people accept, avoid having to lay anyone off. “In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz,” a company rep told Game File. A “works council” is a union-like group representing employees. “The voluntary plan is the primary measure being proposed to support the intended organizational changes,” the Ubisoft rep added. The company declined to confirm the scale of the potential headcount cut. Of the impacted studios, Mainz might be the best known to the public. It leads development of the Anno series and shipped the well-reviewed strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana in November 2025. Berlin and Dusseldorf operate as support studios within Ubisoft’s creative network. Berlin recently supported the development of Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake. Dusseldorf also contributed to those projects, as well as The Settlers and Ubisoft-branded escape rooms. Dusseldorf is the biggest of the three studios, with some 400+ workers, compared to just over 100 at the other two, a source familiar with the reductions and the teams told Game File. More than half of these new reductions of about 100 people are expected to happen at Dusseldorf. The planned cuts were announced at a town hall for the German studios on Tuesday of last week. In an email follow-up, the studio group’s managing director, Benedikt Grindel, said the cuts were intended to “best position our German studios for the future... with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities and organizational setup needed for the work ahead.” The email was an echo of the past. In January 2025, Grindel had emailed the Ubisoft developers in his region (or studio “zone”) to explain that a round of 185 cuts at the time, including about 65 at Dusseldorf, were “essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.” A half-decade of continued job cuts Ubisoft has been aggressively cutting its headcount for years. At the end of September 2022, it had 20,729 workers. By the end of March 2026, that total was down to 16,590. Studio management is trying to trim costs as it grapples with a changing industry and a drought of releases, let alone hits. The company announced earlier this year that it had reduced its costs since 2022 by “nearly €325 million” ($362m) and planned to lower them through 2028 by another €180 million ($200m). In June the company said it was closing down its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cutting roles in its Barcelona team. Even commercial and creative success hasn’t spared studios from this ongoing company-wide contraction. As Game File was nailing down details around the proposed cuts in Germany, Ubisoft management was informing workers of cuts in its Singapore studio, which shipped a hit remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag this past July. Some 70 positions in Singapore are being eliminated “to align the studio with upcoming production needs,” per a company rep’s statement to Game File. In early 2024, a large team in the Singapore studio launched the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones. It performed poorly but has been supported with regular content updates since. Many of Ubisoft’s studios around the world are heavily subsidized via regional grants and tax breaks. Singapore had been among them for years, but received no such local assistance in the 12 months ending this past March. News of the Singapore cuts broke today alongside word that Ubisoft is also proposing the closure of RedLynx, pending negotiations with officials. The Finnish studio behind the motorbike series Trials was founded in 2000 and sold to Ubisoft in 2011. As reported by VGC (and corroborated by Game File), Ubisoft management told employees it could not come up with a new, sustainable assignment for RedLynx. The 2025 workforce at Ubisoft Dusseldorf were straight-up cuts. This time, Ubisoft is hoping the reductions at its trio of German studios will largely come from workers taking a payout to leave. The company offered such voluntary dismissals at its Massive Entertainment studio (The Division) a year ago. For the German studios’ buyouts this time around, Ubisoft and the Works Council had discussed a formula that’d pay a worker’s monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years they’ve worked at the company, according to Game File sources. The formula is still subject to negotiations with the Works Council and has not yet been part of an official offer to workers. It could be adjusted up or down, and it could be supplemented with additional bonuses. Asked about the floated payout formula, a Ubisoft rep told Game File, “The terms of a potential voluntary departure program remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives. No final agreement has been reached, and we won’t comment on specific proposals while discussions are ongoing.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Epic’s AI adventures Epic Games (Fortnite, the Unreal engine) is all-in on using AI to try to transform the way it makes video games and game-making tools. It’s leaders appear to be undeterred by any resistance among gamers and some game developers around generative AI—and instead emboldened by advances, particularly in AI-assisted programming. A recap of the last three days: On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Epic management told workers last week that development of an upcoming game combining Star Wars and Marvel characters would be “AI first.” Employees would be expected to use AI models such as Claude to code the game. A manager told Epic’s developers there would be “[n]o more hand-written code” and that art for the game would be “generated with full AI workflows,” per the outlet. Just ahead of that story running, Epic founder Tim Sweeney tweeted: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.” In a follow-up, Sweeney predicted that most game development processes would be at least three times faster a year from now than they were in January 2026, thanks to AI. To a person on X who told him he was failing to read the room, Sweeney said: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be.” On Wednesday, Epic announced it was releasing a faster launcher for its Epic Games Store marketplace. It did so by stating in a blog post as clear as could be that the launcher is an AI-enabled, vibe-coded project: Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. Programming is hard? That was unexpected phrasing from a company founded by a legendarily great programmer. Back in 2011, Sweeney told me that he’d picked up programming quickly as a kid and rejoiced at the power it gave him. “I could look at any program that anybody else had written and, with enough effort, build something cooler.” Item 3: The Xbox Labs experiment (and one of the people behind it) Microsoft’s Xbox division, which is flooding the zone with announcements lately, yesterday revealed a new internal tech-tinkering team called Xbox Labs. In the words of Xbox boss Asha Sharma Labs is “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.” Conventional wisdom coming out of the announcement is that Labs is a team that’ll focus on ideas driven by generative AI. In her announcement, Sharma cited some of the dizzying achievements in tech and gaming over the past month as AI agents and other AI tools have been deployed to swiftly figure out how popular games work, then rebuild them and mix them up. She mentioned seeing ”games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support” and said “[p]erhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.” (Minecraft plus Elden Ring, for example, or Fortnite + Super Monkey Ball + Overwatch + Diablo + others.) Sharma also cited the work of Windows PC games being ported to run in browsers, a seeming reference to a recent AI-assisted fan port of Halo. Or perhaps Call of Duty or GTA. Sharma didn’t use the specific term “AI” in her memo, but she came close, citing AI “agents” and their potential for game-making tools that Labs could help craft: I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. When I asked an Xbox rep if Labs was an AI-centric team, they said genAI was not the focus, describing it as having a broader mandate for using new tech in new ways in gaming. As an example, they pointed to Xbox’s recently launched disc-to-digital gaming usage rights program. Microsoft didn’t specifically name anyone involved full-time in Xbox Labs yesterday, but on social media and LinkedIn, I spotted Adrian Mato IDing himself as leading the creatio of tools at Labs and talking up the launch. Mato first caught my attention in late September, when he said on X that he was “starting to build a new team at Xbox focused on products and tools for how games get built and distributed as agentic tools become more capable.” At the time, he framed AI-based tools as a supplement to traditional game dev tools. “I don’t think we need to replace them,” he said. Since then, he’s publicly shown interest in AI and in games. He’s recently spent some of his X feed marveling at the power of AI agents and praising the lighting in the latest Gears of War. Following the Labs announcement yesterday, he enthused about the Xbox Labs’ stylish landing page. He wrote: “We built some fun tools to art-direct shaders in real time, experimented with interactive ASCII art, and sprinkled in lots of tiny details. “Move your mouse to leave a colorful trail that reveals the original footage, or interact with the video to trigger bursts of particles. “A lot of love went into making it all feel just right. “More to come”
Rainbow Six Siege Mobile Already Has A Shutdown Date Just 7 Months Into Its Full Release
Ubisoft's live service games continue to flop
NJ Health Commissioner Dr. Raynard Washington Leads Cooking Class at Harvest
New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Raynard E. Washington joined RWJBarnabas Health at Harvest: A Farm to Community Center where we joined a wonderful group of seniors for an interactive cooking class. Commissioner Washington and registered dietitian Alyssa chopped and mixed Rainbow Grain Bowls using colorful, nutritious, local Jersey-grown ingredients.
The Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL phones are $250 off
The Pro now costs less than the non-Pro did at launch.
Big Pride Littleton returns for third installment
While spooky season has begun, and many parts of town are decked with ghosts and skeletons, Main Street will don rainbows on Oct. 10 — to celebrate the third Big
GTA 6 completely "re-engineered" Rockstar's weather systems to "achieve a sense of scale we haven't felt before," adding hurricanes, rainbows and heavy rain
Rockstar Games has detailed how GTA 6 is expanding on Red Dead Redemption 2's weather systems "to make everything much more localized and persistent."
Massimo Iorizzo Named Director of NC State’s Plants for Human Health Institute
Horticultural Science Professor Massimo Iorizzo, whose research has delved into the genetics of a veritable rainbow of small fruit and vegetable crops, will lead NC State University's Plants for Human Health Institute.
Massimo Iorizzo Named Director of NC State’s Plants for Human Health Institute
Horticultural Science Professor Massimo Iorizzo, whose research has delved into the genetics of a veritable rainbow of small fruit and vegetable crops, will lead NC State University's Plants for Human Health Institute.
DOH-Marion Issues Rabies Advisory - Florida Department of Health in Marion County
The advisory is in response to a single confirmed case of rabies in a bobcat near Rainbow Park.
You can now claim your payout from Apple’s $250 million Siri settlement
The major class action lawsuit against Apple over Siri and Apple Intelligence delays continues to progress. Apple is expected to...
Tribes hit hard by wildfires face health effects, cultural losses
Neighbors across the Colville Tribes communities in Washington state knew Matilda Bob’s log home as the “rainbow house,” for its brightly painted exterior. Now it’s gone. Sparked by a lightning […]
INTRODUCING MIRROR MI™: MORE THAN A FASHION DOLL, A NEW ENTERTAINMENT UNIVERSE BRINGING PRODUCT, MUSIC, FASHION AND EMOTIONAL STORYTELLING TOGETHER
/PRNewswire/ -- It's time for a new doll in the dollhouse. MGA Entertainment (MGA), the company behind Bratz®, Rainbow High® and L.O.L. Surprise!®, today...
Protect Your Home and Business this National Preparedness Month with Rainbow Restoration®
The U.S. experienced 12 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters during the first half of 2026 alone, causing at least $31.9 billion in damage, according to Climate Central's mid-year update. As September marks National Preparedness Month and the transition to cooler weather brings the potential for severe storms, tornadoes, flooding and early winter weather, Rainbow Restoration®, a Neighborly® company with more than 45 years of restoration experience, is encouraging homeowners and
Protect Your Home and Business this National Preparedness Month with Rainbow Restoration®
/PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. experienced 12 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters during the first half of 2026 alone, causing at least $31.9...
Like to drink outdoors? Where Sacramento will put new ‘entertainment zones’
Sacramento doubles entertainment zones, allowing public drinking at events in areas like K Street, Oak Park Triangle and the Arena to boost local business sales.
In 2015, University of Florida scientists poured 5 gallons of red Rhodamine dye into Silver River’s main spring vent to track how water moved as the clear spring run turned more algae-green
A tiny dye release into Florida's Silver River revealed how groundwater moves through one of America's most productive spring systems—with urgent implications for its ecological future.
City to consider new Entertainment Zones in Sacramento where public drinking is allowed at events
Following the impact of the Rainbow Festival and Terra Madre Americas events, Sacramento City leaders will consider a new round of proposed Entertainment Zones.
Rainbow Six Tactics Announced, First Single-Player Rainbow Six Game Since Vegas 2 in 2008
Ubisoft has announced Rainbow Six Tactics, an upcoming turn-based tactics game starring familiar Rainbow Six Siege Operators. Revealed at Gamescom's Opening Night Live showcase, it will retail for $49.99 and is due out in 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It's the first single-player game in the franchise since Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2008.
Rainbow Six Tactics Revealed: Building a Turn-Based Tactical Experience
Rainbow Six Tactics is a new tactical chapter for the franchise, blending strategic depth, high global stakes, and turn-based gameplay that demands the planning, precision, and teamwork that define Rainbow Six.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Tactics announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC
Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Tactics, a turn-based tactical game set in the Rainbow Six universe. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store…
The 2026 New York State Fair is Action-Packed, with More New Events, Exhibits, Entertainment, and Food Than Ever Before!
Jet Ski Stunt Shows, Racing Dogs, Kids Tractor Pull, Miniature Horses, The Big Cheese, and More! Asian Village and Latino Village Showcase Amazing Food, Music, and More, Now on the West…
A tiny “rainbow on a chip” could help supercharge 6G networks
Researchers have created a tiny chip that produces a stable “rainbow” of light capable of generating multiple high-frequency signals at once, potentially boosting the speed and capacity of future 6G networks. Its extreme precision could also make it valuable for quantum timing, navigation, radar, and even space-based technologies.
‘Reading Rainbow’ Host Mychal Threets Shares Health Update After ‘5-Day Psychiatric Hold,’ Says Doctors ‘Saved My Life’
Mychal Threets revealed in a video on Threads on Aug. 22 that he was hospitalized for five days on a ‘psychiatric hold’ and thanked medical staff for saving his life.
This app makes the Pixel 11’s HiLight feature actually useful
Devs are already doing what Google won’t.
This app does with Pixel 11 Pro's HiLight what Google should have done in the first place
Pixel 11 Pro's HiLight LED is heavily restricted in functionality, but the HiLight Studio app turns it into a proper notification system.
‘Reading Rainbow’ star reveals plan to check into hospital: ‘I am not okay’
‘Reading Rainbow’ star Mychal Threets revealed his plan to check himself into a hospital. ‘I am not okay,’ he wrote on social media.
Wigglitz lands its first entertainment license with Winx Club
ZB Designs, the Utah based 3D printed toy company behind the Wigglitz collectible line, has signed its first entertainment licensing deal, bringing characters from Rainbow S.p.A.’s Winx Club animated series into the Wigglitz lineup. The companies agreed to the license after a call on June 5, and ZB Designs had physical Wigglitz Winx Club figures …
Rainbow Six Siege Y11S3 Release Date + Patch Notes Explained
The Rainbow Six Siege Y11S3 Release Date is nearing closer, and it's a patch full of new changes, updates, and a new ranked division.
Science with Stevie: Rainbows
Meteorologist Stevie Daniels discusses the reason behind how rainbows form in the sky in this Science with Stevie segment!
Man with staggering $20 billion net worth put a car order in so big that Mercedes had to shut down its factory
The 'Rainbow Sheikh' has a staggering $20 billion net worth and once put in a car order that was so big, it shut down manufacturing at a Mercedes factory
THE MAGIC OF SCIENCE | Texas A&M University Chemistry Road Show lights up the Expo Center with chemistry…not magic!
The Rusk County Library’s Summer Reading Program offered local lectiophiles (lovers of reading) a magical morning filled with ear-piercing explosions, dancing rainbow-colored flames, shattering roses, burning dollar bills that never […]
Authentic Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Care Bears
Authentic Brands Group, a global brand and entertainment platform, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of Care Bears, one of the world's most beloved and enduring family entertainment franchises.
Ubisoft closing studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade and cutting publishing roles worldwide, 380 jobs at risk
Latest round of cuts includes refocusing Barcelona studio on Rainbow Six, with an unknown number of roles affected
Ubisoft Ramping Staff Off Rainbow Six Siege, Other Projects
In addition to layoffs, Ubisoft is ramping off developers from Rainbow Six Siege and other projects at the company.
Far-from-perfect 10: Dodgers put up double digits in seventh to beat Pirates, spoil Paul Skenes' quality start
In a tie game in the bottom of the sixth, rain poured. Flags flew horizontally. Fans headed for covered sections. Then the rain stopped. A rainbow appeared. But...
Valve Reportedly Threatened to Delist Rainbow Six Siege on Steam After Ubisoft Offered Cheaper Alternative
Valve has allegedly gone to great lengths to maintain Steam's position as a marketplace titan on PC, including one example that reportedly saw it threaten to retaliate against Ubisoft by delisting Rainbow Six Siege.
Family from UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Heads to Washington to Advocate for Pediatric Health Care
Carlina Szabo, 11, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and her family are traveling to Washington, D.C., to share their story with lawmakers during the Children's Hospital Association's 21st Annual Family Advocacy Day.
Science with Stevie: Indoor Rainbow
Meteorologist Stevie Daniels walks us through how to create an indoor rainbow in this Science with Stevie segment!
Weather Chat | The science behind rainbows, halos & sundogs
Have you ever wondered how a rainbow forms or what that ring around the sun or the moon means?
Fresno County departments of behavioral and public health allowed at Pride Festival
With unanimous approval from Fresno County supervisors on Tuesday, the departments of behavioral and public health can spend money to participate in this year's Fresno Rainbow Pride Festival.
Rockford science students study, make rainbows
The Science Club, hosted by Pattie Martin at Rockford Elementary School, recently had what school officials describe as "A colorful time learning about rainbows this month.
Kids’ mental health - time to close the gap: Marissa Kiefer
Mental and behavioral health challenges among young people are not rare -- they’re part of life for many families. But at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s, we’re dedicated to trying new approaches, writes guest columnist Marissa Kiefer, president of University Hospitals' Rainbow Babies & Children’s and MacDonald Women’s hospitals.
The Crossword, May 11: She's A Rainbow
Set the tone for your week and solve our Monday crossword. This week’s puzzle was constructed by Kelsey Dixon, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Kelsey is a southerner by birth, a Mariah Carey fan by choice, and a Chicagoan by the grace of god. When she’s not busy working as the crossword editor for the Atlantic, she can…
No, these rainbow clouds over Indonesia are not AI
The stunning meteorological phenomenon is 'truly magical.'
Holmes Convocation Center creates a ‘Holme’ for arts, entertainment in Boone
For many years, Boone has been well known for its music scene. From bluegrass legend Doc Watson to High-Country-formed Rainbow Kitten Surprise, music has always been an important staple for the town. With this comes the absolute cruciality of a versatile venue for all kinds of entertainment. In 2020, App State Athletics invited Luke Combs...
Porsche Penske to Run Apple Retro-Inspired Liveries at Laguna
Pair of Penske Porsche 963s to sport Apple rainbow colors from 1980 Porsche 935 K3...
iPhone brand loyalty at record high level, with Android users switching
A smartphone loyalty survey has revealed the unsurprising news that Android users are 3.7 times more likely to switch to...
Asian carp politics, teen takeover solutions | The Chicago Report
The Trump administration and Illinois continue their back-and-forth over the vital Asian carp Great Lakes project. A child psychologist discusses the rise in viral teen takeovers. And we hear from Yusef Jackson as he takes over his father's organization, Rainbow PUSH.
Jon Prosser Still Not Fully Cooperating in Apple's iOS 26 Trade Secrets Lawsuit
A joint status report filed yesterday in Apple's trade secrets lawsuit against YouTuber Jon Prosser and Michael Ramacciotti shows Prosser is still failing to comply with discovery, prompting Apple to seek a court order to compel him. The latest filing, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday, covers developments since the parties' last update in February 2026.
'Not about politics': Miami Beach unveils repurposed rainbow crosswalk installation
Pride is back on display in Miami Beach, as city leaders unveiled a new installation repurposing the bricks from the former Ocean Drive rainbow crosswalk.
What the Muppets can teach us about Maine politics
For dreamers like me, the Rainbow Connection seems distant. Our political climate has abandoned what I consider the Muppet spirit: a celebration of wistfulness, a collective made strong by diversity and humble and transparent leadership. Contemporary politics has been like shadow puppets: projections designed to obscure the causes of our dysfunctional society. The Muppets offer […]
What the Muppets can teach us about Maine politics
For dreamers like me, the Rainbow Connection seems distant. Our political climate has abandoned what I consider the Muppet spirit: a celebration of wistfulness, a collective made strong by diversity and humble and transparent leadership. Contemporary politics has been like shadow puppets: projections designed to obscure the causes of our dysfunctional society. The Muppets offer […]
Apple Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Employee Gifts, Plans Finale Concert at Apple Park
Apple is providing employees with a special gift in honor of its 50th anniversary, which takes place on Wednesday, April 1. Employees will receive a commemorative t-shirt, enamel pin, and limited-edition poster, all of which have the scribble-style rainbow Apple logo that Apple has been using for its 50th anniversary artwork. An Apple Park sign says that products are "crafted by hand" and are available for employees to pick up until April 30.
The week ahead in Hawai‘i sports: No. 6 Hawai‘i water polo closes out home slate
The Rainbow Wahine will close out their home slate on Friday evening against Cal State Fullerton.
Apple's 50th Anniversary Finale Revealed
Apple has been celebrating its upcoming 50th anniversary by hosting surprise performances and other events around the world over the past few weeks, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has revealed details about the company's grand finale. In a social media post, Gurman said Apple's celebrations will conclude this week with a finale at its Apple Park headquarters for employees. A special guest will perform, according to Gurman. He hinted at Paul McCartney.
Scientists Discover New “Magic Mushroom” Species That Rewrites Evolutionary History
A familiar “magic mushroom” may not be what it seems.
AAP faces pressure over trans youth care, guiding docs to keep parents in the dark about child's sexual health
A parental rights group accused the AAP of hiding minors' sexual health info from parents and pushing transgender procedures over parental concerns.
Reweaving the Rainbow
Welcome to The Overview newsletter, a weekly meditation on nature from Editor-in-Chief Willow Defebaugh.
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
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