To say that the buzz around Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon hasn’t been particularly positive is a bit of an understatement. Tie that to the fact that Sony has been clearly quick to cut down games and studios that fail to make a splash, and there’s some understandable concern to harbor. This leads us to assurances from a CEO at Sony that Marathon won’t be the next Concord. Because CEO statements always hold so much water.

“For Marathon, it’s our goal to release a very bold, very innovative, and deeply engaging title,” says Herman Hulst, CEO for SIE’s studio business group. “We’re monitoring, we’re going through the test cycles. We’re monitoring the closed alpha cycle the team has just gone through. We’re taking all the lessons learned, we’re using the capabilities we’ve built and analytics and user testing to understand how audiences are engaging with the title.”

On the subject of that testing, Hulst admits that the shooter has gotten “varied” response, but also points out that such tests and feedback from them are part of live service development – an avenue that Sony is still very bullish about.

“Live service, we really see that as a great opportunity for us. [Sony is] very, very committed to building a diverse and a resilient live service portfolio,” he says. “This cycle of test, of iterate, test again, that is such a key component of the live service success, both leading up to launch but also throughout the life of the game. And we’re committed to continuing to leverage our learnings, to maximise engagement and player satisfaction throughout the lifecycle of the title.”

And finally, on the subject of Concord, Hulst talked up the “really big effort” of the developers at Firewalk, but ultimately laid the shooter’s downfall on entering a competitive market and releasing something that didn’t differentiate itself from the multitude.