“Marathon” is in the middle of Season 2, but instead of talking about the new content, players are currently talking about price chaos in the PS Store: A supposed deluxe bargain during the free trial turned out to be a nasty upgrade trap – and forced Sony to take action.
The second season of began this week „Marathon“ and should actually provide a boost with an atmospheric night map and an experimental PvE mode. And in order to attract new players to the servers, a free week was launched just in time for the start.
This means that Bungie’s extraction shooter can currently still be used completely free until June 9th play. But now the free trial is causing a lot of confusion and frustration in the community. The reason: What was supposed to be a bargain turned out to be a cost trap for many people.
A system error with consequences
The trouble was triggered by an unfortunate chain of discount campaigns, the free week and the system logic of the PS Store.
Anyone who downloaded the free trial version of “Marathon” incorrectly blocked the purchase option for the normal base game in the background. That’s why Sony’s digital shop assumes that you already own the game.
The result: Anyone who then selected the Deluxe Edition was not shown the regular price, but only the difference for an upgrade. And since “Marathon” is currently discounted by 30 percent to coincide with the start of the season, the price displayed in the store suddenly crashed to a measly and extremely tempting 13.99 euros.
And since the product description of the Deluxe Edition explicitly stated that the package included the main game, thousands of players sensed a classic pricing error and grabbed it immediately – believing that they had received the complete game for a fraction of the regular price of just under 60 euros.
Sony reacts and issues a clear warning
The catch: The buyers actually only purchased the additional digital content of the Deluxe Edition for their 14 euros – but not the permanent license for the main game. As soon as the free week ends on June 9th, these players will be faced with closed doors.
However, Sony has now noticed the problem and updated the description „Marathon“ im PS Store with an unmistakable warning. If you now open the deluxe edition of the game, you will read the following note:
“Please note: If you have already downloaded ‘Marathon’ during Open Play Week but have not yet purchased ‘Marathon’:
- Purchasing this product grants access to the Deluxe Edition content only for the duration of Open Play Week. Afterwards, access to this content requires the purchase of the ‘Marathon’ Standard Edition.
- The price shown reflects only the additional content of the Deluxe Edition, not the price of the Standard Edition.”
A warning that came too late for many players. Accordingly, tempers are running high on social media and in the “Marathon” subreddit. There is also increasing criticism as to why Bungie did not simply provide a separate demo client to avoid exactly such conflicts.
If you fell into the trap and invested the 14 euros incorrectly, you don’t have to bury your head completely in the sand. Since this is a demonstrable misunderstanding, PlayStation Support is currently accommodating, according to current reports.
Affected players can request a refund as long as they contact support directly – although Sony’s guidelines are actually stricter for downloads that have already started. For Bungie, however, the unfortunate situation comes at an absolutely inopportune time, as “Marathon” has been struggling since its launch at the beginning of March.
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