Marathon players are furious at Bungie over limited stickers and charms: "It's Destiny 2 shaders all over again"

Bungie are no strangers to community backlash over cosmetic decisions, and Marathon is already following a worryingly familiar pattern. Within just 24 hours of launch, players have zeroed in on a system that limits the application of stickers and charms to only one weapon at any given time, meaning if you apply a certain charm to your pistol, you can't use it on, for example,  your assault rifle or sniper at the same time.

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Semir OmerovicMARCH 6

A Reddit post titled "Bungie, we are not doing this limited stickers and charms bs" racked up over 900 upvotes and 267 comments within hours, with players calling out the restriction as unnecessary and anti-consumer. And this is not the only popular post that appeared since yesterday. 

The frustration is compounded by what many are already calling an underwhelming first rewards pass, making the sticker and charm limitation feel like salt in an open wound.

"It's the limited use shaders thing again"

The comparison doing the rounds is an uncomfortable one for Bungie. Destiny 2's early single-use shader system - where cosmetic shaders were consumed on use rather than applied freely - became one of the most criticised decisions in that game's history, eventually forcing Bungie into a complete reversal. 

Players are drawing a direct line between that fiasco and what they are seeing in Marathon now. As one Reddit user put it bluntly: "This is some system I would expect in a trashy f2p game, not from Marathon. Please reconsider this system and just make them unlimited use."

AltChar

The cosmetic restriction limits how many stickers and charms can be equipped across weapons at any one time

The community is already voting with their wallets. Several commenters noted that the rewards pass is so underwhelming they plan to ignore it entirely, with one noting that Bungie are "saving them so much money." 

It will certainly be interesting to see how Bungie responds to the criticism, if at all. As someone who played Marathon during the server slam and since its launch yesterday, I have to agree that the charms and stickers system really doesn't fit a premium release like Marathon. Just get rid of it, Bungie. 

Marathon has enormous potential, and the game has shown genuine promise in its gameplay at launch. The more I play it, the more addictive it's becoming. But Bungie are going to need to take a long, hard look at these cosmetic decisions before they become a defining conversation around the game. They have been down this road before, and they know exactly where it leads.