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Marathon approaching 15k CCU low (sponsored by coachmcguirk91 - still having a blast)

Everyone ran to buy ps5's counting on their games after good ps3/ps4 gens, there's their success right there.. top that with Xbox committing seppuku and this gen was a walk in the park...until now, high prices and low/bad first party output is making sales drop from a cliff.

But sony is so fcking lucky that GTA6 is basically an pseudo exclusive game and will make the ps5 sell again at least for a time.

Hope they get their shit together for next gen.
The lag between the horrible decisions and the consequences is honestly quite long.

Xbox started closing devs and running on a shoestring budget in 2012 onwards. They had a decent launch lineup but by 2017 the effects of having such a small first party began to be felt. They started trying to build up again but it took them until 2024 to get back into a good release cadence and they only pulled it off by opening the warchest.

Sony started their live service plans around that 2019 period, so many of their devs were pushed into it, with that failing I imagine we'll see Sonys lineup continue to struggle for years to come. No new games from Guerilla and Bend for at least four years, no bluepoint remasters to look forward to, only one naughty dog game in a decade etc etc etc

It'll be interesting to see if Sony can weather the storm of their garbage decision better than Xbox.
 
The lag between the horrible decisions and the consequences is honestly quite long.

Xbox started closing devs and running on a shoestring budget in 2012 onwards. They had a decent launch lineup but by 2017 the effects of having such a small first party began to be felt. They started trying to build up again but it took them until 2024 to get back into a good release cadence and they only pulled it off by opening the warchest.

Sony started their live service plans around that 2019 period, so many of their devs were pushed into it, with that failing I imagine we'll see Sonys lineup continue to struggle for years to come. No new games from Guerilla and Bend for at least four years, no bluepoint remasters to look forward to, only one naughty dog game in a decade etc etc etc

It'll be interesting to see if Sony can weather the storm of their garbage decision better than Xbox.
Im counting more on third party deals with Asian devs than their wokefest first party... more rise of the ronin and stellar blade kind of games and in more quantity, their own first party studios are hopeless lost to californian mindset. For my taste at least.
 
0sYhUH5jgRtyC2NL.jpg
 
You havent had your daily dose of Cringe yet? Well, i got ya bud! This is from your regular Marathon-player on reddit. Like, who the fuck sits down and writes shit like this? WHO???? WHY???

Got convinced to buy an entire console just so I could experience marathon, and I don't even game. Worth every penny.

emoji:M2026:
Marathon (2026) Feedback


I love gaming, but I'm not a gamer. I've never been very good at them, as much as I love them. I ended up growing up backseat spectating my brother's play instead. Honestly, that was enough for me. I get to experience the game without having to worry about toggling any buttons.

Then came marathon. I've watched my partner play lots of different games, but as soon as he got marathon, I was hooked. I started wolfing down the lore, studying strategy and following discussions in the community. I Even listened to the Marathon soundtrack while training at the gym! After a couple months of this, my partner said enough is enough, and we decided I'd get a whole ass Xbox and a headset just to be able to play the game with him. I thought he was insane talking about spending that kind of money. He finally sold me by telling me if I didn't take to it we could always make a return. I figured with how much joy this game has brought me, it was honestly worth it to give it a shot, even if I was super casual, to still be a part of the player base and support it.

It has now be 36 hours. My partner logged off a long time ago. I have not slept. I have grinded 18 levels, had my first massive come up and then lost it all. I felt the rush of finding exciting weapons, the anxiety of whether I can take someone at their word, and the reward trust brings when I end up getting a helping hand from a new friend. The contentment and getting to nerd out over filling my codex. That awesome feeling of getting comfortable on a map and being able to move around strategically. The sorrow of dying when there's two seconds left on the exfil.

"Just one more run, just one more run, just one more run."

Marathon is an amazing experience.
Worth it.

See you all on Tau Ceti !! ✰ ✰ ✰
 
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You havent had your daily dose of Cringe yet? Well, i got ya bud! This is from your regular Marathon-player on reddit. Like, who the fuck sits down and writes shit like this down? WHO???? WHY???

Got convinced to buy an entire console just so I could experience marathon, and I don't even game. Worth every penny.

emoji:M2026:
Marathon (2026) Feedback


I love gaming, but I'm not a gamer. I've never been very good at them, as much as I love them. I ended up growing up backseat spectating my brother's play instead. Honestly, that was enough for me. I get to experience the game without having to worry about toggling any buttons.

Then came marathon. I've watched my partner play lots of different games, but as soon as he got marathon, I was hooked. I started wolfing down the lore, studying strategy and following discussions in the community. I Even listened to the Marathon soundtrack while training at the gym! After a couple months of this, my partner said enough is enough, and we decided I'd get a whole ass Xbox and a headset just to be able to play the game with him. I thought he was insane talking about spending that kind of money. He finally sold me by telling me if I didn't take to it we could always make a return. I figured with how much joy this game has brought me, it was honestly worth it to give it a shot, even if I was super casual, to still be a part of the player base and support it.

It has now be 36 hours. My partner logged off a long time ago. I have not slept. I have grinded 18 levels, had my first massive come up and then lost it all. I felt the rush of finding exciting weapons, the anxiety of whether I can take someone at their word, and the reward trust brings when I end up getting a helping hand from a new friend. The contentment and getting to nerd out over filling my codex. That awesome feeling of getting comfortable on a map and being able to move around strategically. The sorrow of dying when there's two seconds left on the exfil.

"Just one more run, just one more run, just one more run."

Marathon is an amazing experience.
Worth it.

See you all on Tau Ceti !! ✰ ✰
What. The. FUCK !
 
You havent had your daily dose of Cringe yet? Well, i got ya bud! This is from your regular Marathon-player on reddit. Like, who the fuck sits down and writes shit like this down? WHO???? WHY???

Got convinced to buy an entire console just so I could experience marathon, and I don't even game. Worth every penny.

emoji:M2026:
Marathon (2026) Feedback


I love gaming, but I'm not a gamer. I've never been very good at them, as much as I love them. I ended up growing up backseat spectating my brother's play instead. Honestly, that was enough for me. I get to experience the game without having to worry about toggling any buttons.

Then came marathon. I've watched my partner play lots of different games, but as soon as he got marathon, I was hooked. I started wolfing down the lore, studying strategy and following discussions in the community. I Even listened to the Marathon soundtrack while training at the gym! After a couple months of this, my partner said enough is enough, and we decided I'd get a whole ass Xbox and a headset just to be able to play the game with him. I thought he was insane talking about spending that kind of money. He finally sold me by telling me if I didn't take to it we could always make a return. I figured with how much joy this game has brought me, it was honestly worth it to give it a shot, even if I was super casual, to still be a part of the player base and support it.

It has now be 36 hours. My partner logged off a long time ago. I have not slept. I have grinded 18 levels, had my first massive come up and then lost it all. I felt the rush of finding exciting weapons, the anxiety of whether I can take someone at their word, and the reward trust brings when I end up getting a helping hand from a new friend. The contentment and getting to nerd out over filling my codex. That awesome feeling of getting comfortable on a map and being able to move around strategically. The sorrow of dying when there's two seconds left on the exfil.

"Just one more run, just one more run, just one more run."

Marathon is an amazing experience.
Worth it.

See you all on Tau Ceti !! ✰ ✰ ✰
Please spoiler that shit whit a NSFW tag, almost got a stroke reading that.
 
You havent had your daily dose of Cringe yet? Well, i got ya bud! This is from your regular Marathon-player on reddit. Like, who the fuck sits down and writes shit like this down? WHO???? WHY???

Got convinced to buy an entire console just so I could experience marathon, and I don't even game. Worth every penny.

emoji:M2026:
Marathon (2026) Feedback


I love gaming, but I'm not a gamer. I've never been very good at them, as much as I love them. I ended up growing up backseat spectating my brother's play instead. Honestly, that was enough for me. I get to experience the game without having to worry about toggling any buttons.

Then came marathon. I've watched my partner play lots of different games, but as soon as he got marathon, I was hooked. I started wolfing down the lore, studying strategy and following discussions in the community. I Even listened to the Marathon soundtrack while training at the gym! After a couple months of this, my partner said enough is enough, and we decided I'd get a whole ass Xbox and a headset just to be able to play the game with him. I thought he was insane talking about spending that kind of money. He finally sold me by telling me if I didn't take to it we could always make a return. I figured with how much joy this game has brought me, it was honestly worth it to give it a shot, even if I was super casual, to still be a part of the player base and support it.

It has now be 36 hours. My partner logged off a long time ago. I have not slept. I have grinded 18 levels, had my first massive come up and then lost it all. I felt the rush of finding exciting weapons, the anxiety of whether I can take someone at their word, and the reward trust brings when I end up getting a helping hand from a new friend. The contentment and getting to nerd out over filling my codex. That awesome feeling of getting comfortable on a map and being able to move around strategically. The sorrow of dying when there's two seconds left on the exfil.

"Just one more run, just one more run, just one more run."

Marathon is an amazing experience.
Worth it.

See you all on Tau Ceti !! ✰ ✰ ✰
Hermen's English has gotten much better.
 
I agree a lot of these could help with shorter term frustration and player bleed, maybe bring a few people who quit back on board. I'm doubtful that any of these are going to massively revitalize the game or bring in new players though. If someone had never played Marathon are any of the changes above going to matter to them or sell them the game? Maybe Night Dire Marsh could be unique enough that it gets some new player interest from a trailer, but the length of time shields take to apply? What rook feels like to play? No one who hasn't already experienced Marathon is going to have any strong feelings about these or even be looking at the patch notes. They should of course improve the game to stop the bleed but exclusively trying to recover existing players is likely a losing strategy because they're only going to get a fraction of them back and it didn't do tremendously well to begin with.

Marathon's greatest strength and chance at a comeback at this point is actually how few people played / bought it. That might seem counter intuitive but it means a lot of the opinion around Marathon isn't solidified in terrible first hand experiences, but instead people just looking at word of mouth or media around Marathon. Bungie has an opportunity to change the story around the game but they have to be first and foremost focused on the people who didn't buy in to begin with and offering those people a reason to jump in. Marathon can't sit back and make micro tweaks to guns or shields and hope to hit the metrics they need. They need something that is going to break through public sentiment and make gamers see Marathon differently. I just don't see how Bungie accomplishes that without a radical pivot or massive content drop that they don't seem capable of delivering atm. They're bleeding out badly enough that I don't think they have the time to do any kind of slow change. EU is now peaking at less than 10k and the game is bottoming out at less than 3.5k at night.
I have two questions for you that I'd love to hear your response on...

1. When you look at the games that improve their player numbers significantly over time (Deep Rock Galactic, Rust, Fortnite, Warframe, Counter Strike, RS Siege etc...) do you see games that thought of a revolutionary new idea sometime after launch or do you see games that steadily improved the ingredients to the recipe?

2. Do you think the Extraction genre has an advantage over other genres in that it's bigger and more complex than most other genres on the market?

I'd agree with your position more if this was a 2D fighting game that everyone looked at and rejected because that genre feels so limited in what it can do. You can polish things up, do a few balance changes and add maps + characters but vanilla Street Fighter VI is essentially year 4 Street Fighter VI. I personally view Extraction as the complete opposite. It's Star Trek. Each map/event designed by Bungie is a new episode written by Roddenberry

That said...here's Street Fighter VI data that has seemingly improved over the years...

JeK55VvbeTTWPDC1.png


I'd like to hear your response because you don't come off as particularly tribalist like so many others.

Btw, here's a great watch if you're interested in hearing how Bungie could / should improve Marathon.

 
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Bungie focusing on patches to help aztecross only now. And assist cheaters. I would say this will only benefit a fraction of the playerbase, but it would be a fraction of the remaining fraction.

 
I have two questions for you that I'd love to hear your response on...

1. When you look at the games that improve their player numbers significantly over time (Deep Rock Galactic, Rust, Fortnite, Warframe, Counter Strike, RS Siege etc...) do you see games that thought of a revolutionary new idea sometime after launch or do you see games that steadily improved the ingredients to the recipe?

2. Do you think the Extraction genre has an advantage over other genres in that it's bigger and more complex than most other genres on the market?

I'd agree with your position more if this was a 2D fighting game that everyone looked at and rejected because that genre feels so limited in what it can do. You can polish things up, do a few balance changes and add maps + characters but vanilla Street Fighter VI is essentially year 4 Street Fighter VI. I personally view Extraction as the complete opposite. It's Star Trek. Each map/event designed by Bungie is a new episode written by Roddenberry

That said...here's Street Fighter VI data that has seemingly improved over the years...

JeK55VvbeTTWPDC1.png


I'd like to hear your response because you don't come off as particularly tribalist like so many others.

Btw, here's a great watch if you're interested in hearing how Bungie could / should improve Marathon.


I can't help but think you're always on my side somehow.
 
You havent had your daily dose of Cringe yet? Well, i got ya bud! This is from your regular Marathon-player on reddit. Like, who the fuck sits down and writes shit like this down? WHO???? WHY???

Got convinced to buy an entire console just so I could experience marathon, and I don't even game. Worth every penny.

emoji:M2026:
Marathon (2026) Feedback


I love gaming, but I'm not a gamer. I've never been very good at them, as much as I love them. I ended up growing up backseat spectating my brother's play instead. Honestly, that was enough for me. I get to experience the game without having to worry about toggling any buttons.

Then came marathon. I've watched my partner play lots of different games, but as soon as he got marathon, I was hooked. I started wolfing down the lore, studying strategy and following discussions in the community. I Even listened to the Marathon soundtrack while training at the gym! After a couple months of this, my partner said enough is enough, and we decided I'd get a whole ass Xbox and a headset just to be able to play the game with him. I thought he was insane talking about spending that kind of money. He finally sold me by telling me if I didn't take to it we could always make a return. I figured with how much joy this game has brought me, it was honestly worth it to give it a shot, even if I was super casual, to still be a part of the player base and support it.

It has now be 36 hours. My partner logged off a long time ago. I have not slept. I have grinded 18 levels, had my first massive come up and then lost it all. I felt the rush of finding exciting weapons, the anxiety of whether I can take someone at their word, and the reward trust brings when I end up getting a helping hand from a new friend. The contentment and getting to nerd out over filling my codex. That awesome feeling of getting comfortable on a map and being able to move around strategically. The sorrow of dying when there's two seconds left on the exfil.

"Just one more run, just one more run, just one more run."

Marathon is an amazing experience.
Worth it.

See you all on Tau Ceti !! ✰ ✰ ✰
images
 
I personally view Extraction as the complete opposite. It's Star Trek. Each map/event designed by Bungie is a new episode written by Roddenberry

You might view the extraction genre that way, but I certainly don't.

Most Star Trek episodes are very different from one another. They each deal with varying topics and issues, on a variety of different worlds and settings, many center on specific crew members. Some are comedic, some are serious, and some are action packed, many are a combination. Part of the appeal of Star Trek (real Star Trek, not modern Paramount crap) is the variety of the show, but also the optimistic outlook on humanities future too.

I see the extraction genre as the opposite of that. It's more like Night Court than Star Trek. Every episode takes place in the same court room, every episode has criminal acts and legal cases as part of the story showing the worst of humanity (like sweaty PvP games showcase), every episode is just a comedy (limited in scope like extraction), and every episode is largely the same formula played out every single time. The different guest stars add the variety similar to how the different maps add the variety to extraction shooters, but extraction is always extraction, its the same narrow and limited formula every single match. There is a reason why the extraction genre started as a game mode in other multiplayer games, just another mode next to BR and Capture the Flag and such.

Arc Raiders was successful largely due to its emergent social atmosphere, enabled by its ABMM, which added tons of variety to every match. Marathon has none (or very little) of that.

Marathon is like Night Court, not Star Trek. Dwarf Fortress is like Star Trek, where every game plays out completely different due to the procedural generation of the world, characters, and story in every run, enabling tons of variety and exploration.
 
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You might view the extraction genre that way, but I certainly don't.

Most Star Trek episodes are very different from one another. They each deal with varying topics and issues, on a variety of different worlds and settings, many center on specific crew members. Some are comedic, some are serious, and some are action packed, many are a combination. Part of the appeal of Star Trek (real Star Trek, not modern Paramount crap) is the variety of the show, but also the optimistic outlook on humanities future too.

I see the extraction genre as the opposite of that. It's more like Night Court than Star Trek. Every episode takes place in the same court room, every episode has criminal acts and legal cases as part of the story showing the worst of humanity (like sweaty PvP games showcase), every episode is just a comedy (limited in scope like extraction), and every episode is largely the same formula played out every single time. The different guest stars add the variety similar to how the different maps add the variety to extraction shooters, but extraction is always extraction, its the same narrow and limited formula every single match. There is a reason why the extraction genre started as a game mode in other multiplayer games, just another mode next to BR and Capture the Flag and such.

Marathon is like Night Court, not Star Trek. Dwarf Fortress is like Star Trek, where every game plays out completely different due to the procedural generation of the world, characters, and story in every run, enabling tons of variety and exploration.
Night Court doesn't have long form progression like Marathon & Deep Space 9 do.

In Overwatch, Siege, and Valorant...every map and character has to be designed to fit with every other map and character. These are sports games. They're always 5 v 5 with games that last X number of minutes.

Marathon is the heroes journey. You're only goal is to grow your power level over a longer length of time so you can try to tackle the big end game goal.

Maps and experiences in Marathon (the genre) don't have to feel the same because the genre is heroes journey, not sports.

As Marathon grows, they'll give players a wider and wider degree of experiences because they don't have to make every map with the same rigid rules that Overwatch and RS Siege do. It's Star Trek.
 
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Night Court doesn't have long form progression like Marathon & Deep Space 9 do.

In Overwatch, Siege, and Valorant...every map and character has to be designed to fit with every other map and character. These are sports games. They're always 5 v 5 with games that last X number of minutes.

Marathon is the heroes journey. You're only goal is to grow your power level over a longer length of time so you can try to tackle the big end game goal.

Maps and experiences in Marathon (the genre) don't have to feel the same because the genre is heroes journey, not sports.

As Marathon grows, they'll give players a wider and wider degree of experiences because they don't have to make every map with the same rigid rules that Overwatch and RS Siege do. It's Star Trek.

Again, I disagree with your viewpoint. Marathon does not make most people feel like they are on the "heroes journey", its hardcore sweaty PvP nature where you can lose everything near instantly provides quite the opposite feeling in my opinion.

The extraction genre provides more of a "losers journey", and its why Arc Raiders has safe slots and long TTK's to help offset that feeling. Marathon has neither. It's probably why Marathon has such low CCU's too, I mean who wants to play a game which makes you feel like a loser?
 
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Again, I disagree with your viewpoint. Marathon does not make most people feel like they are on the "heroes journey", its hardcore sweaty PvP nature where you can lose everything near instantly provides quite the opposite feeling in my opinion.
It very clearly has long form progression with pronounced end game goals (Cryo Archive).

I agree with you that the sweaty PvP nature of the game hurts the vision of the Extraction genre being Star Trek.

That will improve with time. ARC Raiders does it far better, with noticiably worse long form progression.


The extraction genre provides more of a "losers journey", and its why Arc Raiders has safe slots and long TTK's to help offset that feeling. Marathon has neither. It's probably why Marathon has such low CCU's too, I mean who wants to play a game which makes you feel like a loser?
It's only a "losers journey" if you quit. I'm not a high skill player but my vault is filled with high level gear and I did Cryo a bunch of times.

Marathon just needs to improve on its excellent formula. Better progression, more varied gameplay styles, better end game content.
 
S1 of Marathon is the worst Marathon will ever be.
I thought I heard the old man say
"Leave her, Johnny, leave her
It's a long, hard pull to the next payday
And it's time for us to leave her"

Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her
For the voyage is done and the winds don't blow
And it's time for us to leave her!
 
Bungie focusing on patches to help aztecross only now. And assist cheaters. I would say this will only benefit a fraction of the playerbase, but it would be a fraction of the remaining fraction.


Pointless to try and protect from stream snipers when you have a 50% chance to match with a streamer simply by queuing with the current player population.
 
I've been reading the updates today.

I'm surprised they spent so much time on a pre-patch update. I think it is indicative that they could not change the core of season 2 so they needed to work around the edges. Things like a patch to keep these last weeks from being super stale and a streamer mode are things they can add without upsetting the roadmap.

They must see streamers as the primary avenue to revive the game.

Spending so much time on a 2.0 update though is worrying. Is this something they have spent a significant amount of time working on? I see the logic. The higher the number at the end of S1 the higher it will be at the start of S2. Some of the tweaks will be reverted during S2, to the end patch of S1 wasn't just S2 stuff they could bake in earlier. It is actual gametheory applied to the last weeks of season 1. That must be awesome for people who love the game and already own it but I'm skeptical it will affect the bleed rate beyond the week it releases. The qol improvements are great but the underlying game itself is still the issue.

There are some qol features here for current fans but so far I'm not seeing anything to draw in new people. If they have anything it should be announced with S2 content.
 
I read on reddit that there is a Twitter mob of Marathon fans who hate Taul now, but get this....

Okay, so apparently the Twitter mob isn't the issue. It's a Bluesky mob. Apparently there is a Bluesky hate mob of Marathon and/or Bungie fans that really have it out for Taul.

He's been put on the Chud side of the fence because he hate's marathon.

Read my 10 reason I hated Marathon and I think every single reason I put on there is the same for Taul. Game recognizes game.
 
I read on reddit that there is a Twitter mob of Marathon fans who hate Taul now, but get this....

Okay, so apparently the Twitter mob isn't the issue. It's a Bluesky mob. Apparently there is a Bluesky hate mob of Marathon and/or Bungie fans that really have it out for Taul.

He's been put on the Chud side of the fence because he hate's marathon.

Read my 10 reason I hated Marathon and I think every single reason I put on there is the same for Taul. Game recognizes game.

That bluesky mob is no fucking joke. Hood street thugs and vicious.

They make the reddit Marathon fans look like Arc Raider care bears by comparison.

Taul better watch himself around the bluesky gang.


YRZFAIVblXH4jwGw.gif
 
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Night Court doesn't have long form progression like Marathon & Deep Space 9 do.

In Overwatch, Siege, and Valorant...every map and character has to be designed to fit with every other map and character. These are sports games. They're always 5 v 5 with games that last X number of minutes.

Marathon is the heroes journey. You're only goal is to grow your power level over a longer length of time so you can try to tackle the big end game goal.

Maps and experiences in Marathon (the genre) don't have to feel the same because the genre is heroes journey, not sports.

As Marathon grows, they'll give players a wider and wider degree of experiences because they don't have to make every map with the same rigid rules that Overwatch and RS Siege do. It's Star Trek.
You know what other games simulate this journey? Basically every single player game ever made. Hell same with MMOs right from the beginning with UO. So why exactly do we need this game mode to experience this? Especially if the PVP takes away from this element?

I think Marathon would work fine, maybe better, as a competitive FPS with more traditional modes.

I'm just trying to figure out what Marathon is bringing to the table here to justify its existence.
 
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Season 2 Night Maps. I always found Marathon's world beautiful to look at, but I am a sucker for tech/space themes.
I can see the firefights being approached differently, might even give a good boost to first week CCU.

night_marsh_S2_Starts_June_2_Article.png
 
You know what other games simulate this journey? Basically every single player game ever made. Hell same with MMOs right from the beginning with UO. So why exactly do we need this game mode to experience this? Especially if the PVP takes away from this element?

I think Marathon would work fine, maybe better, as a competitive FPS with more traditional modes.

I'm just trying to figure out what Marathon is bringing to the table here to justify its existence.
SP has historically had a number of advantages over MP, just as MP has had a number of advantages over SP.

I loved Goldeneye MP on the N64 but Elder Scrolls Oblivion was something a MP FPS could never touch back then.

As SP has entered its brown age (lack of innovation and creativity) MP has "caught up" in a number of ways. One of the pillar advantages SP had over MP was long form progression (aka The Heroes Journey).

MP is now starting to wade into the Heroes Journey formula, and it brings with it all the advantages MP has over SP. I'm not joking when I call this the Omega genre.
 
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