Marathon’s server slam went live yesterday, with Bungie looking to test out whether things will be ready for launch in March. Of course, one of the biggest hurdles that the game will have to overcome is the popularity of Arc Raiders. There’s bound to be some migration between the two, since both games are extraction shooters.
However, it seems Marathon may have taken things a bit further than expected, banning players from typing ‘Arc Raiders’ in chat. Several players reported that they were met with ‘*** *******’ when they typed in the name of the game into the chat. It seems this was a bug of some kind and has been resolved now.
The Rivalry Is Already Heating Up
Something similar happened during the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 too. It’s unclear what sort of bug results in the censoring of another game, and it’s pretty weird that it happened twice. The issue has been fixed now, with Bungie even sharing a screenshot with the words ‘Arc Raiders’ visible in the chat box.
Both extraction shooters were also being compared when it came to dealing with cheaters. Arc Raiders put out a notice about repercussions for players using exploits, but it was ultimately viewed as soft. Marathon then revealed a zero-tolerance approach, doling out lifetime bans to cheaters, forcing Embark’s game to step things up as well.
It’s going to be fun watching these two games compete for the extraction shooter player base. Marathon will undoubtedly eat some of Arc Raiders’ player base when it launches, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to hold on to it like the latter has been doing since launch. There’s also the question of content drops. While Embark has been on a steady roll, Bungie has notoriously been slow to put out new content for Destiny 2. Perhaps things will be better with Marathon.
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
