Marathon's server slam went live yesterday, with Bungie trying to test whether things will be ready for the March launch. Of course, one of the biggest hurdles the game will have to overcome is the popularity of Arc Raiders. There will certainly be some migration between the two, as both games are extraction games.
However, it appears that Marathon may have taken things a little further than expected and banned players from typing “Arc Raiders” in chat. Several players reported being greeted with “*** *******” when entering the name of the game in chat. It seems this was a bug of some sort and has now been resolved.
The rivalry is already heating up
Something similar also happened during the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. It is unclear what kind of bug results in the censoring of another game, and it is quite strange that it happened twice. The issue has now been fixed, and Bungie even shared a screenshot with the words “Arc Raiders” visible in the chat box.
Both extraction shooters were also compared when it came to dealing with cheaters. Arc Raiders posted a message about consequences for players using exploits, but it was ultimately seen as soft. Marathon then revealed a zero-tolerance approach, handing out lifetime bans to cheaters, forcing Embark's game to take off as well.
It will be fun to see these two games compete for the extraction shooter base. Marathon will undoubtedly eat up some of Arc Raider's player base when it launches, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to hold on to what the latter has been doing since launch. There is also the issue of content reductions. While Embark has been on a steady roll, Bungie has been notoriously slow to put out new content for Destiny 2. Maybe it 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, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
