Marathon removes Arc Raiders chat censorship, but it's got much bigger issues to solve

There's a lot riding on Marathon. Having gone from 'Concord 2.0' to one of Steam's most-wishlisted titles, Bungie's been riding high of late. The FPS game's recent trailers have been top tier, oozing cyberpunk style and encouraging you to really get into the 'kill or be killed' mindset. With a star-studded voice cast and colorful yet industrial worlds that consistently remind me of Mirror's Edge, I went from completely disinterested to wanting to play overnight - and I'm someone who hates extraction shooters. With the Marathon Server Slam now live, Bungie's latest has flown up the Steam charts, but a familiar bug has appeared - and quickly been crushed.

Peaking at 143,621 concurrent players, Marathon's open weekend started off pretty strong. It then leveled out at around the 123,000 mark, before tapering off to the 46k mark, with those numbers still decreasing. For context, primary competitor Arc Raiders' highest peak is 481,966, which occurred on the second Sunday after it launched, and it currently attracts around 280k players per day. Marathon's numbers aren't bad by any means, and these stats don't include console, but I'm sure Bungie would have wanted to come out of the gate stronger than Arc Raiders did.

The rivalry that's developed between Bungie and AR developer Embark has continued to flare in recent weeks, with an X post about Marathon's approach to cheaters feeling somewhat aimed at Arc Raiders. Now, 'Arc Raiders' is causing problems in Marathon's text chat.

As seen in the video above, streamer Saqib 'Lirik' Ali Zahid types 'Arc Raiders' in Marathon's chat not long after the Server Slam went live. Both words are subsequently censored using hashtags. I have, however, jumped into the game to verify this, and 'Arc Raiders' now posts successfully without being blotted out. It seems clear Bungie's done a quick fix to get this one removed, but intended or not, it's not a particularly good look.

It's not the first time this has happened, however. Arc Raiders was also censored in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's chat, which Activision blamed on a text filter error, and it was also blotted out on the official EA app. This implies that, for whatever reason, the words 'Arc' and 'Raiders' together may just trigger some spaghetti code, or, if you're a little more pessimistic, perhaps censoring it is intended. Either way, I suspect Embark's happy for the extra publicity.

My experience with Marathon hasn't been great, however. While it oozes style and its vibes are absolutely immaculate, its character models feel a little potatoey, the world - while gorgeous - feels empty and barren, and its UI and tooltips are incredibly cluttered. The cinematics promise a level of intensity and aggression that the game itself doesn't deliver on - I bought into its violence and 'shoot first ask questions later' feel, but I found myself growing bored by my third run; nothing was happening.

Arc Raiders, by contrast, has developed a community that's equal parts competitive and carefree. It's something I'm sure Bungie hopes will happen with Marathon, but all I've found so far is rampant sweatiness which, given the game feels like it wants you to go in hot, is perhaps understandable.

If Marathon's gameplay matched up to its vibes, I think it could be a serious contender for the extraction shooter crown, but in its current state it feels lifeless - which isn't great given that the Marathon release date is just around the corner. I hope that this little censorship slip was, indeed, a pure accident, but if it was secretly antagonistic, Bungie will need to up its game.