The rivalry between extraction shooters is heating up, but developers Bungie and Embark are showing solidarity on social media—even after Marathon briefly blocked mentions of Arc Raiders in its chat.
When the Marathon Server Slam event launched yesterday (achieving notable concurrent player numbers on Steam), players discovered that Embark's highly popular Arc Raiders was being filtered out in chat. A viral clip shared by Jake Lucky on Twitter/X showed Fortnite star Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins encountering this firsthand. Notably, other competitive shooters like Halo, Counter-Strike, and Apex Legends remained uncensored.
The censorship was short-lived, and Arc Raiders is now permitted in Marathon chat. This quirky incident led to a heartwarming exchange: the official Marathon account responded to the viral tweet with an in-game chat screenshot stating, "Arc Raiders is awesome." The Arc Raiders account reciprocated with a playful message: "No matter if you're a Runner or a Raider, loot is loot. We’ll save you a seat in the shuttle 🫶"
For now, social media is all smiles. However, Bungie faces immense pressure for Marathon to succeed, particularly following Destiny 2's decline and internal challenges at the studio. In November, Sony, Bungie's parent company, reported that the studio missed sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a 31.5 billion yen (approximately $204.2 million) impairment charge. This significantly impacted profits in Sony's Game & Network Services Segment, which includes Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Sony CFO Lin Tao commented at the time: "Regarding Destiny 2, partly due to shifts in the competitive landscape, sales and user engagement have fallen short of our expectations from the acquisition. We will continue making improvements but have revised our business projections downward and recorded an impairment loss on some Bungie assets."
Months earlier, in August of last year, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons departed after 23 years, nearly a decade as CEO. He was succeeded by Justin Truman, former chief development officer and a Bungie veteran. Parsons led the studio through turbulent times, including its split from Activision in 2019 and Sony's $3.7 billion acquisition in 2022, which ended Bungie's independent streak.
Post-acquisition, concerns grew about Bungie's future as Destiny 2 struggled and Marathon remained years off. Layoffs hit in 2023, with about 100 employees cut and Destiny 2's The Final Shape DLC delayed; Parsons took responsibility. Developers described the atmosphere as "soul-crushing," fearing a Sony takeover. In 2024, further layoffs affected 220 people despite The Final Shape's success, and 155 staff were integrated into Sony. Former employees alleged Bungie misrepresented its finances and was overextended pre-acquisition, with one source claiming insolvency might have loomed otherwise.
Turmoil persisted through 2024 into 2025, with Marathon delayed from its original September 2025 release. Recently, Sony confirmed Bungie's integration into PlayStation Studios for greater oversight.
Last June, Sony reaffirmed its commitment to live-service games despite setbacks like Concord, insisting Marathon would launch before April 2026 despite mixed alpha feedback and plagiarism accusations against Bungie. Since then, Bungie has worked to enhance both Marathon and its public perception.
Sony aims to avoid another disaster like Concord, which was pulled offline two weeks post-launch with estimated sales of just 25,000 copies, costing hundreds of millions and leading to Firewalk Studios' closure. Bungie now faces scrutiny over its future, with Marathon's performance critical. The game launches fully on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S next week.
