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There was talk following the release of Baldur's Gate 3 that, after such a satisfying turn-based RPG experience, other RPGs of a similar classical lineage might launch to a hungrier audience, filled with players converted or pulled back to the genre by the feast Larian prepared. Baldur's Gate 3 set a high bar, sure, but it also set millions of people on a course to seek out more games like this. I wonder if the folks at Bungie, who've missed the initial planned release date for extraction shooter Marathon and have now watched the explosive success of fellow robot-filled extraction shooter Arc Raiders, have similar hopes as the still-undated game gears up for another playtest.
As Bungie announced today, signups for the Marathon December community playtest are now open. The "latest changes" to the game will be shown in a test running December 12 through December 16, ahead of a shifted launch still seemingly timed for, or before, the end of Bungie owner Sony's fiscal year in March 2026.
The test will be under NDA, so don't expect to see anything posted or discussed publicly – that is, of course, until people inevitably leak the test like college students circulating stolen exam answers.
I am seriously wondering how Bungie, and its increasingly fussy parent Sony, have discussed Arc Raiders internally. Surely it's come up a few times – perhaps not with the fervor of competing scientists rushing to invent a nuclear bomb, but at least in passing, right? Hey, you see that meteor that just hit the genre we're trying to break into?
Is there time to bend some of Marathon's systems to fold in some well-received ideas and features from Arc Raiders? I don't know. The most glaring omission in a previous build of Marathon – which I did enjoy, with some caveats – was proximity chat, a feature that's fueled a huge portion of the emergent, shareable moments in Arc Raiders. Without it, Marathon can't hope to become the same sort of story generator.
The problem with following a breakout extraction shooter, of course, is that where Baldur's Gate 3 fans might have finished their single-player campaign and sought out their next RPG adventure, when Marathon finally launches a ton of people may still be playing Arc Raiders. That, or perhaps spending more time in the old stomping ground that is Escape from Tarkov, newly released on Steam.
People don't move around as much in live-service spaces, so rather than a "more of that, please" effect, Arc Raiders could have the opposite impact, leaving Bungie fighting to convince players to come try its game instead when they've only just moved into a new home. I've been playing Destiny for 11 years, and I'm enjoying the heck out of Arc Raiders, even if its gunplay does feel worse than Bungie's, so I'll still give Marathon a shot whenever it finally gets out the door.
