While Marathon‘s Server Slam has been seeing a strong response in terms of concurrent player figures, players have discovered that Bungie has set up a filter to censor “ARC Raiders” from its in-game chat. This was spotted by popular streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, with a clip then being shared by Jake Lucky.
While mentions of other games might be fine, and profanity is censored as you might expect, Blevins also discovered that entering “ARC Raiders” into the chat results in a display of “### #######”. Curiously, mentioning other games like Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite or Apex Legends doesn’t evoke any similar censoring.
While this has raised many questions, the development team behind Marathon has taken to social media to reveal that no such censorship seems to be in place. In a screenshot, the Marathon Development Team Twitter account has showcased how it could write “Arc Raiders is awesome. 2 cakes!” without any issue.
The ARC Raiders social media account also posted its own support for the Marathon Server Slam. “No matter if you’re a Runner or a Raider, loot is loot. We’ll save you a seat in the shuttle,” wrote Embark Studios.
While the cause for the profanity filter applying to ARC Raiders is currently unknown, it could simply be a strange bug that managed to make its way into the Marathon Server Slam, and was likely quickly fixed upon discovery.
Earlier this week, Bungie had released a cinematic trailer for Marathon showcasing the Rook Runner Shell. It zooms in on the aftermath of a fight, with the remains of a squad strewn about. The Rook then enters the area to start picking apart the remains, before discovering that the Destroyer was still alive. The trailer managed to set the tone for the Rook, indicating that the Runner Shell will revolve more around sneaking around and scavenging rather than taking direct part in fights.
The Thief Shell also recently got Run Clip just a few days before the Marathon Server Slam, showcasing its gameplay from the perspective of a player. Among the things shown off are the Thief’s traversal capabilities aided by its grappling hook, and how it could use a combination of its abilities and equipment to sneak up on foes before quickly taking them out.
As for players that might be worried about potential hackers and cheaters making Marathon unplayable, don’t worry. Bungie has confirmed that it will be applying a zero-tolerance policy to cheaters, with discovery resulting in instant permabans and “no second chances”.
“Anyone found to be cheating or developing cheats will be permanently banned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances,” said the studio. It also confirmed that there is an appeals system in place to make sure that innocent players aren’t caught up due to false-positives.
If you’ve already been convinced to pick up a copy of Marathon, Bungie has also revealed some of its plans for post-launch content, which includes a ranked mode, two new maps, and faction progression trees in Season 1.
Marathon is slated for release across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 5th, and is priced at $40. For more details, here are 15 essential things you should know.