Marathon's pre-release server slam is running throughout this weekend, giving gamers their first proper chance to try Bungie's extraction shooter. Whilst getting a feel for the gameplay, some players also discovered that the phrase "Arc Raiders" was censored from Marathon's in-game chat.
Clips showing the censorship started circulating online, as picked up by Kotaku. Streamer Lirik posted a clip testing the chat censor, finding that Arc Raiders appeared to be the only major shooter that was banned from discussion in Marathon. While posting "arc," "raiders," or even "arcraiders" was allowed, the game would blank out "Arc Raiders" as a phrase, even with spaces or double spaces between the letters. Kotaku also tested the chat filter in-game, confirming what had been posted by streamers and content creators.
In response to a similar clip on X, the Marathon dev team account soon posted a screenshot showing Arc Raiders uncensored in chat, reversing the word filter. The dev team's screenshot reads "Arc Raiders is awesome. 2 cakes!" referring to a popular meme about comparison in art--however the screenshot was posted without any explanation of why Arc Raiders was censored in chat to begin with.
While fans of extraction shooters might be happy to have two cakes when Marathon releases on March 5, the game will undeniably launch into direct competition with the popular Arc Raiders, which has sat consistently near the top of the Steam charts since it released. Marathon's free server slam has attracted decent player numbers, peaking at around 143,000 concurrent players and propelling it to number 3 on Steam's top sellers chart, but the paid launch next week will be the true test of Marathon's staying power.
Source
Clips showing the censorship started circulating online, as picked up by Kotaku. Streamer Lirik posted a clip testing the chat censor, finding that Arc Raiders appeared to be the only major shooter that was banned from discussion in Marathon. While posting "arc," "raiders," or even "arcraiders" was allowed, the game would blank out "Arc Raiders" as a phrase, even with spaces or double spaces between the letters. Kotaku also tested the chat filter in-game, confirming what had been posted by streamers and content creators.
In response to a similar clip on X, the Marathon dev team account soon posted a screenshot showing Arc Raiders uncensored in chat, reversing the word filter. The dev team's screenshot reads "Arc Raiders is awesome. 2 cakes!" referring to a popular meme about comparison in art--however the screenshot was posted without any explanation of why Arc Raiders was censored in chat to begin with.
While fans of extraction shooters might be happy to have two cakes when Marathon releases on March 5, the game will undeniably launch into direct competition with the popular Arc Raiders, which has sat consistently near the top of the Steam charts since it released. Marathon's free server slam has attracted decent player numbers, peaking at around 143,000 concurrent players and propelling it to number 3 on Steam's top sellers chart, but the paid launch next week will be the true test of Marathon's staying power.
Source