Bungie is reportedly sending out invites for new Marathon playtests, with a huge change moving forward.
As reported by The Game Post, the leaked invites said this:
If you are interested, please fill out this brief survey, in which you will be required to sign our Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and confirm your participation. If you choose to participate in this closed playtest, sharing any info or assets outside of the designated private Discord channels will be prohibited.
This particular playtest is supposed to be scheduled this coming June 27 to 29, from 2 to 6 PM PT.
It’s a dramatic change for Bungie’s policies, but one that seems to be unavoidable. In October of last year, some content creators actually shared positive buzz for Marathon, but they weren’t actually allowed to share any footage or say anything about the game yet.
Shortly afterward, game director Joe Ziegler addressed fans directly, promising that they would add ‘significantly more players’ to their playtests, as they valued player feedback highly. Ziegler shared the sentiment that they want players to help shape the game to something they would want to play.
Unfortunately for Bungie, Marathon received mixed feedback from public playtests, a lot of which swung more towards negative. And then, the game faced a nuclear controversy when plagiarism allegations hit the title.
Bungie and Sony haven’t really shared new information on what they plan to do about the alleged plagiarism, but they have officially delayed the game beyond its planned September release. Presumably, either they are working something out with the artists drawn into the controversy, or they’re quietly changing the game’s visuals to show the public later.
That may be part of the reason that Bungie is now enforcing new NDAs, but there’s also a more obvious reason for it. Bungie doesn’t want the public to litigate the game while it’s still a WIP.
It’s a low key admission that the game isn’t good yet, but it’s not like that was particularly confidential information. It does seem that we may have to wait for some time before we get to see Marathon again. Unfortunately, it is also absolutely possible that Sony will decide to cancel this game mid-way.
Paul Tassi claimed that Bungie’s developers found out about Marathon’s delay at the same time that the public did. Marathon’s fate may be ultimately decided by Sony, but if Hermen Hulst’s word is good for anything, they’re going to figure out how to address all the game’s issues and do everything they have to to make it a success.
