Marathon Missing Feature Due to Player Toxicity

Destiny developer Bungie recently revealed the first bits of gameplay for its upcoming first-person extraction shooter Marathon. While the studio made it very clear its new game is designed with multiplayer in mind, a now fairly normalized feature will not make it into the game at launch.

Marathon will not have proximity chat

A new interview with Marathon’s developers has confirmed that proximity chat will not be in the game at launch. For those unaware, this is a feature that allows players to hear teammates and enemy players when close by. The reasoning behind this decision at this time is due to player toxicity.

“When it comes to prox chat, I don’t think we’re against the experience of it, to be fair,” Marathon Game Director Joe Ziegler told PC Gamer. “I think the challenge is how to make sure we’re creating a safe environment for players inside of that space.”

“I don’t think anyone really has a good solution to that just yet,” Ziegler continued. “Because we’re so dedicated to making sure that we’re creating a safe space where we don’t have players just flaming each other or doing terrible things to one another, I think we’re not ready to invest in prox chat until we have a solution.”

This is just one bit of controversy tied to Marathon after it was finally shown. Bungie confirmed in a statement that the anticipated extraction shooter will be a premium product but not a full-priced title. Essentially, this means it will cost less than $70. A specific price tag will be announced in the summer.

Marathon will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 23. Eager gamers can sign up for its Closed Alpha now by joining the game’s official Discord server. The playtest begins on April 23.

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