After delaying the extraction shooter Marathon out of its scheduled release next month, Bungie is reportedly pulling out all the stops to play test the heck out of the FPS.
The studio just recently launched a 30-day daily playtest, according to TheGamePost, with players invited via email over the past few days. According to the report, the servers will be available for the test for four hours every day.
For participating (you are "required" to play for at least one hour a day), testers are being rewarded with a $500 gift card of their choice at the end of the test. That's not so bad for one hour a day, or 30 hours of work, basically. I would not say no to it.
There will also be a daily and weekly survey to help field feedback on the title, which massively underwhelmed with a closed beta test earlier this year. The feedback to that test was so harsh, followed by an unfortunate plagiarism incident with art in the game, that Bungie pushed the title back.
It no longer has a release date, but PlayStation expects it to launch before the current fiscal year ends on March 31, 2026. And so Bungie's commitment to fixing the game's ills feels very, very important.
I still have no idea how to feel about Marathon. I played it, I enjoyed it for a bit, but quickly fell off within a day or two. The genre is not really my thing, but even for those who do enjoy the Tarkov-like experience, many were left wanting more. That's where this sort of test and feedback comes in.
I want Marathon to succeed, because more good games to play is a good thing, so I hope that this test helps the studio concoct the game into one that may have a wider appeal than the closed beta test would have ever indicated.
It appears that being selected for the test comes down to luck, unfortunately. That $500 gift card sounds pretty sweet right now. Keep an eye on those email inboxes for a message from Bungie, though.
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