While Bungie had planned to launch Marathon in September, the studio hit a wall during alpha testing earlier this year, as stolen art was discovered throughout the game. As a result, Bungie had to pause public testing and re-do a number of in-game assets to avoid legal issues. Now, it looks like we are finally due for some official news after months of silence.
Bungie has announced that a new Marathon playtest will take place later this month. Starting on October 22nd and running to the end of October 28th, Bungie will give players an opportunity to try out the new changes implemented over the last several months. On top of that, Bungie will be enabling Steam sign-ups for this closed alpha test, so you won't have to go through the usual submission process, you can just click a button on Steam and await a notification. With that said, sign-ups through Bungie.net are also open if you want to increase your chances of getting in.
As this is a closed alpha test, there will be no streaming allowed, and all participants must agree to an NDA. Speaking on the new playtest, Bungie said that this is “an important checkpoint” for the game. Players can expect three maps, five runners, proximity chat, re-tuned combat, solo queue and more.
If you've applied and been accepted into any of the previous Marathon playtests, then you will still need to apply again for this next test.
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KitGuru Says: With Destiny's continued decline, there is now a lot more pressure on Bungie to get Marathon right. Hopefully this playtest will be a step in the right direction compared to what was previously shown.