The Arc Raiders design director has said it’s been fortuitous timing to have its extraction shooter launch a playtest around the same time as Bungie’s Marathon, calling it “a great A/B test for us.”
With Marathon offering some features that Arc Raiders does not — and vice-versa — Embark Studios’ Virgil Watkins said it’s been useful to compare the feedback from not just Arc Raiders’ community but also Marathon’s to “compare and contrast how some of those things shook out.”
Talking to PC Gamer, Watkins said: “It was very coincidental that they had their test around the time we did. To my knowledge, I don’t think any of us knew that was going to happen. It was a very great A/B test for us, because obviously, they made decisions that we didn’t, and vice versa. So we could kind of compare and contrast how some of those things shook out.
“[It] was quite interesting to follow what players thought about those certain things, or what did work in their context and didn’t, and what may have worked in ours,” he added.
While Marathon playtests were available to just a select few, Watkin did say he’d seen enough to find the art style “very evocative,” adding he was “personally curious to see how that ends up. I hope to see more of that in the future.”
Arc Raiders ended its ‘Server Slam’ playtest over the weekend with big player numbers on Steam, suggesting a strong launch ahead of its October 30 release date. It hit a peak concurrent player count of 189,668, making it one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform over the weekend and the biggest extraction shooter ever on Steam.
As for Marathon? The sci-fi extraction shooter is running another invite-only technical test for players in North America and Europe on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam from October 22-28.
“This is an important checkpoint for us as we test our improvements since Alpha, including three maps, five runner shells, prox chat, re-tuned combat pacing, solo queue, deeper environmental storytelling, and more,” the Sony-owned studio wrote. “That said, the Technical Test build is a work in progress and will only include a portion of what’s planned for Marathon’s full release, focused on the early player experience.”
A public update — one of the first since Marathon’s high-profile delay to an unspecified date — on the shooter’s development will be released “after the closed technical test.”
Marathon’s previously planned September 23, 2025 release date was scrapped following “varied” feedback from players. “Through every comment and real-time conversation on social media and Discord, your voice has been strong and clear,” Bungie said at the time. “We’ve taken this to heart, and we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion. After much discussion within our Dev team, we’ve made the decision to delay the September 23 release.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.