‘Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever’: Bungie’s doubling down on security following Arc Raiders’ recent foibles

As we’ve learned from the likes of Arc Raiders as of late, cheating and exploits are absolutely game-breaking in an extraction shooter. The recent item duplication glitch forced Embark to dish out warnings and bans after it broke the in-game economy, though there have been fears over big-name content creators getting preferential treatment.

Bungie has evidently been taking notes in the background, as it has just released a hefty blog on how it will handle cheating and networking issues in Marathon. The answer? It’s not going easy on these issues or those who go out of their way to ruin the game for others.

“We want you to know your deaths are due to your own mistakes or enemy outplays—not because your run was compromised by network issues, cheaters, or the hardware hosting your connection to the world,” the blog reads. “No network or security model can guarantee perfection”, but it’s “committed to protecting the Marathon competitive experience.”

So here’s a rundown of the basics:

• Marathon uses dedicated servers, with server-side authority over key combat and looting actions to reduce exploits. In other words, no tricking the server to teleport, gain unlimited ammo, or avoid damage
• A Fog of War system “limits the regions of a map that individual player clients have knowledge of” to counter wall hacks, ESP cheats, and loot revealers
• If you lose connection mid-match, you can reconnect and continue playing. If you fail to reconnect due to an issue on Bungie’s end, it will attempt to return starting gear to all affected players

Most poignant of all, though, is that “Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances.” It can’t be simpler than that. If you’re banned for cheating, that’s it, so don’t try to plead with Bungie support to weasel your way back in.

Again, with how severe the impact of cheating and hacking can be in extraction shooters like Marathon and Arc Raiders, and Bungie’s own rocky track record with Destiny, it’s great to see that game security is a top priority.

It feels like a proactive response to recent events in Arc Raiders. In fact, the blog specifically mentions “economic security”, which was a big issue in Embark’s shooter these past weeks: “Over time you may fill your vault with weapons, gear, and anything else of value you acquire on Tau Ceti IV. We take your investment of time seriously. We will strive to keep your progress safe and protected from item duplication or other economic cheats.”

As much as I’d love a steady supply of the Longshot sniper or double-barreled Combat Shotgun, I figure we’d all rather that come from consistent looting and pilfering of other players over duplicating them out of thin air.