Marathon launches today, 5th March, and following a successful Server Slam test last weekend and the reveal of promising post-launch plans, developer Bungie seems to have finally built some positive sentiment. Only players on current-gen consoles or PC are able to join the fun though – or at least for now.
Via Clawesomegamer (hat tip to Knoebel), we’ve learned the ESRB rating page for Bungie’s latest is including mentions of PS4 and Xbox One versions, which haven’t been announced at the time of writing. The site states that “Marathon is rated T for Teen by the ESRB with Animated Blood, Language, and Violence.” This isn’t a shocker, as the game generally involves lots of shooting and stabbing both (augmented) human and android opponents.
Here’s our own screenshot of the page in case these mentions are removed:
There are two possibilities here. First, we can just assume it’s a mistake on the ESRB’s part. After all, Call of Duty continues to drop new releases on last-gen hardware, so it’s easy to think Sony and Bungie’s big multiplayer bet is also going wide if you haven’t been following the news closely.
Second, we could theorise they made a very different mistake: revealing the existence of backports before a formal announcement is made (new game releases are spoiled by ratings boards all the time). In any case, it’s an interesting wrinkle, especially with the game set to welcome players later today.
We also have to wonder if last-gen compatibility would even be possible for Marathon, considering how dense the level design and graphical presentation are. On PS5 and Xbox Series X/S (as well as PC), performance during the Server Slam seemed perfectly fine, but it seems obvious the game was built with current-gen hardware in mind.
With simpler multiplayer shooters that use vast open environments like Fortnite and Apex Legends gradually beginning to struggle on machines from the previous era it would be a surprise – though Marathon’s distinctly sleek art style could look better than something overly realistic in a lower graphical presentation.
With Sony reportedly ditching PC ports of its single-player games, maybe a second move is to get its multiplayer ones on as many platforms as possible.
In the meantime, we’ve contacted Bungie to ask for clarification.
