After Saying Marathon Won't Have Proximity Chat, New Tests Have Reportedly Added It

It's been a while since we've last heard anything substantial about Marathon, the embattled extraction shooter in development over at Bungie. For what it's worth, the game's not been canceled, and just recently it was reported that playtesters were being offered $500 to take part in the next test.

Now, via a report from The Game Post, it's being stated that Proximity Chat, a feature that wasn't originally slated to be part of the game, has actually been added in. "Sources tell The Game Post that proximity voice chat is live in the game and functioning," the report read.

Elsewhere, it's noted that time-to-kill has been changed to be noticeably faster, and that healing items work on a time basis rather than providing direct benefits the minute they are used. Still, perhaps no addition is bigger than Proximity Chat, something that is somewhat integral to games in its genre.

At One Point, Bungie Was Seemingly Adamant About Not Having Proximity Chat

For those who've been falling the saga of Marathon, back in April, following the game's reveal, Bungie asserted that the game wouldn't have Proximity Chat for some rather specific reasons.

In an interview, game director Joe Ziegler said, "When it comes to prox chat, I don't think we're against the experience of it, to be fair. I think the challenge is how to make sure we're creating a safe environment for players inside of that space."

As helpful and almost as integral as the feature can be, it does leave players susceptible to abuse on the other side from bad actors.

"I don't think anyone really has a good solution to that just yet," Ziegler added. "Because we're so dedicated to making sure that we're creating a safe space where we don't have players just flaming each other or doing terrible things to one another, I think we're not ready to invest in prox chat until we have a solution."

Perhaps a solution was found, or Bungie figured that it wasn't worth losing an entire segment of gamers who believe the feature is a necessary element of extraction games to not have it. Either way, should this report prove true, it sounds like the game is getting closer to fan expectations.

Marathon

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