This week in gaming highlighted the launch of Bungie’s sci-fi shooter Marathon, which received positive player feedback despite mixed critical reviews and technical issues on Steam during the simultaneous release of Slay the Spire 2. Additionally, industry news covered Xbox’s new console Project Helix, Sony’s cancellation of PC ports, Amazon’s God of War series reveal, legal actions by Activision and Epic, and notable sales and events across various games.
This week in gaming saw the launch of Bungie’s new sci-fi extraction shooter, Marathon, which received generally positive reviews and attracted 88,000 concurrent players at launch. While this was lower than the numbers seen during its free-to-play test, the game’s gunplay was widely praised, though its art direction divided critics and players alike. Bungie plans significant post-launch content updates, including the Cryo Archive endgame zone set to release later in March, with a review embargo on full impressions until then. Despite mixed critical reception, the Steam player reviews have been positive, suggesting a potentially bright future for Marathon.
The simultaneous launch of Marathon and the highly anticipated Slay the Spire 2 caused technical issues on Steam, with users reporting difficulties in purchasing games and browsing the store. These problems were quickly resolved, and Slay the Spire 2 has already reached over 430,000 concurrent players. Meanwhile, Arc Raiders faced backlash due to a privacy bug that saved players’ Discord direct messages and authentication tokens as plain text files on their PCs. Although the bug required a secondary intrusion for exploitation and was swiftly patched, it raised concerns about how the game accessed and stored such sensitive data.
In hardware news, Xbox CEO Asha Charama revealed plans for a new console codenamed Project Helix, designed to play both Xbox and PC games, signaling a move to better integrate console and PC gaming. This contrasts with Sony’s recent decision to cancel PC ports of games like Ghost of Tsushima and SOS, reportedly due to underwhelming sales and concerns about cannibalizing PlayStation 5 sales. Industry analysts suggest that simultaneous PC and console releases significantly boost total player bases, and speculation is rife that Sony may be aiming to reinforce PlayStation exclusivity to maintain console relevance.
Amazon unveiled the first promotional image for its upcoming God of War TV series starring Ryan Hurst as Kratos, though reactions have been mixed due to the early and heavily edited nature of the visuals. In other game news, the shooter High Guard is shutting down on March 12th despite a final content update, reflecting its failure to retain players post-launch. Activision and Epic Games took legal action against prominent leakers, with Activision’s target retiring and Epic suing a former employee who allegedly leaked Fortnite information on Twitter.
Other highlights include Resident Evil Requiem breaking Capcom sales records with over 5 million copies sold in under a week, and ongoing U.S. government scrutiny of Tencent’s investments amid national security concerns. Hypixel announced a $100,000 modding competition for its early access game Hightail, encouraging community creativity with rewards across several categories. The video concluded with the host inviting viewers to share their thoughts on Marathon, noting the game’s divisive UI and art style but expressing a cautiously positive personal impression.