In just a few hours from the time of this writing (10am PT to be exact), the Marathon Server Slam will wrap up, and players' free weekend in Tau Ceti IV will be over. Bungie ran the server slam from February 26 to March 2, with players on PC and PS5 able to jump in and try Marathon for themselves with a few limitations.
Beyond an odd start to the slam, where the phrase 'ARC Raiders' was censored for an unknown reason, its player numbers weren't too bad, peaking at 143,621 concurrent players on Steam. What's more important for Bungie to take away has been the onslaught of feedback players have had, and as the slam wraps up, the Destiny studio has made it clear it is "keeping a close eye" on several key topics players have brought up.
One of the biggest pieces of feedback has been regarding the game's user interface (UI), which Bungie says it plans to "continue iterating post-launch" and that it wants to "make sure that you're able to easily navigate, read what's happening mid-fight, manage your equipment effectively, and see your pings without any noise around them."
Bungie is also looking at adding lobbies dedicated to players who want to run in Duos, rather than Duo teams getting mixed into lobbies with teams of three. The studio has "heard the feedback about duo dedicated lobbies," but provided no indication as to whether it'll actually happen.
PvP feedback and specifically time-to-kill (TTK) has also been a hot topic, with some players believing the TTK to be too short and wanting encounters with other players to run a little longer than they currently do. Bungie says it is "reviewing Runner density on non-beginning maps and keeping a close eye on how Perimeter and Dire Marsh feel all in all."
The studio is also looking into several issues regarding the game's PC performance, specifically an issue that's causing players to hit a frame-rate ceiling of 80 to 100 FPS no matter their hardware, frame hitches during intense fights and high CPU usage with low GPU utilization. If you are someone who experienced any or all of these issues, Bungie says that sending in a short clip of your gameplay is ideal to help the team dig into what is causing these problems.
Bungie will also continue to monitor issues like the med and ammo economy, as players have reported shield, health, and ammo packs all take up too much inventory space, only for them to be far less effective when getting into a big fight. "We hear you that meds are soaking a lot of your early loadout budget and that back-to-back fights can chew through your med and ammo reserves pretty quickly," Bungie writes.
Again, Bungie asks that if you had an issue with how the ammo and med economy operate in the game to send in some feedback so it can continue to monitor and adjust accordingly. There have already been a few issues that Bungie has acted on quickly based on Server Slam feedback, which hopefully means we'll be able to see issues like this and others fixed sooner rather than later.
Overall, it's been a positive weekend for Bungie and Marathon's server slam. There are definitely things that need to be fixed within the game, but with its release only days away, it's encouraging to see the studio step into launch with a positive outlook.
For what it's worth, I spent a few hours playing the server slam this weekend, and while I agree that its UI needs fixing both in regard to being able to read what's happening mid-fight and in terms of simple menu navigation and inventory management, Marathon has that slick Bungie quality to it with how it feels. I'll be looking forward to spending a lot more time on Tau Ceti IV when it arrives on March 5, 2026.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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