As we approach the early access for “Marathon” with excitement for many around getting their hands on the game, an update has let us know that the NDA is lifted.
I’ve covered it many times already, but Bungie’s new extraction shooter “Marathon” has been revealed and given a release date as well as a closed alpha that’s going to be playable as soon as April 23rd. A small update was tossed into the mix today with some more clarity for what is and isn’t part of the upcoming alpha. With this comes an important detail: the lifting of the Non-Disclosure Agreement that told players not to share details or stream the resulting closed alpha during the period they had access to it.
The inclusion in the beginning was rather strange, especially considering how close a proper release date is. Plenty of people—myself included—were rather confused by the severity of secrecy for a gameplay that had not only been revealed during their livestream but was actively tested and shown off during the Creator Alpha Gameplay Highlights. It’s a piece of information that stuck in my head for the last 6 days until this announcement, and now I’m considering the impacts of the choice moving forwards.
I discussed in my article on Titanfall 3 that keeping information secret through NDAs is a useful tool to manage expectations of a game as well as avoid early bugs or underdeveloped graphical systems to weigh the opinions of the game before its release. Taking it further, there’s a tendency for early impressions of games to create a major lasting view of a game, making this first hands-on experience a very sensitive spot for Marathon. I want to illustrate the ways in which games like Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky have gone through major overhauls to repair their reputation over the course of years after the first release left a sour taste in consumers’ mouths. I Imagine that with a major leap into a new genre like Marathon likely has Bungie rather worried, leaving them to keep things secret and even attempt an NDA late into the game before lifting it after some pushback. Noting other issues in stability with servers and updates within Destiny 2, there’s probably a major concern of messing up their early release.
It’s the lack of an NDA that also offers a different issue, although this one might be a little more nuanced. With the release of an early alpha as big as Marathon with less restriction on its coverage, a surge of content and streams on the game are bound to follow. This makes the game a sort of content chase as a limited release—a value in having the opportunity to stream the experience to an audience of those who cannot play the game considering the restricted player slots. We saw this with Valorant back in 2020, exacerbated by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the trickling codes granted through viewers of people who were playing the closed alpha. This came with a slew of issues such as [24/7 content farms][deef4] for viewers who were there simply to get a taste of the new shooter, and while I understand that a lot of factors for Marathon’s closed alpha will reduce this effect there is no doubt that a level of it may occur yet again. With entitled fans and dev harassment being problems that Bungie has faced in the past, I’d hate for this to become another issue that Bungie has to face during the release of this alpha.
The point is that developer secrecy is a tool that allows for them to control variables during game creation, and NDAs shouldn’t be seen as a crazy restriction for any sort of early access considering the various issues that can come alongside it. While Steam’s Early Access feature allows for many games to receive feedback and funding during production that can help keep indie developers afloat by being open about their processes, this must also come across with the caveat of specific issues this creates such as the need for Steam to warn customers about games that have been seemingly abandoned to avoid false promises. Bungie’s choice to lift the NDA is their own and I wouldn’t be so silly as to suggest they put it back down, but I hope that they have plans or ideas to avoid any of the noted issues.
Until then, I’m very much hoping I get into the alpha as well. Even without the NDA, I’ll likely avoid streaming it too much until their official release. Bungie has noted in their Marathon Closed Alpha FAQ that codes are coming out soon, specifically a week from their initial announcement which would mean that some of the first emails will start going out tomorrow. With the start date less than a week away, the first lucky few will be treated to being among the first to test out the new game with the ability to freely share their experiences and thoughts.
Just remember that the game is always subject to change.
(Edit: I finished writing this from around 6-7pm and after posting it, it turns out the first codes were sent out! I got into the beta as I was writing that last line!! For anyone who’s wondering if their emails are real or want to make sure they don’t get hacked, check your Bungie.net account for the code which will be there independant of the email! I’ll have an article covering it on April 23rd and be streaming over on Twitch the day of. Hope y’all get a code soon, there’ll be putting new waves of codes until the end of the Alpha and more playtests including non-NA exclusive ones will be coming later!)