Ahead of its open beta server slam, Bungie recently revealed Marathon's networking and security systems designed to protect players, as well as its policy on cheating. This information goes a long way to inspire confidence that Marathon will take cheating seriously and has plans in place to prevent it from happening in the first place. While all of Marathon's security measures sound good on paper, seeing them implemented in-game will be something else entirely, and it will likely be a case of seeing is believing before players can breathe a sigh of relief.
Online multiplayer games have always been ripe for cheaters, and most of the time, developers do a good job of limiting cheating with secure servers and harsh penalties for players caught cheating. However, for extraction shooters like Marathon and ARC Raiders, cheating can be especially devastating, since losing to a cheater means losing any hard-earned loot due to unfair game manipulation. ARC Raiders players might already be familiar with how cheaters can impact the game, as it persists as an ongoing problem within the community.
Feburary 26 Will Be a Make or Break Day for Bungie's Marathon
Marathon’s February 26 server slam could decide whether Bungie’s extraction shooter finds momentum or collapses under mounting skepticism.
Cheating is Still One of ARC Raiders' Biggest Problems
Despite ARC Raiders' attempt to crack down on cheaters and hackers, it feels like there is a new way to exploit the game popping up every day. Between the item duplication glitch that allowed players to essentially spam an infinite number of grenades and the new ARC Raiders exploit that lets hackers spawn Raider Hatches wherever they want, it can be hard to avoid encountering cheaters in the game. The popularity of ARC Raiders has likely contributed to the increase in cheaters in the months following its launch, and Embark Studios has had its hands full keeping up.
The recent controversy surrounding ARC Raiders' item duplication glitch aside, cheaters using third-party hacks, like wall hacks and auto aim, were able to evade permanent bans using ARC Raiders' Steam Family Sharing compatibility up until recently, when ARC Raiders disabled this compatibility to prevent cheaters from hopping to a shared account once one was banned. This effort to reduce instances of cheating has been a part of Embark Studios' larger initiative to improve ARC Raiders' security in the months since its launch. However, it still feels like the game has a long way to go until it is truly free from cheaters.
Marathon is Cracking Down on Cheaters from the Start
In contrast to ARC Raiders, Marathon seems to be preemptively protecting players from cheaters in preparation for its server slam scheduled to run from February 26 through March 2. Marathon has had the luxury of seeing how ARC Raiders has dealt with its cheating problem after delaying the game's release from September 2025 to March 5, 2026. Taking measures to prevent cheating at launch should theoretically help Marathon maintain a healthy player base during the crucial first few months of its life, potentially giving it the edge over its extraction shooter competition like ARC Raiders.
How Marathon is Handling Cheaters
- Dedicated servers that are fully authoritative on key combat and looting actions
- Networking systems that track movement and actions
- Fog of War to limit player client map knowledge and prevent “wall hacks,” “ESP cheats,” and “loot revealers”
- Rebuilt security stack along with an extra layer of security provided by BattlEye
- Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances
At a glance, it's clear Bungie is taking cheating in Marathon very seriously, going as far as to rebuild the company's entire security stack to ensure it maintains the highest level of protection. Other tricks, like the Fog of War to prevent "wall hack"-type cheats from being effective, and tracking players' movement and actions server-side to limit client-side manipulation, are also comforting to players worried about losing their loot in Marathon to hackers and cheaters. The strict penalty of being permanently banned from Marathon with no second chances will hopefully be the final nail in the coffin that prevents potential cheaters from wasting their time with hacks, but it all depends on how effectively these security measures come together in-game.
Bungie Reveals Whether Marathon Will Adopt ARC Raiders’ Aggression-Based Matchmaking
Marathon developer Bungie reveals whether or not its new extraction shooter will adopt an ARC Raiders-style matchmaking system based on aggression.
Why Marathon's Strict Anti-Cheating Policies May Be a Pipe Dream
If Bungie manages to pull off these security measures for Marathon and successfully limits cheating to a minimum, then Marathon has the potential to be the go-to extraction shooter for fans tired of the exploits that litter ARC Raiders. However, just because Bungie has outlined its strategy for combating cheaters doesn't mean that the problem will not exist in some form when Marathon launches.
In the blog post announcing these security measures and anti-cheating policy, Bungie notes that "product security is never fully solved and we’ll continue to invest in our game security systems," indicating that there is still the potential for cheaters to break through security. Players willing to go through the lengths to cheat in an online multiplayer game will look for any potential glitches and bugs in Marathon to make exploitation possible, so there may be some unaccounted-for holes in Marathon's security measures that may make the game vulnerable to hackers.
On the other hand, Bungie's strict no-second-chances policy for players caught cheating could end up backfiring without proper oversight. For as many legitimate cheaters as there often are in games, there are those innocent players who end up banned by mistake, and it's unclear what Bungie's policy would be for Marathon players in this situation. Another possible situation could arise, like the one ARC Raiders recently dealt with, where the item duplication glitch became so widespread that Embark Studios had to investigate and punish players who were deemed to have overused the exploit. This trapped ARC Raiders between a rock and a hard place with how to handle bigger content creators who participated in the exploit, which could spell trouble for similar Marathon players under Bungie's one-and-done policy.
