Bungie has had a rich and varied history concerning its video game IPs. For the uninitiated, the company was founded back in May 1991 and has since grown to become a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Before its acquisition by Sony, Bungie was owned by Microsoft, which led to the creation of the critically acclaimed Halo series of video games. With PlayStation backing them now, however, Bungie has shifted focus from Halo and Destiny 2, now aiming to move forward with a new game, known as Marathon.
Marathon is the newest entry from Bungie | Image Credits: Bungie
Despite Marathon being a PlayStation-backed game, the title will not feature one of the most controversial additions to Sony PC ports in recent years – the mandatory linking of PSN accounts.
Marathon will not enforce the linking of PSN accounts for alternative platforms
Marathon will forego the PSN account linking | Image Credits: Bungie
As confirmed by multiple sources online, Bungie will not enforce the linking of PSN accounts for Marathon. This message was delivered via the official Discord server for the game and is quite a welcome surprise.
Before this, Sony made it mandatory to have a PSN account linked to every one of their games – including those that were primarily single-player focused titles (such as The Last of Us: Part I).
This was first introduced with Helldivers 2 and was met with a tremendous amount of backlash from the public. After all, Helldivers 2 did not enforce a PSN account at launch, and there were many regions where PSN accounts were not officially supported.
This resulted in those having legally obtained the game being unable to play it, and it was a grievous error on PlayStation’s part – which they refused to back down from. However, PlayStation ultimately relented, and PSN account linking was quietly killed off – or made non-mandatory.
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It should be noted here that Marathon isn’t exactly your typical PlayStation IP – it has a big focus on multiplatform availability, and as such is available on the PC, Xbox Series X/S as well as the PlayStation 5.
Helldivers 2 was the first game to introduce PSN account linking | Image Credits: Arrowhead Game Studios
Having a mandatory PSN account linked to an Xbox game might not sit well with most users. This might be precisely why Bungie and PlayStation opted to not have it included for Marathon, to avoid any unnecessary backlash.
It should be noted here that while the PSN account isn’t mandatory, there might be an optional login option for all users. Like modern PlayStation PC releases, the PSN account will likely bring with it a few benefits (such as cosmetics), which could help incentivize the move.
What exactly is Marathon?
Marathon isn’t exactly an entirely new game. Prior to its 2025 reveal, the game was also known as the Marathon Trilogy and was a sci-fi FPS released for macOS, back in 1994. They were eventually ported over to other operating systems (such as Windows).
The Marathon Trilogy was a landmark moment in Mac gaming history and can be lauded as one of the first ‘real’ games on the Mac.
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The series was eventually set for a reboot, though, after a small teaser dropped during the May 2023 PlayStation showcase. This time around, Marathon is a PvP extraction shooter that should play very differently from the original.
The game takes place during the canonical events of the trilogy and is surprisingly absent on modern macOS.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
