Marathon's murderous audio change was an 'overcorrection,' Bungie admits, promises to pull it back in an upcoming update

PC Gamer's Morgan Park had a rough night in Marathon a couple days ago. He initially attributed it to a run of bad luck—everyone has an off night now and then, after all—but noticed a lot of other people having similar struggles, many of whom pointed the finger at something else: noise.

Silence is golden in Marathon. Simply put, the more noise you make, the more likely you are to attract trouble and catch a bullet. And it turns out the Marathon update that rolled out earlier this week made a change on that front, noted in an unremarkable line stuff midway down the patch notes: Increased the range gunfire and explosions can be heard from.

Not everyone appreciated the change, and when I say "not everyone" what I really mean is, almost no one. Some Marathon players wanted a little more emphasis on PvP action, worrying that the game might turn into an Arc Raiders-style co-op friend fest (not Morgan, though), but while making fights audible over a greater distance is bound to encourage conflict, the general consensus is that this change went too far: "You cannot get anything done now and like someone else said you essentially have to PvP, win the map, and then just run rampant until final exfil," redditor Electrical_Regret537 wrote of the change.

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In a message posted earlier today on Bluesky, Bungie acknowledged that it went a little too far with the audio adjustment.

"We've seen your feedback about the increased range at which you can hear other players in combat and are closely monitoring how it affects your runs," the Marathon dev team wrote. "We recognize that this was an overcorrection and will pull things back in a way that maintains your ability to hear each other's actions, but not at a distance that feels excessive. We're still aligning on how to ensure the best player experience, and will deploy changes in an upcoming update."

We recognize that this was an overcorrection and will pull things back in a way that maintains your ability to hear each other's actions, but not at a distance that feels excessive. We're still aligning on how to ensure the best player experience, and will deploy changes in an upcoming update.

In a separate thread, Bungie said the goal of the change was to give players "more info" about what's happening out in the field, but acknowledged that "we overdid it a bit." Once the audio adjustment is adjusted again, Bungie said it "should still give some of that benefit but at a distance that feels more comfortable and intuitive to everyone."

Bungie didn't say when this audio update might roll out but given how widely unpopular the initial change has proven, I'd expect to see something happen fairly soon.