CCNN

Gaming-Controversy

By Dax Nguyen

Bungie's Marathon Launch Patch 0.9.4.2: We're Only Fixing the Things You Actually Saw This Week Because We Don't Want to Admit We're Still Fixing This Shit

SAN FRANCISCO — Bungie officially confirmed on Thursday that Marathon’s March 5 launch was not, in fact, a launch at all, but rather a carefully orchestrated soft launch designed to collect enough beta-tester feedback to justify a patch release that would have occurred three years ago in any sane industry.

The game, billed as Bungie’s return to first-person shooter glory, shipped with a 25GB day-one patch, 47% of the game’s total assets, and a loading screen that told you to turn off your TV because the graphics were being rendered in real-time.

By Dax Nguyen

Splitgate 2's Opening Weekend: When $80 Bundles Get Downgraded to $40 After Community Feeds Back

CERES — It happened in the span of 47 hours, faster than most game patches can roll out: 1047 Games watched its Splitgate 2 pricing strategy get deleted from existence by a community that collectively screamed “antithetical to our wallet’s structural integrity” loud enough for the studio’s CEO to hear it through a wall of microtransaction rage.

According to an internal memo that was never leaked (because the studio said it would delete it “for your safety”), the $80 cosmetic bundle that launched on June 6, 2025, was originally priced at $145 before the backlash hit with the force of a ranked matchmaking queue during finals week. When players began comparing their $500 monthly food budget to this single bundle, the studio responded by executing what they’re calling a “community-first dynamic discount algorithm.”