Topic / Subject
Bungie says Marathon will permanently ban cheaters “forever, no second chances,” and it’s being framed as a stricter stance than ARC Raiders amid recent cheating complaints.

TL;DR
Bungie is trying to win trust early: cheat once, you’re done — and the tech pitch is “server authority + Fog of War” to make common hacks less effective.

Key Details

• Bungie says anyone found cheating will be permanently banned from Marathon “forever,” with “no second chances.”
• Bungie says Marathon’s dedicated servers are fully authoritative over movement, shooting, actions, and inventory, rejecting invalid client actions.
• Bungie describes server-side “Fog of War” designed to limit what client machines can know, targeting ESP/wallhacks and loot-reveal style cheats.
• GamesRadar frames the policy and tech approach as a differentiator versus ARC Raiders after recent community complaints about cheating.
• The real effectiveness won’t be proven until larger tests and live operation.

Breakdown
Extraction shooters don’t survive without trust. If players believe the lobby is full of wallhacks and loot ESP, they stop risking gear and stop logging in. So Bungie going “no second chances” is a loud signal aimed at the exact fear that kills this genre.

The bigger deal is that Bungie isn’t selling this as “we’ll ban harder.” They’re selling it as “we’ll design the network so your client can’t lie as much, and can’t see as much.” Authoritative servers reduce client-side nonsense. Fog of War is the direct shot at ESP: if the client doesn’t get the information, the cheat overlay has less to display.

Still, the only score that matters is what happens when real players (and real cheaters) hit scale. The promise is strong. The proof comes later.

What to Watch Next

• How enforcement looks once public tests get bigger (ban waves, false positives, appeal clarity).
• Whether Fog of War noticeably reduces “I got tracked through walls” moments.
• Whether Marathon becomes the new “anti-cheat standard” comparison point for the genre.

Sources
Bungie.net — “Marathon: Networking and Security”
GamesRadar — “Marathon looks miles ahead of Arc Raiders in one key area… anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned…”
PC Gamer — “Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever…”

Comment
Do you trust “permaban on first offense,” or do you worry it’ll catch legit players in the blast radius?