Marathon is one of 2026’s biggest early releases, serving as a serious test of Bungie’s status as a major developer in the current market. The game’s concurrent player numbers have been alright, and reviews have been fairly good overall. However, the game’s status as a potential “make or break” moment for Bungie has pushed it further into online discussions among gamers, especially from the more right-wing side of the player base who have been openly hoping that Bungie stumbles with the game.
This is the sort of sentiment that seems to be behind the latest conspiracy around Marathon, which claims that Sony has been paying players to post positively about the game. Although screenshots were included as “proof” of the conspiracy, it turns out they were faked as a means of stirring up more anger at the game and the companies. It’s the latest example of just how toxic the online space can become in gaming and may be one of the dumbest conspiracy theories about developers we’ve seen in a while.
Marathon’s Fake Reddit Conspiracy, Explained
While Marathon has been raising some interesting questions about the future of Bungie and the broad appeal of hardcore shooters in an era where free-to-play titles are still king, many of the most annoying points have been related to a disproven conspiracy theory about the game’s Reddit presence. Users like Pirat Nation have been claiming that Sony and Bungie have been contacting people through Discord and paying them to post positive reactions to Marathon on Reddit. The source is a post on Reddit that includes several screenshots of a Discord chat, noting that people can gain $5 per “successful post” in support of Marathon.
This effectively accuses Bungie and Sony of “astroturfing,” an illegal practice that could potentially get the companies saddled with some serious fines. The thing is, the screenshots have turned out to be fake. The screenshots are actually from the Discord server “Reddit Circle,” where people do get paid to post on Reddit. However, there are no mentions of Marathon in the server. This was confirmed by Kotaku writer Lewis Parker, who noticed the poor photo-editing on the original posts and joined the server to confirm what is actually there. They also highlighted how easy it is to fake a Discord post through the use of browser tools like Inspect Element. Given that the original post that spread the accusation has already been deleted by the user, it seems like it has been exposed as a fake conspiracy theory. Despite this, people are still arguing about it online.
Why People Are Trying To Stir Up Anger At Marathon
Courtesy of Bungie
Marathon has found itself in an interesting place in the larger online space, especially due to the pressure on the game to perform well. Reporting about Sony’s frustrations with the legendary game developer has underscored the importance of Marathon‘s success for the future of the company. While it doesn’t seem to have been the broadly appealing breakout hit that the companies were hoping for, it’s also far from the failure that critics of Bungie were anticipating. That may be why the post went live in the first place, as it’s notable that much of the ensuing online anger at Bungie has come from primarily far-right gamers who have been reportedly organizing online campaigns on social media platforms.
The reasoning for the targeting seems to be less focused on the game itself and more due to Bungie’s status as a “woke” developer. This effort to turn an extraction shooter’s success or failure into a culture wars issue is already frustrating, as it undercuts the intended universal appeal of games as a medium. If you don’t like the game for its own merits, that’s worth sharing. Simply accusing the developers of crimes because you disagree with the politics of members of their team is a lackluster way to respond to art. It’s also a painfully basic approach to faking a controversy, trying to paint the two companies as committing fraud through the use of some very basic photo editing that can be disproven in just a few days.
Instead of actually engaging the game and sharing criticism in a constructive or at least directed manner, these efforts only add to the image of gamers online being overly reactive, with the comment section of the original post quickly derailing into broad accusations against political figures like Kamala Harris. It’s another sign that Marathon is being targeted by players who aren’t interested in the game, just the opportunity to score a “win” over their ideological opponents. The fact that it spread so fast despite being easily disproven highlights the current state of news and discussion online among gamers. Even for gaming controversies, this one is dumb. While there is actual room to criticize Bungie’s latest efforts, the fact that a very basic fake screenshot has spurred so much online vitriol speaks poorly to the state of discourse among certain subsects of online gamers.
