Marathon
Bungie’s Marathon Closed Alpha begins later today, starting at 1 PM ET. But it’s not exactly a celebratory day for everyone.
Some people will not make it into the Closed Alpha, at least not right away, and I mean that in two different ways, and both may prove to be frustrating for players.
The first issue is the total number of Closed Alpha codes that have gone out. While I kept seeing people on my timeline or in comments celebrating that they finally got their code in their email, that was clearly skewed toward the positive, rather than those still waiting for codes.
Best I can tell, there is a significant majority of Closed Alpha code applicants that have not received a Closed Alpha code despite applying, and despite there being at least two major waves of codes being issued so far.
I just ran a poll on Twitter from my heavily Bungie-centric follower base, and the ratio that has emerged with thousands of votes in is about 80/20 in favor of not getting a code after application. 82% to 18%, to be exact. While I figured that Bungie would slowly spool up invites over time, they have not been spooled up enough to accommodate a majority of applicants, possibly not even close, so you’re not alone there if you’re stranded without a code.
It is not impossible that more codes will be issued over the course of the Alpha, but I would not rely on that happening. At this point, it seems like Bungie may be straining itself to even accommodate those who have gotten in, which leads me to my next point.
There may be a significant delay in getting into the Closed Alpha today even if your code is ready to go. Bungie has issued a statement that they will have a population cap when it goes live at 1 PM ET, so you may have to wait an indefinite amount of time to get in:
“For everyone eager to dive into the Marathon Closed Alpha tomorrow, we will be implementing a population cap when we go live at 10AM PT. We will slowly raise the cap and allow more players to join while we run some technical tests. We expect to have room for everyone who has access, but if you plan on playing right when the gates open, you may have to wait a bit as we get everyone in. We appreciate your patience and look forward to running Tau Ceti IV with you.”
So if you’ve found this post and are wondering why you can’t get in yet, this is why. I’m also at least a tiny bit concerted when they say they “expect” to have room for everyone who has access, implying there’s a chance they don’t, but hopefully they will.
If you’re missing this Closed Alpha, as it appears a number of you are, there will be an Open Beta in the coming months, August, I’ve been told. Until then, you’ll have to live vicariously through streams, which I know is not what you were hoping for. We’ll see if more codes go out, but don’t bank on it.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
