Crosstalk: Can Marathon survive where so many other live-service games failed?

Welcome to Crosstalk, wherein A.V. Club staffers discuss their varied (or unvaried, as the case may be) perspectives on a pop-culture topic. This time, Garrett Martin and Elijah Gonzalez log into the first big online shooter of 2026 that hasn’t already been shut down, Bungie’s Marathon. Has the Halo and Destiny studio hit the trifecta of sci-fi shooters, or will this reboot of Bungie’s ’90s series disappear like so many other live-service shooters?

Garrett Martin: Here comes Bungie, stomping...