Sweden's Embark Studios viewed the alpha test of Bungie's Marathon to be an interesting comparison for its own extraction shooter, Arc Raiders. 

Speaking to PC Gamer, design director Virgil Watkins said that this gave the developer a good opportunity to look at the different approaches that each company had taken towards the same genre.  

"It was very coincidental that they had their test around the time we did. To my knowledge, I don't think any of us knew that was going to happen," he said. 

"It was a very great A/B test for us, because obviously they made decisions that we didn't, and vice versa. So we could kind of compare and contrast how some of those things shook out."

Both Marathon and Arc Raiders are extraction shooters, a genre popularised by Escape from Tarkov. That title has been hugely influential but boasts a steep learning curve and even then is still very inaccessible to new players. 

Arc Raiders is set to launch on October 30th; Marathon currently does not have a release date but was slated to come out in September before being bumped. 

Embark Studios was founded by DICE and Electronic Arts veteran Patrick Soderlund. The company has also released free-to-play team shooter, The Finals.