One of the major talking points amongst the Marathon community has been “Mouse Magnetism,” which has effectively provided aim assist to players on mouse and keyboard. Bungie has been listening it seems, and next week will experiment during the closed alpha by disabling this function.
Bungie Will Turn Off Mouse Magnetism
Marathon’s developers confirmed today that it “will be patching the Marathon Closed Alpha next week with several fixes and updates, including disabling mouse magnetism.” Players have had the ability to manually turn it off already, but with this change, the aim assist setting for mouse and keyboard will be turned off.
We will be patching the Marathon Closed Alpha next week with several fixes and updates, including disabling mouse magnetism. Keep the feedback coming, and help us shape Tau Ceti IV.
While aim assist is common in first-person shooter players on controller, it’s rare to see it affecting mouse and keyboard players. What’s even more shocking is how impactful it’s been during the Marathon closed alpha, so much so that it’s become the main focal of discussion.
Several players have taken to discussion hubs on sites like reddit and X to weigh in on the “Mouse Magnetism” setting. Some of the bigger names streaming the Marathon alpha have also expressed their negative opinions on Mouse Magnetism. “They just need to throw that out. I get that they’re trying to balance between consoles and PC for crossplay,” Shroud said on his stream. “But it’s only going to ruin the PC part of the game. You’re just watering [it] down…and making mouse and keyboard players on PC players feel like shit. PC players on mouse and keyboard would rather just improve their mechanics than have an assist.”
Because the game is still in its closed alpha stage, it’s the perfect time to test changes. Earlier during the alpha, Marathon gameplay director Andrew Witts said the initial reason for the setting was to “try it out as a lever to keep parity between mouse and keyboard and controller.” The Marathon dev team clearly wanted to collect some thoughts and opinions on it, and they certainly have gotten plenty of those.
Should mouse and keyboard aim assist in Marathon stay gone? Let me know in the comments or on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Ubisoft has been accused of secretly collecting data from single player gamers.
