Halo and Destiny hitmaker Bungie released Marathon earlier this month. It’s the legendary studio’s first game following Sony splurging $3.6 billion to acquire it. While there’s a lot of things in this extraction shooter that make it compelling to play, there’s also a lot of friction that make it impenetrable for some. And while certain sections of the internet might croon that it’s Concord 2.0 (probably the same lot fetishising Nvidia’s DLSS 5), Marathon’s actually a pretty solid game. We explain why in the first half of the Day Zero Podcast. Oh, and if you want to win a limited edition Marathon DualSense controller, subscribe to us on Substack if you haven’t already. Winner to be announced in two weeks.

After that we talk about Microsoft’s new Xbox moves or lack thereof. At GDC 2026 Xbox revealed more details on Project Helix, the next iteration of its consoles. While a slew of technical information was made public, there was little in the way of innovation spoken and even less in terms of Xbox Game Pass, likely lending credence to the deprioritisation of a service some have referred to as ‘Welfare Pass’.

Furthermore, the way forward seems to indicate lip service in terms of video games preservation rather than an earnest attempt at it.

Finally we discuss Xbox’s duality in terms of keeping AI away from game development but still shoehorning it into Xbox Series X|S with Copilot coming in an update to the consoles.

This is Day Zero. It is a podcast about video games breaking down the bytes and bits behind the decisions that make and break the world’s greatest entertainment industry. Have a request? Hot take? Insider tip? Reach us at the handles mentioned below:

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Capcom’s on a generational run with its survival horror series Resident Evil. The ninth mainline entry, Resident Evil Requiem is out now for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. In this episode of the Day Zero Podcast we discuss our thoughts on the game (spoiler-free) along with how it’s sold in the Indian market (spoiler: good) and how the likes of Games The Shop — the country’s biggest retailer as well as Nvidia, did their bit to hype up the game.

We also talk about how Resident Evil Requiem fits into the greater context of AAA game development and how games like this are few and far between due to what the industry at large optimises for (i.e. economics, not AI and lay-offs or so we hope). Mad props to David Goldfarb for the tweets that sparked this part of the conversation (and the title of this podcast) to begin with.

Furthermore, we talk about Marathon, Bungie’s first game since Sony’s acquisition of the Halo and Destiny maker. From font choices (bad) to its visual direction (good) every aspect of this extraction shooter is laid bare. Along with some choice for words for those pushing out “reviews” for a live service game that isn’t out in a wide enough fashion to warrant the exuberance (or gloom).

Day Zero is a podcast about video games breaking down the bytes and bits behind the decisions that make and break the world’s greatest entertainment industry.

We’d love to hear your objectively bad takes. Let’s start a dialogue, preferably with enough branching paths favouring us.

* Twitter/X - @RishiAlwani

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* Instagram - @rishi.alwani

* Twitter/X - @darthrahul

* Threads - @darthrahul

* Instagram - @darthrahul