Slay the Spire 2 dev says Marathon joke 'a bit meaner than expected'

Comedy tends to land better when you punch up rather than punch down — but Mega Crit found out what happens when a joke meets an unexpectedly huge launch. Slay the Spire 2 became the #1 best-selling game on Steam, passing Resident Evil Requiem and Marathon.

The studio posted on X: "Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch! Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out." A follow-up added, "it wasn't supposed to be shade, we were being sarcastic 😭 Did not know we'd blow up quite to the degree that we did."

Co-founder Casey Yano later wrote, "This seems a bit meaner than it was intended… To be fair I didn't think we'd actually pass Marathon in concurrent users."

The exchange reads like gentle ribbing, but Slay the Spire 2's huge success changes its context. Yano had compared the game to "unexciting chicken noodle soup" last year, a remark that now carries different weight.

spire 2, marathon, mega crit, steam, resident evil, casey yano, sarcasm, chicken noodle, concurrent users, indie