Marathon director departs Bungie four months into launch

Bungie has been in a tough spot for some time now, with Sony even calling the studio's purchase back in 2022 an unsuccessful one. The studio went through mass layoffs weeks ago, and reports say there aren't any new games in production either. Now, it has been confirmed that the one title it's supporting, Marathon, has lost its game director.

Joe Ziegler announced his departure from Bungie earlier today on social media, saying he will be "heading to something new, somewhere else, and will update you on where and what soon." He did not give a reason for his exit from Bungie in his announcement.

"I just want to say a deeply heartfelt thank you to all of you for supporting me and Marathon in our windy mission to bring a dark and terrifying space survival frontier to your screen," adds Ziegler. "Hopefully as I move onto new things, you'll join me for those adventures as well. Much love to the Marathon community and to all my friends and colleagues at Bungie."

Ziegler joined Bungie in December 2022 to work on Marathon and took over as game director in mid-2024.

Taking over the Marathon director role will be Del Chafe III, with the help of Julia Nardin, Bungie's current creative director. The handoff may mean the title will be going through some major changes, perhaps adopting a more PvE gameplay style much like Destiny instead of being solely focused on being an extraction shooter.

Marathon is Bungie's sole supported game right now. Destiny 2's final update landed in June, ending years of content. Considering the mass layoffs at the studio and Sony's reluctance to greenlight new projects, fans may not see another Destiny entry for some time, if at all.