Joe Ziegler, the game director on Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon, has left the studio just four months after the game launched. In a social media post, Ziegler said Friday 17th July was his final day at Bungie, capping around three and a half years there.
Ziegler is handing the role to assistant game director Del Chafe III, who will steer Marathon alongside creative director Julia Nardin. "Both of them have been operating in a strong leadership capacity for the team and are ready to guide Marathon into the next chapter with an even better and brighter future," Ziegler wrote. He added that he's "heading to something new, somewhere else," and promised to share details later.
Ziegler thanked the community and framed the exit as a handoff rather than an abandonment. "The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you," he wrote, signing off with "Keep it weird, keep it real."
A revolving director's chair
Ziegler was not Marathon's first director. According to VGC, he joined Bungie late in development, arriving after the departure of original director Christopher Barrett. Before Bungie, Ziegler spent 12 years at Riot Games, where Eurogamer reports he rose from game designer to a senior game director role and worked on Valorant.
Barrett's exit remains one of the more contentious chapters in the game's history. He was fired by Bungie in 2024 after more than 25 years at the company. Court documents cited by VGC alleged Barrett had sent inappropriate messages to female employees, claims he denied while calling the internal investigation a "sham." Eurogamer notes the accusations were filed by "at least eight" female employees. Barrett later sued Bungie and parent company Sony Interactive Entertainment for wrongful dismissal, and earlier this month reached a settlement. Per VGC, part of that deal saw PlayStation agree to add his name back into the game's credits.
Turbulence at Bungie
Ziegler's departure lands during a rough stretch for the studio. Last month Bungie confirmed layoffs affecting at least 292 employees, including "most" of the Destiny 2 team following that game's final major update in June, plus an undisclosed number of Marathon developers and support staff. Eurogamer points out those cuts follow 100 layoffs in 2023 and a further 220 in 2024, the latter roughly 17 percent of the workforce at the time.
Marathon launched in March and is estimated to have sold over two million copies, according to VGC. Nardin has said the team already mapped out the framework for a years-long story. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that a mid-season update arriving next week will add the game's first proper PvE mode, a potentially important moment for a title that has taken a rocky road to release.
What this means for players
Bungie is leaning heavily on Marathon as its next pillar now that Destiny 2's live support has wound down, so a director change this soon after launch is worth watching closely. For players still deciding whether to invest time in Marathon, the immediate signal is continuity: Chafe and Nardin were already in senior roles, and the promised PvE mode gives lapsed and curious players a fresh reason to check back in when next week's mid-season patch goes live.