Marathon Game Director Joins Bungie's Mass Exodus, by Choice or Otherwise
Ziegler said he is handing Marathon to new leaders as Bungie faces layoffs, restructuring and a sharp player decline after March’s launch.
- On Friday, July 17, 2026, Bungie Game Director Joe Ziegler announced his departure, passing leadership of the extraction shooter Marathon to Del Chafe III and Creative Director Julia Nardin.
- Ziegler's exit follows mass layoffs at Bungie that cut nearly 40 percent of its workforce in June, as the studio struggled to maintain momentum following Marathon's March launch.
- Chafe, a 15-year veteran of the studio, and Nardin will lead Marathon forward, while Ziegler, formerly the game director of Riot Games' shooter Valorant, stated he is "heading to something new, somewhere else."
- Bungie will release an experimental roguelite PvE mode called Vault Breaker in Marathon from July 21 through Aug. 4, as the game struggles to match Destiny 2's historical player highs.
- Despite Sony recording an 88.6 billion yen impairment loss on its $3.6 billion Bungie acquisition, the company remains committed to Marathon despite disappointment with the studio's output.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Marathon game director says goodbye to Bungie
Destiny developer Bungie continues to have a tough year. After launching the long-delayedMarathon in March, and struggling to find a wide audience for the game, the studio announced it was ending development on Destiny 2. Shortly after, Sony announced plans to lay off "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." In the latest shake-up at the studio, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler ann…
Marathon game director joins Bungie's mass exodus, by choice or otherwise
Marathon game director Joe Ziegler announced today that he will be leaving Bungie, with today being his last day at the studio. The news comes less than a month after the studio lost approximately half its workforce and shuttered development on Destiny 2. Ziegler will be succeeded by Del Chafe III, along with creative director Julia Nardin, who will both be taking over to try and salvage what’s left of the Marathon dream. Image via Bungie “Both …
Joe Ziegler, Game Director of the Extraction Shooters Marathon, announces his farewell to Bungie.
Marathon Loses Game Director After General Manager Retires
Following Bungie's recent promise of more in-depth PvE gameplay for Marathon later in 2026, and the announcement that Marathon's General Manager, Scott Taylor, was leaving Bungie after a 20-year stint at the studio, it has been revealed in a post on X that Marathon's Game Director will also be stepping away from the project and studio as a whole. The now-former Marathon Game Director, Joe Ziegler, announced that Friday, July 17, 2026, would be …
Marathon just lost its game director: Joe Ziegler is Bungie's latest high-profile departure
Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has stepped down and left Bungie a short two months after the developer announced its final update for fellow FPS Destiny 2. His last day at the company was July 17. Former Destiny 2 design lead Del Chafe III will take over as game director with help from Marathon's current creative director Julia Nardin. Ziegler writes in a Twitter announcement, "Both of them have been operating in a strong leadership capacity…
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