Bungie has confirmed a leadership change on its troubled shooter Marathon, with game director Joe Ziegler announcing his departure from the studio and handing the role to a two-person team: Del Chafe III, a 15-year Bungie veteran who was creative director and assistant game director on Marathon, and Julia Nardin, who becomes creative director after serving as the game's narrative director. Ziegler, who took over in March 2024 after predecessor Christopher Barrett was dismissed amid misconduct claims, said he is moving to a new role elsewhere without giving further details. The change is the latest in a series of setbacks for Bungie, which has also ended development on Destiny 2 and seen Sony cut jobs across both the Destiny and Marathon teams.

Marathon's player numbers have fallen sharply since its March launch, from a peak of 77,358 concurrent players on Steam to just 12,041 over the past 30 days, while Destiny 2 recently drew more than double that figure as players marked the end of its content development. Sony recorded an 88.6 billion yen impairment charge against Bungie, which it acquired for $3.6 billion in 2022, though the company says it remains committed to investing in Marathon, citing an 82 Metacritic score and strong player retention. Bungie is pressing ahead with new content regardless, including an experimental roguelite mode called Vault Breaker running from 21 July to 4 August, ahead of a full PvE mode planned for season three.