Marathon game director Joe Ziegler is leaving Bungie, becoming the latest high-profile departure in a mass exodus at the Halo and Destiny studio. His exit comes less than a month after Bungie cut roughly half its workforce and halted development on Destiny 2, deepening concerns about the future of both the studio and its beleaguered extraction shooter, Marathon.

Ziegler will be succeeded by Del Chafe III and creative director Julia Nardin, who he said were ready to guide Marathon into its "next chapter". Marathon has struggled to build a player base since launch, compounding difficulties already facing Bungie, which Sony bought for $3.6 billion a few years ago. An experimental PvE mode is due next week, with a fuller version arriving in September, though it remains uncertain whether this will be enough to secure the game's long-term future.