Marathon Director Joe Ziegler Leaves Bungie - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 July 2026 / 1,297 Views
The director of Bungie's Marathon Joe Ziegler has decided to leave the company a matter of months after the launch of the game. Assistant game director Del Chafe III and creative director Julia Nardin will be taking over the game.
"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," said Ziegler.
"I'm proud of them and I'm excited to see them helm the future of this crazy little world we’ve created together. As for me, I'll be heading to something new, somewhere else, and will update you on where and what soon.
"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. The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you!"
Bungie was hit with layoffs last month that included "most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." Sony Interactive Entertainment teams that also support Bungie's operations were also hit with layoffs.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
Top guys jumping ship. Always a great sign
The same guy left Riot less than a year after vVlorant's launch. It doesn't mean anything when he was essentially poached for a specific job . It is common for leads to leave after launch for new projects especially when the same guy already has a history of it.
More than one top guys have been leaving. The game is a flop and people are leaving. That often spells bad news for a studio.
If he already has another job lined up then he's leaving for the exact same reasons he joined bungie in the first place. someone hired him for a very specific task.
The day before the announcement, another Senior Bungie dev, Lars Bakken, from the Halo days also left the company.
