Marathon‘s game director is stepping down. Joe Ziegler confirmed that July 17 is his last day at Bungie and he’s passing the reins over to assistant game director Del Chafe III, a 15-year veteran of the studio, who will continue shepherding the excellent but struggling extraction shooter on its post-launch journey 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 posted on X. “I’m proud of them and I’m excited to see them helm the future of this crazy little world we’ve created together.”
Hey everyone I’ve got a bit of an announcement to make. Today, Friday 7/17, will be my last day at Bungie and I’ll be passing the torch of Game Director to the very capable and amazing hands of Del Chafe III, who will guide the game forward alongside the Creative Director Julia…
— Ziegler (@Ziegler_Dev) July 17, 2026
Ziegler didn’t say where he’s going next but insinuated it’s another project at another game studio. “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,” he added. “The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you! It’s been a pleasure seeing all the stories you’ve created, all the clever ways you’ve found ways to murder robots and one another.”
🚨BREAKING: Marathon hits it’s LOWEST all time peak of 2,030 players on Steam, continuing it’s trend down as we approch closer to being in the hundreds instead of thousands. pic.twitter.com/NwmnV6MnwK
— Divide (@DivideGaming21) July 9, 2026
Marathon‘s leadership team has been jumbled around following mass layoffs at Bungie in June. Marathon general manager Scott Taylor was part of the cuts last month, and has since been replaced by Joshua Deane, who is also the studio’s head of product. Meanwhile, Lars Bakken, a 20-year veteran of Bungie with credits dating back to Halo 3, has also departed according to updates on LinkedIn. Bakken was a senior design lead at the studio, and served as an activity design lead on Marathon.
These changes come as part of roughly 300 confirmed layoffs across Bungie, or nearly 40 percent of what its estimated headcount was earlier in the year. Sony has said it remains committed to Marathon as Bungie prototypes its next project, but player counts continue to decline and a full-blown PvE mode that could potentially bring in fresh fans isn’t expected until the fall.