Joe Ziegler is leaving Bungie. The game director led development on Marathon, the studio’s multiplayer extraction shooter.
Taking his place is Del Chafe III, a longtime Bungie developer who was already working on the project as assistant game director. His promotion looks like an internal handover rather than a full leadership shakeup.
Ziegler came to Bungie in late 2022, after Sony completed its acquisition of the studio. Before that, he was the original game director on Riot Games’ Valorant, one of the biggest competitive shooters and esports titles around. That made him a natural fit for a live-service PvP project.
At Bungie, he took over Marathon from original director Christopher Barrett. Barrett’s version of the game reportedly struggled in internal testing and wasn’t much fun to play. Ziegler reshaped the project into a more focused competitive extraction shooter, with distinct “Runner” characters, special abilities, and high-stakes matches on Tau Ceti IV.
Bungie hasn’t said why Ziegler is leaving, where he’s going next, or when his last day is. So far there’s no word of a new job or a forced exit.
Who’s the new guy?
Chafe is no outsider. He’s been at Bungie since the original Destiny and holds a deep list of credits across the Destiny franchise, including design and creative director roles on Forsaken, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light. He’s been attached to Marathon for years, moving from creative director to assistant game director before this promotion.
Creative director Julia Nardin is also still on the project, which points to some continuity despite the change at the top.
Marathon launched to a lukewarm reception, and its player numbers have been shaky since release. The game also hit an art controversy when assets tied to an independent artist’s work turned up in the game, which Bungie said it was reviewing.
All of this lands during a hard stretch for Bungie. The studio has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs, executive turnover, and tighter integration with Sony since the roughly $3.6bn acquisition closed in 2022.
