Following Bungie’s recent promise of more in-depth PvE gameplay for Marathon later in 2026, and the announcement that Marathon’s General Manager, Scott Taylor, was leaving Bungie after a 20-year stint at the studio, it has been revealed in a post on X that Marathon’s Game Director will also be stepping away from the project and studio as a whole.
The now-former Marathon Game Director, Joe Ziegler, announced that Friday, July 17, 2026, would be his last day at Bungie. It’s currently unclear why Ziegler is leaving his previous position, although the announcement comes not even a month after Sony announced that there would be significant layoffs at the studio. Ziegler will be replaced by Del Chaffe III, who has worked as Assistant Game Director for Marathon since 2024.
Ziegler’s full announcement reads:Joe 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 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. 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! 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. Hopefully as I move onto new things, you’ll join me for those adventures as well. Much love to the Marathon community and to all my friends and colleagues at Bungie. May we cross paths again. Keep it weird, keep it real <3.