In a post on social media, Ziegler said this weekend that he\u2019s decided to join another project elsewhere and confirmed that Marathon will be taken over by Del Chafe III, previously assistant game director, alongside creative director Julia Nardin<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth 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,\u201d Ziegler wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of them and I\u2019m excited to see them helm the future of this crazy little world we\u2019ve created together. As for me, I\u2019ll be heading to something new, somewhere else, and will update you on where and what soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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.\u00a0 The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you!\u201d<\/p>\n Marathon\u00a0launched in March and is estimated to have sold\u00a0over 2 million<\/a>\u00a0copies. The game\u2019s creative director,\u00a0Julia Nardin, has claimed that its development team has already planned out the framework for a years-long story.<\/p>\n Marathon director exits following a tough month for Bungie Ziegler\u2019s departure follows a difficult few weeks for Bungie, which last month confirmed it was laying off \u201cmost\u201d of the Destiny 2 team<\/a> and some Marathon developers. Bungie ended support for Destiny<\/a> 2 last month.<\/p>\n His exit also follows the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by former Marathon director Christopher Barrett<\/a>, who said PlayStation<\/a> had agreed to insert his name into the game\u2019s credits as part of a settlement.<\/p>\n Barrett, who was the original director of Marathon, had his employment terminated by\u00a0Bungie\u00a0in 2024, after more than 25 years at the company,\u00a0for misconduct.<\/p>\n In court documents,\u00a0Sony alleged\u00a0that Barrett had sent inappropriate messages to female employees. Barrett denied the claims and called the investigation that led to his firing a \u201csham\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n