Joe Ziegler left Bungie on Friday, becoming the third game director to exit Marathon in less than two years. His departure occurred three days before a mid-season update he designed, coinciding with the game’s Steam player count dropping below 1,000 on multiple days—a threshold where matchmaking begins to fail.
Ziegler announced his exit in a post on X, naming assistant game director Del Chafe III and creative director Julia Nardin as his successors. He stated both had been leading the team effectively and were prepared to guide Marathon forward. Ziegler didn’t disclose his next role but mentioned he was moving to a new opportunity and would share details later. Before joining Bungie in late 2022, he had served as game director on Valorant at Riot Games.
Leadership changes and declining player numbers
Ziegler was not the first to hold the position. He replaced Christopher Barrett, a 25-year Bungie veteran, who was fired in March 2024. Barrett’s termination sparked a legal dispute lasting 28 months, during which he sued Sony and Bungie for over $200 million. He claimed the firing was an attempt to avoid paying $45 million in acquisition bonuses tied to Sony’s $3.6 billion purchase of Bungie in 2022. The companies denied the allegations, citing an internal misconduct investigation. The case was dismissed in December 2025 for lack of jurisdiction before being refiled in Delaware Superior Court. The parties settled on July 8, 2026, one day before another round of Bungie layoffs took effect. As part of the agreement, Barrett’s name was restored to Marathon’s credits as “Original Game Director.”
With Ziegler’s departure, Marathon has cycled through three directors since development intensified. The turnover reflects deeper issues. In live-service games, the director serves as the public face of the roadmap, outlining what players can expect. Ziegler had mapped out plans through 2027, including progression overhauls, a Duos mode, and matchmaking improvements. Whether those plans remain intact under new leadership—or get altered, delayed, or abandoned—creates uncertainty that often drives players away.
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The numbers already show the impact. Marathon launched on March 5, 2026, with an all-time peak of 88,337 concurrent Steam players. By early July, that figure had fallen below 1,000 on two separate days—641 on July 7 and 822 on July 9. Since Steam accounts for about 70% of the player base, the cross-platform situation is worse. The game sold an estimated 1.2 million copies across all platforms in its first three weeks, but those sales haven’t translated into lasting engagement.
For an extraction shooter, low player counts create a mechanical problem. The genre depends on populated lobbies to function. Too few players mean longer queue times, which push more users to quit, further worsening the issue.
On June 25, Bungie laid off 292 employees, with cuts affecting most of the Destiny 2 team and a significant portion of Marathon’s senior staff, including the game’s general manager. The layoffs took effect on July 9, reducing Bungie’s workforce from roughly 1,600 at its peak in mid-2023 to an estimated 500 or fewer. It marked the third round of cuts since Sony’s acquisition.
Chafe and Nardin now oversee a game mid-season, with a player base near critical lows and a studio operating at a third of its former size. Success could stabilize the game’s future, while failure would make it even more precarious.
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Bungie’s legacy was built on Halo and Destiny, but the studio now employs fewer than 500 people. Lars Bakken, a 20-year veteran who served as Marathon’s design lead, left in June, stating he had retired from the video game industry. PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst has stated Marathon remains an important part of the portfolio, but the game’s success will hinge on whether its next season can reverse its current decline.
The extraction shooter genre hasn’t seen a major hit since ARC Raiders, which peaked at 482,000 concurrent Steam players in its first month. Marathon reached less than a fifth of that number. The cautionary example is Steel Hunters, which shut down three months after launch. A more hopeful comparison is Rainbow Six Siege, which nearly failed in its early years but recovered through consistent updates and community focus. However, Siege’s turnaround occurred with a stable team and no massive financial pressures looming over it.
Players now await clarity on whether the new leadership will deliver on the promised roadmap or if the game’s decline will continue.