Bungie’s extraction shooter has suffered another serious setback following weak player numbers and layoffs.

The outlook for Marathon is becoming increasingly troubling. Over the past week, the game repeatedly peaked at barely 5,000 concurrent players on Steam, a figure that looks inadequate for sustaining an ambitious live-service project. Bungie has already responded to the poor performance with major layoffs, and now the leadership of the game is changing as well.

Joseph Ziegler, who had directed the project since mid-2023, confirmed that July 17 was his final day at Bungie. The former Valorant director only said that he is beginning a new job elsewhere and will reveal more about it later.

“My heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported me and Marathon throughout this difficult mission.”

The timing makes Ziegler’s departure particularly bitter because the game itself was not poorly received. Marathon currently holds an average score of 82 on Metacritic, while 82 percent of its Steam user reviews are positive. Ziegler also helped bring a long and difficult development cycle to completion.

Del Chafe III will take over as game director after more than fifteen years at Bungie, most recently serving as creative director. His first major challenge will be overseeing the arrival of PvE content, followed by an attempt to reverse the game’s fortunes with Season 3. This is less a routine leadership change than an extremely difficult rescue operation.

Source: 3DJuegos