Marathon loses game director as Bungie shifts to PvE model

Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has left Bungie as the studio adapts to industry-wide disruption, including layoffs and major cost reductions.

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Following mass layoffs, Bungie loses another senior-level developer. This time Marathon's game director Joe Ziegler has departed the group, leaving the highly-artistic live service shooter in the hands of Del Chafe III and Marathon creative director Julia Nardin.

"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," Ziegler wrote on Twitter, shortly after announcing his departure.

The news comes after major shifts happened at Bungie, the biggest of which was the hefty layoffs that saw most of the Destiny 2 team being let go and the game being retired into maintenance mode. The layoffs were triggered by a significant $750 million impairment charge, which caused Bungie to balance its books by reducing costs and laying off workers.

Bungie has also shifted Marathon to include a PVE mode, Vault Breaker, in a bid to attract more players and users. That mode actually drops tomorrow, July 21, in a mid-season update. The game's third season goes live in late September and Sony has conducted multiple discounts to get more users to try out the premium live shooter.

"The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you!" Ziegler said.

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Marathon's new PVE mode Vault Breaker launches tomorrow, July 21, as part of a mid-season update.

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The video games industry is so heavily burdened right now that Sony, a major purveyor of media who actually co-created the Blu-ray disc medium, is cutting physical game disc production in a bid to save costs and maximize profits.