This hasn't been the strongest year for Bungie. On the back of ending updates for Destiny 2, the studio released Marathon to a more muted and mixed response than anyone would've liked. Layoffs followed, and an ex-lead from the FPS has given some insight into what it was like behind the scenes.
In an interview with PCGamer, Joe Zeigler, former game director on Marathon, discussed the challenges in getting the project over the line. "I found this project was - it had some areas where there were definitely some ideas about where we were going, but there were a lot of disagreements across the place," he says.
"So part of where I was advising was trying to bring those all together and be like, 'Hey, what is the cohesive place you want to go to? And how do we get there?'," he continues. "And then when we landed on that, I could help them drive that."
Zeigler initially joined the company in an advisory role before a leadership position at Marathon opened up. Coming from years directing League of Legends, he knows a thing or three about keeping a live-service game on track. As a big fan of the studio, dating back to Myst, he was eager to step into the infrastructure, and he notes that the company operates in two distinct lanes.
"I'll say this about Bungie, which I really like, and it's still very true about Bungie: it lives in two worlds," he states. "One is this world where there's a lot of legacy to live up to, which is a lot of pressure. But there's also this other side of it, which is that it's a very egoless company."
The team "are always looking for some way to improve, and the way they do that is, oftentimes, by bringing in people who are new to help them figure out what they are missing," he adds. Which is how he wound up working there for almost four years, exiting after Marathon came out.
Sadly, things are murky for Bungie at present. Marathon's not doing the expected business and Destiny 2's purely on support. Given the state of Xbox's restructuring right now, it's a case of seeing what happens in the years ahead. For now, Zeigler's working on an unannounced new project.
