Marathon Director Fired at Bungie After Misconduct Investigation

Marathon Director Fired at Bungie After Misconduct Investigation

As a long-time fan who’s been following Bungie’s journey since the golden days of Halo, it’s disheartening to see such turmoil unfolding. The firing of Chris Barrett, the director behind Marathon, is just another blow to an already struggling studio. It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a new challenge for Bungie.


It appears that Bungie has let go of the director responsible for their upcoming game, Marathon. In the early part of 2023, Bungie released a teaser trailer and some basic details about Marathon. However, since then, Bungie itself has faced difficulties, having undergone two rounds of layoffs within less than a year. More trouble has surfaced at the studio as Chris Barrett, the director of Marathon, was dismissed due to accusations of inappropriate conduct.

2024, I was let go from Bungie due to some conduct issues that had been brought up by multiple female colleagues. The allegations were serious enough for the company to launch an investigation, and they found that my actions indeed warranted termination. Sony, being Bungie’s parent company, acknowledged they take all reports of misconduct extremely seriously but chose not to comment on this specific situation.

Since 1999, Barrett has been part of Bungie, contributing as both an artist and director to their flagship series, Halo and Destiny. He is also known for directing Marathon, Bungie’s upcoming shooter game. It remains unclear how Barrett’s departure from Bungie will affect the development of Marathon. However, it adds to a series of unfavorable circumstances that have troubled the company over the past year.

Currently, specifics regarding the release date for the game “Marathon” are yet to be announced, but it’s clear that it’s in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Following the launch of “Destiny 2: The Final Shape” earlier this summer, Bungie has been concentrating their efforts on “Marathon”. “The Final Shape” marked the culmination of the grand storyline that Bungie had been developing in “Destiny 2” over several years and is believed to be the last expansion for the game.

In other news, it was previously announced that a section within Bungie would be breaking away to develop a brand-new action-centric intellectual property under the wing of PlayStation Studios. At present, there’s very little information available on this project and we might not learn more for several years yet.

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2024-08-29 00:39