The senior artwork director of Marathon has left Bungie, forward of the sport’s launch in March.
The Sport Put up initially noticed that the LinkedIn web page of Joseph Cross listed his function as senior artwork director within the ‘experiences’ part of his web page, however that somewhat than “March 2018 – current” it mentioned “March 2018 – 2025”.
The positioning additionally famous that Cross’s X profile bio used to learn “Franchise artwork director, Marathon @ Bungie“, however now reads “Artwork director and artist – Marathon, Dune, Future“.
The adjustments led to hypothesis that Cross might have left Bungie at an unspecified time this 12 months. This was then confirmed by Kotaku, who reached out to Cross personally.
Cross instructed the publication that it had been his resolution to go away, including: “I’m tremendous happy with the undertaking and what the crew completed over the past six years.”
Marathon was initially deliberate for launch on September 23, however Bungie introduced in June that it had formally delayed the sport, citing a necessity for extra time to refine and take a look at.
The delay adopted blended suggestions from gamers to alpha exams, in addition to a major controversy round stolen paintings that was present in these take a look at builds.
Earlier this month, Scottish artist Fern ‘4nt1r34l’ Hook, who famous again in Might that a few of her earlier artwork was getting used as property in Marathon with out her permission, said that the problem had “been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Leisure to my satisfaction”.
On Monday, Bungie formally introduced that Marathon will launch in March 2026 for PS5, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC priced at $39.99 / €39.99 / £34.99.
Bungie claims that Marathon will function no pay-to-win mechanics, and gamers could have entry to all gameplay updates (maps, Runner shells, occasions, and so on), with a further reward cross that received’t expire.
