Marathon art lead departs Bungie of his own volition, ahead of game’s new release date

Marathon art director and veteran Bungie developer Joseph Cross has announced his departure from the company, mere months ahead of the extraction shooter’s release in 2026.

First spotted by The Game Post, Cross updated his LinkedIn profile and social media profiles to indicate the end of his 14-year-run at the renowned sci-fi FPS studio. He later announced the news on X with a farewell statement.

Cross wrote: “I’m incredibly proud of the visual world we built for Marathon. Getting support at this scale for something a bit different is rare, and the art team at Bungie is the best in the biz. I’ll be enjoying playing the game as a fan with all of you. Massive thank you to everyone who has supported through all of it.”

This sudden change in artistic leadership follows a plagiarism scandal that rocked Marathon, after it was discovered the extraction shooter used artist Antireal’s work without permission. Earlier this month, Antireal stated the situation had been resolved: “to my satisfaction”.

Ethan Gach at Kotaku contacted Cross to ask if his leaving Bungie was of his own volition, or a consequence of said plagiarism scandal. Cross responded, stating it was his own choice, as well as: “I’m super proud of the project and what the team accomplished over the last six years.”

This comes shortly after a fresh gameplay deep dive from Bungie on Marathon, which showcased a gigantic overhaul of the title. It now has a solo queue, proximity chat, more challenging PvE UESC enemies, and more.

The tagline for the game has also seemingly been changed. Previously, Marathon’s tagline was: “Escape will make me God”, though now it appears to be “Death is the first step”. Why this has changed has not been explained officially, but it’s worth noting that after the plagiarism scandal a popular joke of sorts emerged online, with the game’s detractors posting: “Plagiarism will make me God”.

Marathon is set to release in March 2026, with all eyes fixed on whether Bungie can turn the public reception of the game around and pull a big success out of the hat after a rocky start.