His race ends here
It’s never very reassuring to see people in important positions jump ship before a game launches, especially for a Marathon who needs all the help they can get to ensure a successful launch. This will ultimately be done without Joseph Cross, artistic director within the project, who himself announces his departure without explaining the reasons. :
“ I’m extremely proud of the visual world we created for Marathon. Getting this much support for a slightly different project is rare, and Bungie’s art team is the best in the business. I will enjoy playing this game as a fan, like all of you. A huge thank you to everyone who supported us throughout this project. »
If, in a sense, one might think that the work of an artistic director is already completed three months before launch, this is a little less true for a service game. And this departure is necessarily linked to the plagiarism cases that occurred a few months ago around the game, when the artist Antireal was able to note that certain of his creations had been reused without his agreement in the game. The case has since been settled amicably, but the artistic department of Marathon took a big hit. So we won’t be surprised to see Joseph Cross packing up after all this, even if it’s a big loss for Bungie.
Marathon is scheduled for March 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series.