3 months before launch, Marathon art director Joseph Cross departs from Bungie: 'I'm incredibly proud of the visual world we built'

This week, Bungie revealed a sweep of major changes for Marathon, the striking expansion shooter reboot of its pre-Halo sci-fi series, in reponse to the mixed reception to its closed alpha earlier this year. But while Bungie's been hard at work overhauling Marathon's gameplay, it's also undergone a change in leadership: Just three months before its March 2026 launch, Marathon art director Joseph Cross has chosen to leave the studio.

The Game Post spotted the first indications that Cross had left Bungie, reporting that Cross's LinkedIn profile now listed a 2025 end date for his position as Bungie senior art director. Cross's X account biography had also been updated, removing a previous mention of the studio. Cross has since confirmed to Kotaku that he is no longer employed by Bungie, and that it was his decision to leave the studio.

"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," Cross said in an X post published early this morning. "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."

Prior to his role as Marathon art director, Cross had spent more than six years at Bungie as a lead concept artist contributing to the development of Destiny's visual language. On his ArtStation account, you can trace a visible throughline of vibrant, geometric iconography in Cross's Destiny work that bleeds through into Marathon's cyberpunk acid design.

It was during Cross's tenure as Marathon art lead that Bungie was forced to acknowledge its fourth art theft scandal since 2021, after visual artist Antireal accused the studio of using her designs without credit or permission in Marathon environmental art. In a statement confirming the "oversight," Bungie said "a former Bungie artist" had included the "unauthorized" designs in Marathon's texture sheets without the current art team's knowledge.

Earlier this month, Antireal indicated that Bungie has since made good on its commitment to "do right by the artist," posting on X that "the Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction."

Cross's departure from Bungie comes at the tail end of a fraught development cycle, coinciding with the prolonged fallout of Bungie's troubled acquisition by Sony. But after Marathon's delay, the reaction to its reworked direction has been generally positive. We can only hope that translates into a desperately-needed win.