Bungie announced in March that its upcoming Marathon reboot had a new game director: Joe Ziegler, the former director of Riot’s online shooter Valorant, who joined Bungie in 2022. Ziegler took over from Christopher Barrett, well known among Bungie fans as a designer and director on the Halo and Destiny games who’d been with the studio for nearly 25 years. A reason for Barrett’s surprise departure wasn’t provided, but a new Bloomberg report says he was fired following an investigation into multiple complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior.
At least eight women at Bungie had complained about Barrett, according to multiple sources, and the subsequent investigation found that he had called lower-ranking female employees attractive, asked them to play Truth or Dare, and talked about his wealth and power within Bungie, apparently suggesting that he could help their careers at the company.
Sources told the site that Barrett would befriend women at the company, then send them “flirtatious” text messages and requests to “hang out.” Multiple complainants said the messages were unwanted and made them uncomfortable because of the extreme imbalance of power involved: It’s not easy to say “no” to one of the biggest names at the company, after all.
Barrett denied any intentional wrongdoing in a statement provided to Bloomberg: “I feel that I have always conducted myself with integrity and been respectful and supportive of my colleagues, many of whom I consider my closest friends. I never understood my communications to be unwanted and I would have never thought they could possibly have made anyone feel uncomfortable. If anyone ever felt that way about their interaction with me, I am truly sorry.”
The report on the circumstances behind Barrett’s termination comes at a time of deep turmoil at Bungie, which has been wracked by large-scale layoffs, tensions with parent company Sony, dissatisfaction with studio management among employees and fans alike, and seemingly endless struggles with its flagship game, Destiny 2. Barrett had been a producer on the Forsaken expansion that released in September 2018, and was widely credited with turning the game’s fortunes around during another time when community dissatisfaction was perilously high.
The Marathon reboot itself—about which virtually nothing has been said since its announcement in May 2023—has also reportedly been delayed to 2025; PC Gamer’s own sources at Bungie have indicated that development of the game is substantially behind schedule and generally troubled.
I’ve reached out to Bungie for comment on the report and will update if I receive a reply.