Bungie’s Ex-‘Marathon’ Director Was Reportedly Fired For Misconduct

It was not clear when or why Marathon director Chris Barrett left both the project and Bungie itself, but now new details have emerged in a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.

Barrett was fired by Bungie this past spring after being accused by at least eight female employees of inappropriate behavior which reportedly included calling the women attractive, being flirtatious, asking to hang out, suggesting they play Truth or Dare, all the while being in a position of power as a top level director at the studio, something he made reference to while suggesting he could help their careers. Barrett is currently married to a Twitch content creator who previously streamed Destiny.

Barrett did make a statement in response to the article, where he said: “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 investigation was indeed enough to get Barrett fired, a significant move given that he had been leading development of Marathon, Bungie’s all-important upcoming extraction shooter they need to deliver for Sony.

The circumstances around Barrett leaving Marathon were always strange. No one learned that Marathon had gotten a new director, Valorant’s Joe Ziegler, until nine months after it happened, and even then it only came out through outside reporting. Ziegler eventually confirmed the timeline which meant he took over just a month or so after Barrett was prominently featured in a vidoc revealing the core concepts of Marathon. That video has apparently now been made private on the Marathon page where it previously resided. Employees were initially told Barrett had simply taken a sabbatical.

To this day, Barrett’s bio reads “Executive Creative Director // Myth, Halo, Destiny, Marathon.” It is not clear if or where he is working currently. He has not tweeted since August 20. Before this, he had drawn some amount of fire for apparent support for the use of GenAI, upsetting a number of Bungie artists who previously worked with him.

Bungie has previously been accused of failing to react to situations like this. IGN previously reported complaints that HR was not acting on misconduct at the studio, including sexism, racism and verbal abuse:

“There was at least one long-standing Bungie employee in HR, still with the company, who almost all of our sources described as actively protecting harmful individuals. Multiple people said that their job seemed to be to “make it all go away” whenever someone had an issue with the company.”

As such, again, it is significant that Barrett was fired, despite his prominence, after an investigation of this nature.

Work continues on Marathon, which is due out in 2025, according to current timelines, now under Joe Ziegler. The unsteady future of Bungie remains a frequent concern, but according to sources, Marathon devs can now breathe easier and refocus on the work itself, rather than their boss.

Read Bloomberg’s full story here.

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