Latest news with #JoeZiegler
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Morale at Bungie reportedly at an all-time low as the iconic FPS dev investigates stolen assets in Marathon: "The vibes have never been worse"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Morale at developer Bungie - the iconic first-person shooter studio behind Destiny and the original Halo games - is reportedly at an all-time low, with some employees unsure about whether their upcoming Marathon reboot can meet its September release date. In case the scandal hasn't reached you yet, earlier this week, futuristic indie artist Fern 'Antireal' Hook accused the studio of using her 2017 art portfolio as inspiration (to put it mildly) for Marathon, without permission or payment. She also posted side-by-side screenshots of her own art work next to Marathon's alpha test, with very similar iconography, patterns, fonts, and sometimes even words appearing in both. Bungie later admitted that a former artist at the studio had mistakenly "included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game," and said it was currently investigating "a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals." A new Forbes report, citing comments from former and current Bungie staff, now gives some insight into what's happening inside the studio. Morale is said to be in "free fall" and "the vibes have never been worse." Higher-ups haven't said anything about a delay potentially hitting Marathon, but many are uncertain about if the shooter can turn around its controversial perception in time for launch, just a few months away. Game director Joe Ziegler even said the studio was "still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation" - which obviously sounds like a pretty hefty undertaking. For now, Bungie's legal team and parent company Sony are purportedly also investigating the situation, though the fact the studio neglected to show gameplay footage in this week's livestream discussing the alpha maybe says enough. 5 months from launch, Marathon devs keep evading pricing questions, but Bungie promises that "it's definitely going to be a conversation"
Forbes
25-04-2025
- Forbes
Bungie Addresses ‘Marathon' PC Aimbotting, Solos Mode
Marathon Bungie The Marathon Closed Alpha has been live for two days now, and has opened up to a good amount of players, but not enough for those who are still missing keys. There has been a lot of commentary about the first impressions the game has made, but a couple of issues above others. First is the realization that PC has severe aim assist with mouse and keyboard, leading shooter players to say it's essentially a built-in aimbot, and it's turned off many from the game. But this is where 'it's an Alpha' mode comes in, and after this feedback, it's already clear that this is going to be scaled back. Here's Gameplay Director Andrew Watts on the issue: 'This is something we're trying out as a lever to keep the parity close between mouse and keyboard and controller. We want to get it out and get a feeling for it right now. We don't think it's in the most perfect spot or anything.' 'We're definitely trying to get folks' reactions to this as a lever for getting more parity without losing the skill ceiling and skill expression that you get with the input of your choosing whether it be mouse and keyboard or controller. That's why it's a setting you can turn on and off. We know there are players who don't want any kind of assistance with their aim and want that raw input feel, so that's why it's a toggle in the menu. We're not trying to make it a must-pick kind of thing. This is us getting it out there to get some thoughts on and iterate from there.' Marathon Bungie The goal of the aim assist was clearly to create some amount of parity with console players and their controllers given that the game will be cross-play. But this seems like a dramatic overcorrection and saying that 'it's a toggle' is not remotely a fix for the problem, as then you are just purposefully handicapping yourself against console and especially other PC players who are almost certainly not going to switch it off. The goal, however, does seem to be to scale it back, but it almost certainly will not be removed entirely, as that is not the case with PC Destiny 2. Though there it's nowhere near this intense. The other request is for a Solos mode, as right now, the only solo play you can do is loading into a normally 3s match by yourself. Lots of tension, perhaps, but far from a level playing field. But Solos does not seem to be in the cards anytime remotely soon. Here's Game Director Joe Ziegler: 'For launch, we're not going to have a solo. But what I mean by we're not going to have solo queue is that you can queue solo in our game — it's just we're not going to have solo-only lobbies. Part of it is there's just a lot of things we'd have to pretty massively adjust about the maps, the loot pool, and the balance of Runners in that kind of mode. Right now, we've mostly designed the game around there being trios or variables.' It's been said that they tried this but it just didn't work as it was mostly just Voids sneaking around being invisible avoiding other players. So it's more than just flipping a switch and throwing 18 solos in a map together to make this work. So one of these may be fixed for Alpha, the other may be years off, if it happens as well. We'll see what else changes from here. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
There's A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2' And ‘Marathon' Development
Destiny 2/Marathon While this week has been all about Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, little attention has been paid to its younger brother, Destiny 2. Except quotes that are about whether or not this game is for those players. Here's Game Director Joe Ziegler speaking to GamesRadar: While I'm sure Bungie wants some Destiny players on board with Marathon, the goal is neither to cannibalize Destiny nor end its development in favor of Marathon. There has been a consistent narrative that Bungie is almost wholly focused on Marathon now, leaving Destiny 2 in the dust. The reality is not that, and more devs at Bungie have been and are currently working on Destiny 2 than Marathon. By last count, there are now 850 employees at Bungie proper, about half of what it used to be between layoffs, departures and Sony siphoning off some roles. But of that team, 300 are working on Marathon while ~550 are working on Destiny 2, nearly double. Yes, that is obviously less than there used to be, and we are heading into an era with less Destiny 2 content, but the narrative that the majority of Bungie has moved over to Marathon just isn't true. At least not right now. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Destiny 2 Frontiers Why? Shouldn't Bungie have all hands on deck for Marathon so close to release here? Well, two issues with that: It's certainly a tough situation. Bungie has scaled down so much in recent years that it's been extremely difficult to keep up the same cadence and scope. But they still managed to top themselves with The Final Shape release. And whether Episodes landed or not, they still had a lot of content development at baseline. Developing Marathon at the same time has no doubt stretched Bungie thin, and it seems to have come at the cost of development of a Destiny 3, which is probably the most unfortunate part of this situation. But no, Bungie is not wholly devoted to Marathon at this point, even if it's the main topic of conversation. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
