“I Think We Made Something Cool”: Former Marathon Art Director on Hate and His Work
Aleksandr Manin
The upcoming extraction shooter Marathon from Bungie has faced a significant wave of criticism even before release. The project was delayed following unsuccessful playtests and later became the center of a controversy involving reused art assets, which negatively affected morale within the studio. Against this backdrop, the game’s former art director has spoken out about the situation surrounding the project.
Joseph Cross, who left Bungie in December 2025 after six years at the studio, discussed the public reaction to Marathon in an interview with ReaderGrev. He said that online sentiment toward the game came in waves — shifting from positive to sharply negative — and noted that he tried to distance himself from that pressure.
Personally, I’m able to abstract myself from a lot of that. Art is the most important thing to me here. It’s hard for me to take all of this personally because I believe in the visual side and in what we made. I think we ended up creating something genuinely cool. I didn’t influence the design or gameplay, but I’m sincerely happy with what was within my area of control.
Cross also emphasized that external criticism does not devalue the result of his work, regardless of the reasons behind audience dissatisfaction. He noted that opinions about the art direction or the studio’s political decisions do not change his personal assessment of the work he put in.
That’s something no one can take away from me — no matter how hard haters online or elsewhere might try. It doesn’t matter if people dislike the visual style or disagree with Bungie’s latest agenda. What mattered most to me is something that can’t be taken away.
At the same time, Cross acknowledged that he felt a sense of responsibility toward the team amid overall pressure and examples of failed releases, including the quickly shut-down project Concord. He noted that the development of large-scale games comes with constant financial and time pressure, which can discourage creative risk-taking.
It’s easy to forget that you’re making a product with a ticking clock that has to ship and make a huge amount of money. Just the act of putting something like that out into the world can be incredibly destabilizing. In moments like that, it can feel like you can’t afford to take risks.
Despite this, Cross expressed confidence that the team’s work would ultimately prove its worth. According to him, doubt and skepticism are inevitable for any large commercial project until it is fully presented to the audience.
In moments like that, you have to put on the artist’s armor and trust your experience and perspective. All great art — at least commercial art — is always met with doubt and skepticism. Until it isn’t.
Marathon is a multiplayer PvPvE extraction shooter from Bungie set on the planet Tau Ceti IV in the year 2893. Players take on the role of cybernetic “Runners” who explore an abandoned colony, gather loot, and fight hostile factions and rival players either solo or in teams of up to three. The game will launch on March 5, 2026, for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S at a price of $39.99, with full cross-play and cross-save support. The project was originally planned for release in 2025 but was delayed following negative feedback from alpha testing in April 2025.
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