The supposed high turnover rate of studios has been a talking point for several years now, most often brought up when fans are bemoaning that the studio they once loved released a bad game.
I recall this being prevalent when BioWare released Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Although series veterans David Gaider and Mark Darrah had departed the studio—and their influence can’t be overstated—several of the writers who worked on The Veilguard had been at the studio since the Knights of the Old Republic days.
The recent target of people’s ire is Marathon developer Bungie, with some claiming online that none of the developers still at the studio worked on Halo, the series that launched the studio into the stratosphere in 2001.
Bungie Is Still Full Of Halo Developers
In response to an irate fan creating a strawman argument that studios use, “from the makers of…” when no one who worked on the game remains at the studio, Marathon’s UI designer Elliot Grey responded over the course of three tweets.
“Damn, I’ll have to tell Chris Butcher and Jason Jones and Tom Gioconda and Dave Gasca and Mat Noguchi and Bob Glessner and Lars Bakken and Tyson Green and Dan Miller and Shi Kai Wang and Eric Elton and Steve Cotton and Sam Jones and Mark Uyeda and James Haywood and David Allen and Eamon McKenzie and Ben Wommack and Andrew Davis and Tom Burlington and Mark Flieg and Dorje Bellbrook and Justin Truman and Stosh Steward and Matt Richenburg and Paul Lewellen and Mark Goldsworthy and Javier Burgos and Blake Low and Derek Carroll and David Aldridge and Sam Arguez and Brad Fish and Mike Hoffman and Matt Kelly and Brian Frank and Jason Sussman and Drew Shy and Dan Callan and Matt Kelly [second mention] and look man, this is just the people I know off the top of my head who worked on a Halo title who are still at Bungie,” writes Grey.
Mark Noseworthy—former vice president of the Destiny series—chimed in, calling Grey’s words a “truth nuke” and saying that people don’t appreciate the value of legacy and the experience that gets passed from one generation of developers at a studio to the next.
“It’s one of the reasons the feel of Bungie games have remained strong for 25 years (even while the gameplay team members have changed multiple times),” writes Noseworthy.
Marathon is the lowest-rated game Bungie has ever released, but remains decently popular on Steam.
Marathon
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
