Why Former 'Valorant' Director Joe Ziegler Is Going To Bungie

Former "Valorant" director Joe Ziegler has joined Sony Entertainment's Bungie game studio.

Ziegler had stepped down as co-director of first-person hero shooter "Valorant" in December 2021 but had stated in his farewell post that he would be working on a new project for Riot Games. It's clear from his move to Bungie that he is no longer attached to this unnamed project.

"Happy to announce my new home is at Bungie working on new stuff that hopefully will one day get to be played by you all," Ziegler posted to Twitter on Monday.

There's no explanation about what type of project he'll be working on at Bungie. Still, there have been reports that Bungie is in the process of developing a new third-person shooter title. The Game Post reported on April 2 that Bungie had posted a job listing for a creative director position for a third-person action game and "familiarity with the competitive gaming landscape/esports" was found in the skills section of the listing. Another similar job listing was posted a few days.

This listing provided more information about the game that Ziegler will most likely be working on. Bungie's proprietary engine, Tiger, will be used for developing this title and it's already been used in the past for Bungie's flagship title, "Destiny 2." The listing also confirms that the title will be a "brand-new 3rd-person action game - expanding Bungie's best-in-class gameplay into a new genre," meaning that it won't necessarily be tied to any of Bungie's previous titles as a sequel or prequel. The new project could potentially be based within the 8-year-old "Destiny" universe and its multitude of characters.

Bungie has been rapidly expanding its creative team after Sony acquired the studio on July 15, 2022. Bungie maintained creative control over operations and the ability to develop games independently.

That growth, combined with the hiring of Ziegler, shows that Bungie has high aspirations for pulling off a competitive PvP to regain its status from when the studio had released "Halo" as a competitive multiplayer. Sony and Bungie are planning an expansion of current IP titles across subsidiaries.