Riot Games Veteran Joe Ziegler To Join Bungie

There’s a lot of turnover in the games industry. t’s quite common for players to switch to different teams. This holds true for Joe Ziegler, a long-term member of Riot Games, who has recently been hired by Bungie. Although Riot Games has recently branched out from League Of Legends with the other popular online title Valorant of which Ziegler was the co-director, the dev was pleased to announce his joining the team behind the Destiny series. With such a shift, players are wondering and hoping that Ziegler will bring about some much-desired changes.

Joe Ziegler of Valorant to join Destiny 2

Riot Games’ recent success comes in the form of Valorant. It’s a PvP online FPS with a hero system, one which Joe Ziegler was a key player in creating. Despite certain criticisms over the game’s functionality, it proved to be a smashing success. In fact, it was popular enough to gain Bungie’s attention, and prompted them to hire Ziegler.

On his Twitter, Ziegler shared this news and expressed hope that his new work would soon “get to be played by all”. The player response, as referenced by NME, was also one of hope. There’s particular hope that Ziegler will help improve Destiny 2‘s PvP game mode. It’s arguably the most criticized aspect of the game, and it’s uncertain whether Ziegler’s work will change that.

Ziegler is in powerful hands joining Bungie which first rose to fame with the original Halo game back in 2001. Since then, it has become a global franchise spawning several critically and financially successful sequels. It’s also branched out into other media such as books, and more recently, a TV series. However, following a desire to create something new, the Bungie team set about creating a new IP with a heavy online focus called Destiny, with the first game in 2014 and the second in 2017.

Even though both received mixed responses due to technical and conceptual issues, the Destiny community has continued to grow. Bungie is currently working on an expansion for Destiny 2 called Lightfall and it is possible that Ziegler may be put on the project. This may or may not be an easy transition coming from Riot Games’ Valorant, but Ziegler’s work experience and quality will soon speak for themselves.