Destiny creative lead resigns from Bungie
Story specialist CJ Cowan started at the company with Halo 2, has worked on Destiny since 2009
CJ Cowan, the story lead on the multiplayer shooter Destiny, has left Bungie after 13 years at the company.
Cowan's first job in the games industry was at Interplay, which he joined in 1999 as lead animator. From there he joined Bungie in 2003, where his first role was cinematic designer on Halo 2. He then ascended to director of cinematics for Halo 3, Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach, before moving on to Destiny back in 2009.
When Cowan resigned last week, his title was "creative lead, story," a position he had held since November 2015.
Cowan spent almost half of his time at Bungie working on Destiny, a game of genuine ambition that made $325 million in its first five days on sale, and was averaging 3.2 million daily players a month after launch.
However, the game arguably only came into its own with an expansion: The Taken King, which critics agreed resolved many of the issues that dogged the original incarnation of the game.