Bungie Conducting ‘Thorough Review’ After Plagiarised Art Is Found in Marathon

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The past 24 hours have not been favorable for Sony, as Fairgames, their live service game, appears to be unraveling, and Stellar Blade PC sales are prohibited in an astonishing 129 countries. However, their subsidiary Bungie is now compelled to address allegations of plagiarism.

4nt1r34l, an artist and illustrator from the past, recently showcased on Twitter that posters she created in 2017 are being replicated without permission in the upcoming game, Marathon – Extraction Shooter.

She mentioned that the recent launch of Marathon Alpha features environments populated with assets taken from posters I designed back in 2017, as she put it.

Although Bungie isn’t required to recruit me while creating a game heavily influenced by the design style I’ve honed for a decade, it seems that the quality of my work has been utilized as inspiration, with concepts integrated into their game without compensation or recognition.

As a creator, it’s disheartening to see how often big companies opt for imitating or stealing my designs instead of reaching out and acknowledging my hard work. Unfortunately, I don’t have the means to take legal action every time this happens, but the number of times it has occurred is too many to count.

In response to the accusations made against them, Bungie has swiftly acknowledged their mistakes and pledged to make amends promptly.

Here’s its statement, as posted on BlueSky, in full:

Straightaway, we looked into allegations about the illegal application of artist decals in Marathon, and it turned out that an ex-artist from Bungie had incorporated these elements into a texture sheet which eventually ended up being utilized within the game.

It appears that this problem escaped our notice by our current art team, and we’re currently investigating how such a lapse occurred. We treat situations like this with great importance. We have contacted 4nt1r34l regarding this matter and pledge to address it fairly for the artist.

“As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission.

To avoid repeating such problems down the line, we’re meticulously examining our game assets, focusing particularly on those created by the previous Bungie artist. We’re also tightening up our approval processes to ensure thorough documentation of every artist’s input.

We greatly appreciate the originality and hard work that each artist puts into our games, and we’re dedicated to ensuring fair treatment for everyone involved. Your alertness is much appreciated.

So, it’s a good response from Bungie, then, and an admission that it made an error.

Back in the gaming world, I’ve found myself in situations where a company has been caught off guard before. A notable instance was with Destiny 2, where they used fan art in one of their cut-scenes, claiming it was unintentionally used as a reference by a vendor. Eventually, they admitted their mistake and pledged to make amends by compensating the original artist for the oversight.

It seems there’s an issue with the particular Marathon game, as it seems a significant portion of its unique charm, which stems from its distinctive design style, may have been taken from another source without proper acknowledgement. This certainly isn’t the best situation.

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2025-05-16 08:36