Marathon Maker’s Morale in Tatters as Art Director Forced to Admit Asset Theft in Ill-Conceived Livestream

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This week hasn’t been great for the makers of Marathon, Bungie. It seems like I’m writing this sort of statement every few weeks or so.

According to Forbes, the morale at the Washington-based studio has taken a significant hit following allegations of plagiarism in art assets this week. However, it should be noted that the company has acted swiftly, acknowledging their mistakes and detailing the measures they are implementing to correct them.

It was already problematic, but things got worse when the company decided to conduct a poorly thought-out live broadcast. During this broadcast, an obviously distressed art director named Joe Cross read a statement while enduring harsh comments from the chat room.

It was brought to our notice that an artist involved in the initial stages of Marathon’s pre-production allegedly used designs created by another graphic designer, without consent or proper credit, and added these elements to a decal sheet which was later approved in 2020. This is the claim made by the individual.

As a gamer bringing you this game, I want to be transparent about an issue we encountered in the alpha build. Some graphic elements, like icons and text, were unintentionally included from our decal sheet. We acknowledge that this was an oversight and there’s no excuse for it. Rest assured, we are fully committed to improving our review process so such instances won’t happen again on Marathon or at Bungie in the future.

As a passionate fan, I found myself anticipating the livestream for a deeper dive into Marathon gameplay. However, when I learned that they couldn’t guarantee the absence of controversial assets in the footage, I was taken aback. Instead of canceling the entire stream, they opted to postpone the showcase – a decision that I can appreciate given their commitment to maintaining quality content.

According to unidentified sources, Forbes reports that there’s a lot of confusion currently within the development team. Many employees are worried that the project may not be ready for its scheduled launch on the 23rd of September, as they work diligently to remove controversial content.

Indeed, the game had been struggling from the start, as reactions to the alpha were lackluster at best, and Arc Raiders unexpectedly stole some of its limelight.

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2025-05-18 18:06