Bungie Acknowledges Stolen Marathon Artwork, Guarantees “Thorough Assessment”

Marathon developer Bungie has acknowledged that a number of the artwork featured within the recreation was stolen from an artist who did not work on the sport, promising a “thorough overview” of Marathon’s “in-game property” in consequence.

For context, artist Antireal alleged yesterday that Marathon’s environments are “coated with property lifted from poster designs [she] made in 2017”, posting numerous examples of areas wherein Marathon’s artwork was lifted from her personal as proof.

In response to Antireal’s allegations, Bungie, posting on the Marathon improvement workforce’s account, confirmed that “a former Bungie artist included [Antireal’s designs] in a texture sheet that was finally used in-game”.

In a thread, Bungie says its present artwork workforce did not know concerning the paintings’s theft, and that the studio is “nonetheless reviewing how this oversight occurred”.

Because of the stolen paintings’s discovery, Bungie says it’ll now conduct a “thorough overview” of Marathon’s asset pool, particularly property created or contributed by the previous artist in query (who is not named, for apparent causes).

Moreover, Bungie says it is going to be “implementing stricter checks to doc all artist contributions”, though I am actually fairly shocked these checks weren’t in place to start with and that one thing so egregious may get by means of unnoticed.

The studio says it is “reached out” to Antireal to speak concerning the difficulty and is “dedicated to do proper by the artist”, in addition to by “all artists who contribute” to Bungie’s video games.

Bungie’s lax safety with regards to recognizing stolen paintings is much more upsetting on condition that this is not the studio’s first time being accused of stealing from followers. In 2021, Bungie used a fan depiction of considered one of its characters in promo materials, subsequently apologizing and crediting the right artist.

After that incident, in 2023, a Future 2 fan claimed Bungie had stolen their artwork for an in-game cutscene, an allegation that Bungie itself subsequently confirmed was true. Then, in 2024, artist Tofu accused Bungie of stealing a weapon design that they had made in 2015, and once more, Bungie copped to doing so.

I do not wish to solid aspersions, however I additionally do not know what number of instances one thing has to occur earlier than it may be thought of a sample. Let’s simply say I would not be shocked if Bungie was caught out for stealing fan paintings once more earlier than Marathon is launched.

If this entire factor hasn’t left a foul style in your mouth and you continue to wish to try Marathon, you are able to do so when it launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Collection X|S on September twenty third.