Bungie Responds To Marathon Art Theft Claims

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In a recent confession, Bungie acknowledged discovering artwork stolen from graphic artist Antireal in its upcoming shooter game, Marathon. Antireal publicly stated on platform X that Bungie utilized their poster designs from 2017 without any payment or recognition. Bungie has confirmed these allegations and plans to carry out a thorough examination of the game’s assets.

On May 15th, Antireal shared on X that the recently launched Marathon alpha appears to have environments filled with assets derived from posters designed by him back in 2017. He also tagged both Bungie and the Marathon’s art director, Joseph Cross, in his post.

They add, “Bungie isn’t required to employ me while creating a game heavily influenced by the design style I’ve perfected over the past decade. However, it appears that the quality of my work was sufficient enough for them to borrow ideas and incorporate them extensively into their game, without giving credit or compensation.

As a devoted follower of Antireal, I can share that they’ve expressed they lack both the necessary resources and the required energy to legally address the ongoing issue. However, it’s important to note that this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered such hurdles. Intriguingly, Cross has been following Antireal’s account for quite a few years now.

Through its official Marathon development team account, Bungie acknowledged receiving concerns and promptly looked into them. They found that a past Bungie artist had incorporated these elements in a texture sheet, which eventually ended up in the game. Remarkably, this issue was unbeknownst to the current art team. Now, they are examining how this oversight transpired.

Bungie has shared that they have communicated with Antireal about the situation and are dedicated to respecting the rights of the artist. They state unequivocally that they don’t use an artist’s work without their explicit consent. To avoid such problems in the future, the developer intends to perform a comprehensive examination of the game assets, paying special attention to the artist who was involved in this issue.

Yet, it’s not an unprecedented situation that Bungie has found itself in, where they’ve been accused of using assets without proper permission. As X user GaminCounselor highlights, there have been several instances of this. For instance, the Witch Queen DLC trailer in 2021 showcased fan art of Xivu Arath without giving credit. In 2023, a Destiny 2 cutscene incorporated nearly identical fan art without permission. And in 2024, the design for the Ace of Spades NERF gun merchandise seemed to copy a fan-created design. Each time, Bungie contacted the artists to apologize, credit, or compensate them. However, with four such incidents happening within a span of just four years, it’s hard not to wonder about the internal policies Bungie has in place when dealing with these types of issues.

Today at 1PM Pacific Time / 6PM Eastern Time, Bungie will broadcast a Marathon stream live on Twitch. Although it’s not expected that they’ll discuss the recent asset theft during this stream, viewers are welcome to share their thoughts given Twitch’s interactive nature. The release date for Marathon is September 23rd. While it won’t be a standard full-priced game, Bungie describes it as a premium title.

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2025-05-16 15:09