The upcoming PvPvE extraction FPS Marathon has a pretty distinct art aesthetic of stark neons and blacks, but apparently that wasn’t distinct enough to stop an artist from recognizing her work embedded within it and therefore claiming that Bungie pilfered it for use during its recent alpha test.
The assets in question are several 2017 poster designs created by an artist who goes by the name of Antireal. “Clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution,” she points out in her Twitter thread, which includes several examples. “In 10 years I have never made a consistent income from this work and I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living.”
Several hours later, the Twitter account for the Marathon dev team responded to the accusation, claiming that the studio reached out to Antireal while laying the blame upon a former Bungie artist who – according to the results of Bungie’s internal investigation – used the images in a submitted texture sheet that was ultimately applied to the game. The statement further claims that it will be “conducting a thorough review of […] in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist,” along with stricter checks on all assets made by artists.
“We take matters like this very seriously,” part of the statement reads. “As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission.”
Whether there will be additional compensation provided to Antireal or not isn’t being discussed, but she has pointed out how the apparent theft of her art saw a groundswell of support and donations. “Completely overwhelmed by the response to this,” she writes. “It helps enormously.”
This isn’t the first time in recent memory that Bungie has been caught unambiguously plagiarizing from the community; in 2023, the Destiny 2 team apologized to an artist whose work had been used by an “external vendor” in a cutscene (and indeed compensated that artist). And of course, Bungie is in the middle of a copyright infringement lawsuit right now, as a blogger has (credibly, apparently) accused Bungie of plagiarizing his story for the Red War plotline.
