Bungie Responds To Marathon Art Theft Claims

Bungie has admitted to discovering stolen artwork belongings in its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon. Graphic artist Antireal has taken to X to say that Bungie used their poster designs from 2017 with out compensation or credit score. Bungie admits the claims, and says it is going to undertake a whole evaluation of the sport’s belongings.

Antireal posted to X on Might 15, claiming that “The Marathon alpha launched not too long ago and its environments are lined with belongings lifted from poster designs I made in 2017.” They tagged each Bungie and Marathon’s franchise artwork director, Joseph Cross.

They proceed, “Bungie is in fact not obligated to rent me when making a recreation that attracts overwhelmingly from the identical design language I’ve refined for the final decade, however clearly my work was adequate to pillage for concepts and plaster throughout their recreation with out pay or attribution.”

Antireal explains that they do not have the assets “nor the power” to pursue the matter legally, however that it’s not the primary time they’ve confronted comparable points. Antireal even confirms that Cross has adopted their account “for a couple of years.”

Bungie responded through its personal Marathon dev team X account to say that it “instantly investigated” the considerations, and “confirmed {that a} former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was finally used in-game.” It goes on to state that the difficulty was “unknown” to the prevailing artwork staff, and it’s reviewing how the oversight occurred.

Bungie additionally says it reached out to Antireal to debate the matter. “[We] are dedicated to do proper by the artist,” it confirms. “As a matter of coverage, we don’t use the work of artists with out their permission.” The developer additionally confirms that to forestall “comparable points” taking place once more, it is going to conduct a “thorough evaluation” of recreation belongings, with explicit emphasis on the previous artist liable for the difficulty.

Nevertheless, it isn’t the primary time Bungie has been caught utilizing belongings with out permission, as X consumer GaminCounselor factors out. In 2021, the Witch Queen DLC trailer featured fan artwork of Xivu Arath with out credit score. In 2023, a Future 2 cutscene used near-identical fan artwork with out permission. In 2024, the Ace of Spades NERF gun merchandise appeared to repeat a fan-created design. In all instances Bungie reached out to the artists to apologize, credit score, or compensate them–but 4 occurrences of artwork theft in as a few years raises questions on Bungie’s inner insurance policies with regards to these issues.

Bungie plans to host a Marathon stream later at the moment (Might 16) at 1PM PT / 6PM ET. It is unlikely that it’ll tackle the asset theft through the stream, however given the interactive nature of Twitch, viewers could nicely have remark to move. Marathon is about for launch on September 23, and whereas it will not be “full value,” Bungie says it is going to be “a premium title.”