One of the vital putting issues about Bungie’s Marathon is its presentation. The sci-fi extraction shooter combines bleak settings with shiny colours in a manner that makes it really feel a bit like a sneaker promo meets Ghost within the Shell, or as designer Jeremy Skoog put it, “Y2K Cyberpunk combined with Acid Graphic Design Posters.” Nevertheless it now appears like a minimum of a number of of the visible design parts that appeared within the current alpha check have been lifted from eight-year outdated work by an out of doors artist.
“The Marathon alpha launched not too long ago and its environments are lined with belongings lifted from poster designs I made in 2017,” Bluesky consumer antire.al posted on Thursday. She shared two photographs exhibiting parts of her work and the place they appeared in Marathon’s gameplay, together with a rotated model of her personal brand. A poster stuffed with small repeating icon patterns additionally appears to be all however recreated in Marathon’s press equipment ARG and web site.
“Bungie is after all 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,” antire.al wrote. “I don’t have the assets nor the vitality to spare to pursue this legally however I’ve misplaced rely of the variety of occasions a serious firm has deemed it simpler to pay a designer to mimic or steal my work than to put in writing me an electronic mail.”
How may one thing like this have occurred? One risk is that the artwork was used for placeholder belongings that have been supposed to get replaced or overhauled afterward however by no means have been. A much less beneficiant model is that somebody at Bungie or the businesses it outsources to chop corners and knowingly lifted the work or used it as inspiration with out compensation or attribution. Bungie didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
This isn’t the primary time the PlayStation-owned studio has gotten into scorching water for this form of factor. In 2023, Future 2 fanart turned up in a serious cutscene for the huge sci-fi MMO. In 2024, outdated fan artwork was plagiarized for an Ace of House Unique decoration and NERF gun duplicate. Bungie agreed to pay the artists and apologized in each cases. The studio has additionally been on the receiving finish as effectively, with final yr’s The First Descendant lifting potential and perk icons straight from Future 2 earlier than later eradicating them.
Marathon’s alpha wrapped up earlier this month, leaving followers impressed by the taking pictures and moment-to-moment really feel however torn on its implementation of the extraction shooter formulation. What’s not doubtful is that the worldbuilding and sci-fi interiors are a few of the most intriguing work Bungie’s finished in years, a advantage now partly tarnished by allegations of plagiarism in sure facets of the aesthetic.
“In 10 years I’ve by no means made a constant earnings from this work and I’m uninterested in designers from large corporations moodboarding and parasitising my designs whereas I battle to make a residing,” antire.al wrote.
Replace 5/16/2025 12:56 a.m. ET: Bungie has responded and blamed the incident on a former worker. The studio says it’s reaching out to the artist in query and conduction a full evaluate of its in-game belongings for Marathon. “We instantly investigated a priority concerning unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed {that a} former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was finally used in-game,” the studio posted on X.
It continued:
This challenge was unknown by our present artwork group, and we’re nonetheless reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take issues like this very critically. We’ve got reached out to antire.al to debate this challenge and are dedicated to do proper by the artist. As a matter of coverage, we don’t use the work of artists with out their permission.
To forestall comparable points sooner or later, we’re conducting a radical evaluate of our in-game belongings, particularly these finished by the previous Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to doc all artist contributions. We worth the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our video games, and we’re dedicated to doing proper by them. Thanks for bringing this to our consideration.
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