Bungie confirms it stole art once again, will undertake a 'thorough review' of Marathon assets

Bungie is, once again, being accused of using the designs of an independent artist without permission, pay, or attribution. In a post on X earlier today, visual artist Antireal said that Marathon's environment art uses design elements pulled directly from her 2017 poster designs.

"Bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language I have refined for the last decade," Antireal said in follow-up tweets, "but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution."

As evidence, Antireal uploaded screenshots from in-game footage of the recent Marathon alpha playtest, comparing designs and logos seen throughout in-game environments with poster design work that she'd posted on Twitter in 2017.

Compared with the original designs, which are still visible on X, there are fairly blatant similarities. A design element from one of Antireal's posters of the word "Aleph" in all caps paired with the text "Dark-space haulage logistics" seems to appear unaltered on a series of Marathon structures. A sequence of logos in boxes seen on in-game tarps and sheeting appears to be pulled directly from another Antireal poster.

Taking a look at gameplay of the Marathon alpha available on YouTube, PC Gamer confirmed that the double-arrow logo from a third Antireal design was visible in the game.

Antireal said that she hasn't been able to pursue legal action against Bungie due to lack of resources. "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," Antireal said.

This isn't the first time Bungie has been accused of using the work of independent artists without permission. Just last year, Bungie admitted fan art was used while designing a Destiny 2 Nerf gun, and promised to compensate and credit the artist. In 2023, Bungie said it would do the same for another artist after an in-game Destiny 2 cutscene featured near-identical similarities to their artwork. And in 2021, Bungie confirmed that fanart of Xivu Arath was "accidentally used" in a trailer for the Witch Queen expansion.

In the replies to Antireal's accusation, another X user noted that she's followed by Marathon franchise art director Joseph Cross on the platform. Antireal said that Cross and other Bungie artists have followed her for a few years, but said she'd never communicated with them.

Bungie has issued a statement via the @MarathonDevTeam account on X. "We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game," the statement reads.

"This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to @4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist."

According to Bungie's statement, the company seeks permission from artists to use their work as "a matter of policy", and that the issue can be traced back to a former Bungie artist.

"To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions.

"We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

One incident would be unfortunate, but almost-yearly accusations of unattributed art use seem to indicate a systemic dysfunction in Bungie's art department. Even though Bungie now has a record of admitting fault and retroactively crediting and compensating artists, it's harder to brush these incidents off as honest mistakes when it's the fourth time its artists have allegedly plucked designs from other people's work.