Bungie is once again accused of misuse of art in Marathon

The developer Bungie faces serious accusations again of unauthorized use of artistic material, this time related to the game in development Marathon. The studio, known for Destiny 2, announced a "complete review" of its assets after being accused of using illustrations from an independent artist without permission or credit.

The artist known as Antireal posted on X (formerly Twitter), on May 10, 2025, that he identified visual elements of his own authorship - originally created in 2017 - in the environments of the Marathon alpha playtest. He stated that specific graphics and icons that he publicly shared years ago were reused in the game, without any contact from the studio.

"Bungie is not obligated to hire me to create a game with the same visual language that I have been developing for a decade, but apparently my work was good enough to be looted and spread throughout the game without payment or credit," wrote Antireal.

"I don't have the resources to file a lawsuit, but I lost count of how many times big companies preferred to imitate or steal my designs rather than just send me an email. In 10 years, I have never had consistent income from my work, and I am tired of seeing designers from giant companies parasitizing my portfolio while I can barely pay my bills."

The Bungie responded a few hours later, acknowledging that the content was added by a former employee of the studio and that the current art team was unaware of the misuse.

"We immediately investigated a concern about the unauthorized use of artistic decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these materials in a texture sheet used in the game. We are reviewing how this failure occurred."

"We take this kind of issue very seriously. We have already contacted the affected artist and are committed to handling this correctly. As a policy, we do not use artists' work without permission."

"To avoid similar situations in the future, we are conducting a thorough analysis of our assets - especially those created by the former artist - and implementing stricter processes for documenting contributions. We value the creativity and work of the artists involved in our games."

This is not the first time that Bungie has been involved in cases of alleged appropriation of others' material. In October 2024, the company was sued by a writer who claims to have had elements of his story used in Destiny 2: The Red War (2017). Bungie tried to dismiss the lawsuit, but the request was denied as the contents were "vaulted" (removed from the game and unavailable for public verification).

In another episode, weeks before this lawsuit, the studio began an internal investigation after discovering that the design of the replica of the NERF Ace of Spades, released as a promotional item, had been copied from a fanart from 2015 - including identical visual traces, scratches, and details to the original fanart.

With another incident on record, the reputation of Bungie among independent artists suffers a new setback. The case also reinforces the importance of documenting and tracking all assets used in game development, especially in large productions like Marathon, which still does not have an official release date.