Bungie in Hot Water Again: Launches Full Review Over Using Uncredited Artist’s Work!

The game developer Bungie is facing new claims of plagiarism, with a fresh allegation involving their upcoming space-themed shooter game, Marathon.

Following several claims by artists and a writer that Bungie had used their creative works without permission, another accusation has surfaced. This time, an artist has pointed out that their designs appear in the game environments of Marathon. The artist, known online as Antireal, highlighted in a tweet that the alpha playtest of Marathon featured recognizable symbols and imagery they had created and shared publicly in 2017.

the Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs i made in 2017.@Bungie @josephacross pic.twitter.com/0Csbo48Jgb

— N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025

“Although Bungie was not required to employ me to create a game that heavily borrows the design language I’ve developed over the past decade, it appears they found my designs suitable enough to use extensively throughout their game without compensation or acknowledgment,” stated Antireal on X/Twitter.

Bungie responded promptly, stating it had initiated an internal investigation but did not issue a public apology. The studio attributed the problem to a former employee and reached out to the artist to address the situation.

“We promptly looked into an issue concerning the unauthorized use of artist-designed decals in Marathon and verified that these were included in a texture sheet by a former Bungie artist and subsequently used in the game,” the team explained in a statement. “This was an oversight by our current art team, and we are still determining how this error happened.

“We take these matters seriously. We have contacted [the artist] to resolve this issue and are committed to rectifying the situation. It is our policy to never use artist work without permission.

“To avoid future incidents, we are conducting a comprehensive review of our in-game assets, especially those created by the former Bungie artist, and are setting up stricter protocols to document all contributions from artists. We greatly value the creativity and effort of all artists involved in our projects and are dedicated to treating them fairly. We appreciate this issue being brought to our attention.”

This incident isn’t the first instance of Bungie being accused of intellectual property theft. In October, the company faced a lawsuit claiming it had stolen narrative elements from a writer’s story for use in Destiny 2’s 2017 storyline, The Red War. The studio attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed, but the judge rejected the request as Bungie scrambled to provide evidence after having “vaulted” the content, making it no longer accessible.

Just a few weeks before the lawsuit, Bungie began another investigation into how a NERF replica of Destiny 2’s renowned Ace of Spades handgun, which replicated a piece of fan art from 2015 down to every detail, had been produced.

Vikki Blake is a journalist, critic, columnist, and consultant. She identifies as a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and is always High Chaos. Discover more about her at BlueSky.