Marathon Developer Bungie accused of Plagiarism by Artist

Marathon developer Bungie accused of Plagiarism by an artist for their upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, many examples of which were apparently evident in Marathon’s recent ‘closed alpha’ playtest.

The artist, known as ‘@4nt1r34l‘ on social media platform X, made the accusations publicly, saying “The Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017.“

@4nt1r34l shared several images, effectively showing just how much of her art had been placed into the game. She continues, “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, but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution.“

The situation is made even worse by the fact that Bungie’s current Marathon Franchise Art Director has followed the artist for several years, but according to 4nt1r34l, they’ve never communicated.

Bungie Responds

Bungie has responded fairly swiftly to the claims, sharing their response on Bluesky, where they made a full statement across a series of threaded posts.

“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.

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.

As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission. 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.“

Many Bungie fans and commentators on social media are somewhat sceptical of the response, as this isn’t the first time Bungie have faced accusations of this nature.

Does this latest news sour how you’re feeling about Marathon? Let us know in the comments via the XboxEra Forums, or join our Community Discord.