Bungie confirms the use of stolen art assets in Marathon alpha

At a Glance

Bungie has apologized for the uncredited, uncompensated use of another artist's work in the texture sheets for the Marathon alpha test.

In a post on social media, the company publicly confirmed that a "former artist at Bungie" included art assets made by graphic designer "Antireal" (real name unknown). Antireal had accused the company of lifting her work in a post on Bluesky to decorate several in-game posters.

This is a black mark on Bungie's record, especially for a company that's apologized for using assets lifted from other artists in the past. Using art assets the company doesn't have the rights to can deprive artists of badly-needed funds and put the studio at risk for legal exposure.

"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," claimed Antireal. She explained that the assets perfectly mirrored work they posted in 2017.

Antireal's claims were bolstered by Marathon players who noticed a key fingerprint from Antireal's work was directly visible in the game. In 2024 the artist said they hit the "loss" meme in their work 6 years ago (the meme refers to recreations of a webcomic page from Ctrl+Alt+Delete with the same name). A Twitter user spotted the meme on an in-game building in Marathon.

Related:The director of Tactical Breach Wizards is right: animate words, not letters!


Image via 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," Bungie said in a post confirming Antireal's claims. "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 [Antireal] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist."

The company added that it is conducting a review of the former artist's work and implementing "stricter checks" on its art team to ensure no inappropriate assets are used.
 

Stolen art keeps appearing in Bungie's games

"We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them," Bungie stated in its post confirming the use of Antireal's art. There's no reason to doubt that claim—but this isn't the first time Bungie has admitted to stolen versions of other artist's work appearing in its games.

Related:Obituary: Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov has passed away

In 2024, it confirmed a piece of "fan art" was used to decorate an in-game collectible in Destiny 2. In 2023 it said it would "compensate and credit" an artist whose work was used in a cutscene produced in part by an "external vendor." And in 2021 principal community manager Chris Shannon apologized to a fan artist in another trailer.

Bungie's also found itself in hot water over other art assets. In 2017 it apologized and removed an in-game item that represented a real-world white supremacist flag.

Apologizing and acknowledging the wrongdoing is one way to address what seems to be unintentional plagiarism, however that approach doesn't undo the harm done to Antireal and other artists who find themselves victims of plagiarism, intentional or no.

"In 10 years I have never made a consistent income from this work," Antireal said. "I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living."