Summary
It has been a rough few months for Bungie since after the launch ofDestiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion, with layoffs happening company-wide, several controversies regarding the looter-shooter’s state, and now issues withMarathonahead of its currently planned release of September 23.Marathonitself has been traversing several phases, with it reportedly being worked on as a hero shooter at some point, whereas now it’s a focused PvPvE extraction shooter with customizable characters and loadouts. The conversations surrounding the game have been mostly mixed, with a tendency towards negative, and the recentart theft controversy surroundingMarathon’s styleand artist 4nt1r34l (Antireal) is not helping those on the fence.
Antireal recently took to Twitter to express unease and frustration over seeing her work, dating back all the way to 2017, all over theMarathonalpha test. The artist used the platform to show her graphic design work and how it was found everywhere inMarathon’s world, many times lifted directly from Antireal’s posters - line for line, word for word. Bungie has since acknowledged this issue both on social media and in a live stream, but the parties involved have not reached a resolution just yet.
How Marathon Ended Up With ‘Stolen’ Art in Its Environment
Antireal shared images of her posters including the same “Aleph” writing, font, and art style used in the game, as well as several other examples of art being lifted by Bungie and included inMarathon1:1. On social media,Bungie released a statement about art theftsaying that an internal investigation had been carried out, and it seemed like a former employee left several decals that included Antireal’s art in a texture sheet that then made it intoMarathon’s sci-fi world.
The counter-argument being used is that Antireal’s art style is not something she invented, and while games like Wipeout or the graphic design studio The Designers Republic share similar direction and elements, many parts of Antireal’s work are directly found in Marathon’s environment.
Bungie’s Statement About Art Theft in Marathon and Reactions Explained
Bungie then stated that the studio reached out to Antireal and wants to do right by her, and that the art team was not aware of her art being used without permission. The statement didn’t sit well with several fans of the game and Bungie as a developer for a few key reasons. One is that the statement was released less than 12 hours after Antireal’s post, making it seem more of a PR stunt than the result of a thorough investigation. Another is that this is the fourth timeBungie has been publicly accused of plagiarismover the past few years.
The first happened in 2021 with fan art of Xivu Arath being used without permission inDestiny 2. The second time was in 2023, when fan art was used in aDestiny 2cutscene. The third time occurred in 2024 withDestiny 2’s Ace of Spades NERF gun’s design being liftedfrom that of a fan, with the replica showing identical patterns. As such, Antireal showing proof thatMarathonused her art without permission is quite problematic for Bungie’s credibility and shows that the company needs a prevention system in place for the future.
Finally, but no less importantly, several Twitter users noted that multipleMarathonand Bungie developers follow Antireal on the platform, including the game’s art director, Joseph Cross. As such, many are doubtful that the whole can truly be pinned on a single former employee. Whether this is truly the case remains to be seen, and the same goes for what kind of resolution Bungie and Antireal will find, if any.Marathon’s release dategrows ever closer, but there is a chance the controversy will force Bungie to delay the extraction shooter to later this year or 2026.
