Marathon Looking DOA as Bungie Admits to Using Uncredited Assets in Game

Artist Antireal spotted multiple instances of her work used without approval.

Things aren't looking good for yet another one of Sony's expensive, elaborate online multiplayer games. Last year it was the abortive Concord, now it's looking like Bungie's Marathon will be the next game to come and go in a flash. Questionable character designs were the first red flag for many players, but the gameplay has also been a big point of concern. Following a lukewarm response to a recent alpha test of Marathon, besides many not being sold on the extraction shooter, now the topic of swiping art has entered the conversation. Artist Antireal came forward to claim that Bungie has used her work without authorization in Marathon. She took to X to point out the transgression along with examples:

Bungie replied via the official Marathon X account with the following:

It's quite the debacle, with multiple instances of art that has been taken and utilized for the game. Bungie alleges that "To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets," but alarmingly, this is not the first instance of the company swiping art without permission—indeed, it hasn't even been that long since the last time this happened.

In 2024, X user Tofu_Rabbit pointed out the use of a pistol design in Destiny 2 that looked remarkably similar to the artist's work; the situation was eventually resolved between the two parties. Prior to that in 2023, artist Julyan Faylona noted that his art had been utilized, again in Destiny 2, with Faylona eventually being compensated. Finally, in 2022 X user Relay314 pointed out art used once more by Bungie without permission, this time in a trailer and, again, the company had to provide proper credit.

That's four times in four years, something that should be setting off a lot of alarms at Bungie. In today's AI-saturated industry where original art is constantly being stolen to "train" generative programs, it's arguably more important than ever to be giving proper credit to creators, as well as compensation. Throw in the lawsuit filed by former Bungie dev Chris Barrett and it's looking pretty rough for the company of late.

That all said, there's no denying that this incident, along with the weak alpha, have soured many on Marathon, leaving the game's fate in question leading up to its September 23, 2025 release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.

Source: MarathonDevTeam + 4nt1r34l X Accounts