Marathon isn’t even slated for release until this September, but Bungie’s extraction shooter is already in trouble. A gameplay reveal livestream already had potential players divided, but a much more serious issue has since emerged in the form of plagiarism allegations. Now, following Bungie’s admission that some of Marathon’s art assets were directly lifted from a designer without permission, a report alleges that the studio’s staff and leadership have been left unsure of the game’s fate as its launch approaches.
Bungie did not immediately respond to Inverse’s request for comment.
“The Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017,” artist Fern Hook, who uses the online handle Antireal, wrote on social media on May 15.
Hook showed several poster designs of hers with a style strikingly similar to the art direction of Marathon, featuring large color blocks and patterns made of nonsense symbols. Not only that, but some assets in Marathon use symbols created by Hook in her artwork, as well as text directly lifted from her posters. That same day, Bungie posted from its Marathon Dev Team account — but not its main studio account, which has significantly more followers — to confirm that the artwork was in fact stolen.
“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,” the post read.
Bungie claimed that no current employees were involved in the plagiarism, and said it would conduct “a thorough review of our in-game assets” to make sure no other stolen art made its way into Marathon. A scheduled livestream about the game went forward as planned a few days later, where art director Joseph Cross reiterated Bungie’s comments and apologized to Hook. There’s been no official word from Bungie since then, but reporting in Forbes points to turmoil at the studio as a result of the plagiarism revelation. The livestream didn’t feature any footage from the game itself.
“Morale is in ‘free-fall’ across all departments, and ‘the vibes have never been worse,” according to Forbes, citing anonymous sources at Bungie.
The Forbes piece also claims that a new trailer was set to debut in June when preorders opened, but those plans were cancelled even before the plagiarism became public. A public beta due to start in August could also be split into multiple playtest sessions. According to Forbes, there’s no public talk of delaying the game within Bungie.
While some of the problems mentioned by Forbes began before Bungie was even accused of using stolen artwork, the scandal has clearly changed the conversation around the game. Across social media sites like Reddit and Bluesky, potential players have largely turned against Marathon, and for many, the plagiarism appears to be the last straw. Making things worse for Bungie, this isn’t even the first such incident at the studio. Bungie has repeatedly been accused of plagiarizing artwork for Destiny 2 in the past, and has on multiple occasions admitted the accusations were true and compensated artists after the fact.
Marathon already faced a lot of skepticism after its gameplay reveal in April. Rather than the narrative-based shooter that the Marathon series began as, its new incarnation is a purely player-versus-player affair, and while Bungie promises it has a way to tell a compelling story in that format, it’s still a major change of pace from Destiny 2. The only part of Marathon that’s gotten nearly universal praise since the game was announced is its art direction, making it all the more disappointing that it now seems to be significantly lifted from another artist without credit. It’s not clear yet how the uncertainty at Bungie reported by Forbes will affect the game’s last few months of development or its release, but it’s clear that potential players are looking for more than an apology from the studio.
