Bungie caught using stolen art assets in Marathon, promises it will not happen again

[Alfonso Maruccia]

What just happened? Bungie announced a reboot of the classic first-person shooter Marathon in 2023. It formally unveiled project footage just a few weeks ago. The multiplayer extraction shooter has already drawn criticism after someone spotted issues with some of the artwork used by the Sony-owned developer.

Bungie is under fire for allegedly using stolen art assets in its extraction shooter Marathon. Independent artist Antireal caught the Washington-based studio "recycling" some of her designs, and Bungie is now downplaying the incident by shifting blame to former employees. The controversy has sparked broader conversations in the gaming community about creative ethics and the responsibility of major studios to respect independent artists' work.

Antireal recently called out the studio on X, claiming the Marathon alpha build includes assets lifted from poster designs she created in 2017. She said someone at Bungie "drew overwhelmingly" from art pieces she had been refining for over a decade. Bungie presumably found her designs compelling enough to "inspire" the game but offered her no credit or compensation.

the Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017.@Bungie @josephacross pic.twitter.com/0Csbo48Jgb

– N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025

Antireal said she doesn't intend to pursue legal action against Bungie, even though this isn't the first time a "major company" has copied or used her work without permission.

"In 10 years, I have never made a consistent income from this work, and I'm tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitizing my designs while I struggle to make a living," she wrote.

Within hours of Antireal's tweets going viral, the Marathon development team investigated the alleged unauthorized use of her decals. Subsequently, Bungie issued a s statement claiming a "former" artist included the assets in a texture sheet later used in the game.

Bungie did not publicly reveal the former developer's identity but noted that Marathon's current team was unaware of the potential copyright violation. The studio says it takes these matters "very seriously" and has already contacted Antireal to resolve the issue and provide compensation, which is the right thing to do.

Bungie's official employee policies forbid using external assets without permission. To prevent future issues, the Marathon team is now carefully reviewing all in-game assets – especially those created by the unidentified former artist. The studio will also enforce stricter checks to document all contributing artists in the future.

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Bungie caught using stolen art assets in Marathon, promises it will not happen again

 

[Kirby1]

Bungie is just an average second rate dev now, and maybe not even. Marathon is going to be a total flop. Looks like a PS3 game.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Bungie is just an average second rate dev now, and maybe not even. Marathon is going to be a total flop. Looks like a PS3 game.

- Yeah, what is the point of even using these legendary IP names if you're just going to turn them into extraction shooter shovelware? Not enough name recognition to dupe low info people into playing it, too different a game to dupe people who know into playing it.

Great, they've alienated everyone for absolutely no reason.

 

[Kirby1]

- Yeah, what is the point of even using these legendary IP names if you're just going to turn them into extraction shooter shovelware? Not enough name recognition to dupe low info people into playing it, too different a game to dupe people who know into playing it.

Great, they've alienated everyone for absolutely no reason.

Yea, even if the gameplay is actually good, I don't think people are interested in another extraction shooter, and a lot of people are going to be turned off by the art style. If you go for a cartoonish art style, you really have to nail it for it to not just look like a crappy game, and I don't think they nailed it at all. It's not the worst looking retro art style game by any means, but it just looks very meh.

Feels like Concord all over again in the sense that Sony is chasing a trend that no one wanted them to chase.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This whole game looks like a disaster in the making.

- Yeah, what is the point of even using these legendary IP names if you're just going to turn them into extraction shooter shovelware? Not enough name recognition to dupe low info people into playing it, too different a game to dupe people who know into playing it.

Great, they've alienated everyone for absolutely no reason.

Would it even work though? How much pull does marathon even have these days? It's been in hibernation for over a quarter century.

 

[p51d007]

Promises? Pinkie swear?

 

[toooooot]

I do not blame them. You should not either.
Because what are these big studios under the wing of major corporations today?
They are places swarmed with lazy, untalented, uncreative, but very passionate
activists who know everything about genders but little about creativity and how
to make good games. They stole because they cannot create.
What are they supposed to do, tell the execs they can't create art themselves?
That will probably guarantee firing even protected by LG armor.
Do not blame them. They had a task, and they achieved it.
I am only curious what % of the technical jobs studios like Bungie outsorce.
Probably 100%. I cannot imagine they do anything more complex than
writing horrible political scripts or creating sketches of body positive characters.