In the past 24 hours, an independent artist by the handle “4nt1r34l” (Antireal) recently shed light on assets that were completely ripped from their portfolio and used in-game as “original” art assets by the Bungie art team. Antireal posted the following on X (Twitter):
the Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs i made in 2017.
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.
in 10 years i have never made a consistent income from this work and i am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while i struggle to make a living.
While posting specific screenshots from in-game in the recent Marathon Alpha and comparing those screenshot/assets to their work directly.
“Bungie” has made a statement, albeit on their “MarathonDevTeam” accounts across Bluesky and X instead of the actual Bungie accounts.
Bungie/Marathon said the following.
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.
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
@4nt1r34l. to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.
As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission.
To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions. We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
