Bungie finds itself in hot water again: the studio is accused of using an independent artist’s designs in the Marathon reboot without consent or credit. The company has launched an internal asset review — but this isn’t the first time similar accusations have surfaced.

The recently released alpha build of Marathon has sparked controversy after artist Antireal claimed that visual elements were lifted directly from her 2017 poster designs. In a post on Twitter, she accused Bungie of using her work without permission, payment, or attribution. “Bungie is not obligated to hire me when creating a game that draws from the same design language I’ve refined for a decade,” she wrote. “However, my work was clearly good enough to steal ideas from and use in their game without paying or crediting me.”

Antireal supported her claims with screenshots comparing Marathon’s in-game environments to her earlier work. One striking match includes the word “ALEPH” in all caps and the phrase “Dark-space haulage logistics”, which appear verbatim across various in-game structures. A series of boxy logos on tarps and overlays were traced to another of her works, and a distinctive double-arrow symbol from yet another design also made its way into the game. The artist said she was unable to pursue legal action due to a lack of financial resources.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Bungie has come under fire. In 2024, the company admitted to using fan art in the design of a Destiny 2 Nerf weapon and pledged to compensate the artists. A year prior, a Destiny 2 cutscene was nearly identical to a different artist’s illustration, prompting a similar apology. And in 2021, Bungie acknowledged that fan-made art of Xivu Arath had been “inadvertently used” in a Witch Queen trailer.

Bungie shifts blame to former artist as internal audit begins

In response to the latest scandal, Bungie issued a statement through the @MarathonDevTeam Twitter account: “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 to our existing art team, and we are reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take matters like this very seriously.”

They continued: “We have reached out to @4nt1r34l to discuss this issue, and we are committed to doing right by the artist. To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets — specifically, those created by the former Bungie artist — and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions.”

According to Bungie, it is their policy to obtain proper permissions for any artwork used in their projects. Yet once again, the problem is being pinned on a single ex-employee — a pattern that seems to repeat itself almost every year.

Source: PCGamer