Marathon's 'Art Theft' Controversy Explained

Summary

Bungie faces backlash with an art theft controversy surrounding the upcoming game Marathon.
Artist Antireal accuses Bungie of art theft in Marathon after seeing identical copies of her work in the game's environment.
Bungie's reputation is at risk with accusations of art theft, lack of prevention systems, and potential delay for Marathon.

It has been a rough few months for Bungie since after the launch of Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion, with layoffs happening company-wide, several controversies regarding the looter-shooter's state, and now issues with Marathon ahead of its currently planned release of September 23. Marathon itself has been traversing several phases, with it reportedly being worked on as a hero shooter at some point, whereas now it's a focused PvPvE extraction shooter with customizable characters and loadouts. The conversations surrounding the game have been mostly mixed, with a tendency towards negative, and the recent art theft controversy surrounding Marathon's style and artist 4nt1r34l (Antireal) is not helping those on the fence.

Antireal recently took to Twitter to express unease and frustration over seeing her work, dating back all the way to 2017, all over the Marathon alpha test. The artist used the platform to show her graphic design work and how it was found everywhere in Marathon's world, many times lifted directly from Antireal's posters - line for line, word for word. Bungie has since acknowledged this issue both on social media and in a live stream, but the parties involved have not reached a resolution just yet.

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By Jo Craig

How Marathon Ended Up With 'Stolen' Art in Its Environment

Antireal shared images of her posters including the same "Aleph" writing, font, and art style used in the game, as well as several other examples of art being lifted by Bungie and included in Marathon 1:1. On social media, Bungie released a statement about art theft saying that an internal investigation had been carried out, and it seemed like a former employee left several decals that included Antireal's art in a texture sheet that then made it into Marathon's sci-fi world.

The counter-argument being used is that Antireal's art style is not something she invented, and while games like Wipeout or the graphic design studio The Designers Republic share similar direction and elements, many parts of Antireal's work are directly found in Marathon's environment.

Bungie's Statement About Art Theft in Marathon and Reactions Explained

Bungie then stated that the studio reached out to Antireal and wants to do right by her, and that the art team was not aware of her art being used without permission. The statement didn't sit well with several fans of the game and Bungie as a developer for a few key reasons. One is that the statement was released less than 12 hours after Antireal's post, making it seem more of a PR stunt than the result of a thorough investigation. Another is that this is the fourth time Bungie has been publicly accused of plagiarism over the past few years.

The first happened in 2021 with fan art of Xivu Arath being used without permission in Destiny 2. The second time was in 2023, when fan art was used in a Destiny 2 cutscene. The third time occurred in 2024 with Destiny 2's Ace of Spades NERF gun's design being lifted from that of a fan, with the replica showing identical patterns. As such, Antireal showing proof that Marathon used her art without permission is quite problematic for Bungie's credibility and shows that the company needs a prevention system in place for the future.

Finally, but no less importantly, several Twitter users noted that multiple Marathon and Bungie developers follow Antireal on the platform, including the game's art director, Joseph Cross. As such, many are doubtful that the whole can truly be pinned on a single former employee. Whether this is truly the case remains to be seen, and the same goes for what kind of resolution Bungie and Antireal will find, if any. Marathon's release date grows ever closer, but there is a chance the controversy will force Bungie to delay the extraction shooter to later this year or 2026.

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