Bungie's Marathon alpha includes designs lifted from an indie artist without pay: "Clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas"

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Bungie says it's "conducting a thorough review" of the situation

A close up of a blue woman Runner during the Marathon game PS5 reveal.
(Image credit: Bungie)

Bungie has said that it's conducting an internal review to find out how an indie artist's work showed up FPS Marathon's ongoing alpha.

Just yesterday, Scottish artist Fern Hook said environments seen in the new Marathon reboot were "covered with assets lifted from poster designs" she had made and posted online years ago.

"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," she added in a social media post highlighting similar icons, fonts, and designs seen in her work and the upcoming shooter.

Responding through another series of tweets, the Destiny and former Halo developer said it had "immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon" and found that an artist who used to work at Bungie had, in fact, "included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game."

Bungie reiterates that its current art team didn't know about the issue, and the studio is now "conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist" to make sure no other pre-existing work had slipped through the cracks and into the PvPvE shooter.

As PC Gamer notes, this isn't the first time an indie artist has accused the company of using work without permission. Less than a year ago, one fan-made art of a Nerf gun inspired by Destiny's art style somehow actually ended up in the game proper. Bungie resolved the situation quickly enough, though a similar whoopsie happened in a 2023 Destiny 2 cutscene and a 2021 trailer, raising questions about the company's internal processes.

"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," Hook noted.

Marathon is set to drop on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on September 23,

5 months from launch, Marathon devs keep evading pricing questions, but Bungie promises that "it's definitely going to be a conversation"

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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