Bungie has apologized for the uncredited, uncompensated use of one other artist’s work within the texture sheets for the Marathon alpha check.
In a submit on social media, the corporate publicly confirmed {that a} “former artist at Bungie” included artwork belongings made by graphic designer “Antireal” (actual identify unknown). Antireal had accused the corporate of lifting her work in a submit on Bluesky to brighten a number of in-game posters.
It is a black mark on Bungie’s report, particularly for an organization that is apologized for utilizing belongings lifted from different artists prior to now. Utilizing artwork belongings the corporate does not have the rights to can deprive artists of badly-needed funds and put the studio in danger for authorized publicity.
“Bungie is in fact not obligated to rent me when making a sport that attracts overwhelmingly from the identical design language I’ve refined for the final decade, however clearly my work was ok to pillage for concepts and plaster throughout their sport with out pay or attribution,” claimed Antireal. She defined that the belongings completely mirrored work they posted in 2017.
Antireal’s claims had been bolstered by Marathon gamers who seen a key fingerprint from Antireal’s work was immediately seen within the sport. In 2024 the artist mentioned they hit the “loss” meme of their work 6 years in the past (the meme refers to recreations of a webcomic web page from Ctrl+Alt+Delete with the identical identify). A Twitter consumer noticed the meme on an in-game constructing in Marathon.
Picture by way of X.
“We instantly investigated a priority relating to unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed {that a} former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was finally used in-game,” Bungie mentioned in a submit confirming Antireal’s claims. “This concern was unknown by our current artwork workforce, and we’re nonetheless reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take issues like this very significantly. We have now reached out to [Antireal] to debate this concern and are dedicated to do proper by the artist.”
The corporate added that it’s conducting a evaluate of the previous artist’s work and implementing “stricter checks” on its artwork workforce to make sure no inappropriate belongings are used.
Stolen artwork retains showing in Bungie’s video games
“We worth the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our video games, and we’re dedicated to doing proper by them,” Bungie said in its submit confirming using Antireal’s artwork. There is not any cause to doubt that declare—however this is not the primary time Bungie has admitted to stolen variations of different artist’s work showing in its video games.
In 2024, it confirmed a chunk of “fan artwork” was used to brighten an in-game collectible in Future 2. In 2023 it mentioned it might “compensate and credit score” an artist whose work was used in a cutscene produced partly by an “exterior vendor.” And in 2021 principal group supervisor Chris Shannon apologized to a fan artist in one other trailer.
Bungie’s additionally discovered itself in sizzling water over different artwork belongings. In 2017 it apologized and eliminated an in-game merchandise that represented a real-world white supremacist flag.
Apologizing and acknowledging the wrongdoing is one approach to deal with what appears to be unintentional plagiarism, nonetheless that strategy does not undo the hurt completed to Antireal and different artists who discover themselves victims of plagiarism, intentional or no.
“In 10 years I’ve by no means made a constant revenue from this work,” Antireal mentioned. “I’m uninterested in designers from enormous firms moodboarding and parasitising my designs whereas I battle to make a dwelling.”
