Bungie confirms Marathon alpha included stolen artwork

Bungie has come under fire for copying artwork in the past, but the latest allegation is alarmingly bigger. An artist has discovered that the design language they developed, and elements from a number of their own posters, are plastered all over Bungie's next major game, Marathon. 

The artist, Fern Hook, was made aware of their work being copied after Marathon became publicly playable for the first time. In a series of tweets, he shows screenshots of areas where Marathon uses art lifted from his series of posters. There are examples spread out all over the maps present in the Marathon alpha.

the Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs i made in 2017.@Bungie @josephacross pic.twitter.com/0Csbo48Jgb

— N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025

Bungie has already confirmed that pieces of Hook's artwork were indeed present in the Marathon alpha. Bungie has reached out to Hook, likely to offer compensation.

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.

— Marathon Team (@marathonteam.bungie.net) 16 May 2025 at 04:21

In its statement, Bungie also explained that the artist responsible for putting pieces of Hook's posters in the game is no longer employed at Bungie. However, that doesn't really account for the fact that so much of the game's design was seemingly informed by this artist's previous work.

In a separate case, Bungie is being sued for allegedly copying story elements for the original Destiny 2 Red War campaign. Bungie is unable to submit evidence to argue against the claim due to the Red War campaign being removed from Destiny 2.

KitGuru Says: This isn't the first time that Bungie has had to pay an artist after using their work. At a certain point, it starts to look like a pattern, and they keep getting caught, something that will be hugely concerning to Bungie's new owners at Sony. 

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