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Marathon, Bungie's multiplayer extraction shooter, has sparked a plagiarism scandal after an independent Scottish artist claimed the game utilized components from her work without her consent. Bungie, which has previously been accused of plagiarism, admitted the occurrence on Friday, claiming that a former staff member was to blame for the artist's work appearing unacknowledged in the game's alpha release. The company announced that it was doing a "thorough review" of its in-game assets and has contacted the artist.
Marathon in Plagiarism Storm
Fern Hook, a freelance artist known on X as @4nt1r34l (AntiReal), accused Bungie last week of stealing assets from her Marathon poster designs, which were recently completed in closed alpha. Hook released side-by-side images of her artwork and Marathon screenshots, highlighting startling similarities.
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
The artist accused Bungie of not just plagiarizing particular items, but also of substantially incorporating her "design language" into the studio's next shooter. Marathon is known for its spectacular futuristic sci-fi visual style, which closely resembles Hook's artwork.
"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," Hook said in an X.com discussion.
Bungie responded to the plagiarism charges on Friday, stating that its art team was ignorant of the issue since the assets in question were utilized by a former employee.
"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," according to the developer.
"This problem was unknown to our current art team, and we are presently investigating how this error occurred. We take situations like these extremely seriously. We have contacted @4nt1r34l to resolve this matter and are committed to doing right by the artist.
"As a matter of policy, we do not use artists' work without permission.
"To avoid such difficulties in the future, we are doing a full assessment of our in-game assets, particularly those created by the former Bungie artist, and instituting stronger procedures to verify all artist contributions.
"We admire the creativity and passion of all artists who work on our games, and we are dedicated to treating them fairly. Thank you for bringing it to our attention."
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Morale at Bungie Reportedly in 'Free Fall'
Bungie also removed all scheduled gameplay from its most recent Marathon broadcast on Friday in response to the plagiarism claims. During the webcast, the game's art director Joe Cross stated that a Bungie artist who worked on Marathon during its early stages of pre-production copied a lot of graphic aspects from Hook's work without her consent or proper acknowledgment.
Cross stated that the company was assessing all past work on the game and will delete any materials that were not properly sourced.
Bungie's morale is apparently in "free fall" as a result of the plagiarism incident. According to a Forbes story published Friday, the studio was in "chaos" with its future unknown if Marathon failed to debut successfully. The shooter's initial impressions and alpha reception have been distinctly mixed.
"Everyone has the same concerns about what happens to Bungie as a studio if Marathon bombs, which is something they absolutely cannot afford," the article added, citing current and former Bungie staff.
Marathon is slated to release on September 23 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.
