Bungie has publicly responded to accusations surrounding plagiarism of artwork featured in its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon.
During a developer livestream, Joe Cross, the franchise art director for Marathon, has issued a public statement addressing the plagiarism situation and outlining the steps Bungie is taking to correct it. He acknowledged that, early in the game’s pre-production, an internal artist incorporated a number of graphic elements from a designer known as ANTIREAL without permission or credit. These elements, consisting of icons and text, were featured on a decal sheet that was added to the project back in 2020, which led to the assets eventually making their way into the game’s alpha build.
Cross was direct in his apology, stating, “There’s absolutely no excuse for this oversight,” and emphasized Bungie’s full commitment to refining its internal review processes to prevent such incidents in the future. As part of their immediate response, Bungie has reached out to ANTIREAL and is working to “do right” by the artist. The studio has also begun a comprehensive audit of all prior work contributed by the internal artist involved. This includes inspecting environment decals already present in the build. The ongoing audit is one of the reasons Bungie has delayed showing some of its previously planned content.
The Marathon art director further stated that any elements discovered to be improperly sourced will be removed or recreated in-house. The studio is conducting what he called a “very broad decal audit” to ensure the integrity of all visual assets used in the upcoming extraction shooter.
While acknowledging the diverse team that has contributed to the game’s visual identity, Cross highlighted the many legitimate influences on Marathon’s aesthetic, including modernism, Swiss typography, early 2000s vector art, cyberpunk, and the original Marathon trilogy. He also clarified that none of Bungie’s external partners involved in the branding or visual design were implicated in the incident.
He concluded his statement with a personal apology to ANTIREAL, expressing admiration for her work and emphasizing the importance of ethical collaboration. “Her work is fantastic,” he said, “and we clearly share a mutual appreciation for a specific genre of graphic design.”
