- Artist Antireal says Bungie used her 2017 designs in Marathon without permission or pay.
- Bungie responded, saying the current art team was unaware and is reviewing the situation.
- A full audit of assets and stricter review processes are now in place, according to the devs.
Things aren’t going smoothly for Bungie’s Marathon, and this time, it’s not about gameplay or playtest feedback. A graphics artist, known as Antireal, has taken to X to accuse Bungie of stealing her work for the upcoming extraction shooter. The artist claims that Bungie used her 2017 poster designs without credit or compensation for Marathon, and the company has now admitted to the “stealing” allegations.
On May 12, 2025, @4nt1r34l on X posted the full thread by tagging Bungie and the Franchise Art director of Marathon @josephacross. At the beginning, Antireal said, “the Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017,” and to follow it up, she shared a comparison of her posters and the assets from Marathon, saying:
“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.”
After the accusation, Antireal expressed frustration, saying she no longer has the energy or resources to pursue legal action. Surprisingly, as per another X user post, Cross, Marathon’s art director, has been following the artist for years. Despite that, Antireal clarified that there has been no communication between them.
Bungie Responds to the Allegations, Saying “We Are Still Reviewing”
This isn’t the first time a major company has found it easier to hire someone to copy or steal their work rather than simply reach out with an email. Bungie themselves have been doing this for a while now. Within a day of this thread, the Marathon Dev team took it to the platform and said, “This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred.” Continuing this, they also said that they reached out to @4nt1r34l.
Another user in the replies called out Bungie, pointing out all the accusations the company has had in the past. @MarathonDevTeam further said, “To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions.”
While Bungie still says they value artists, the number of recurring events like this makes me question, “Really?” Well, only time will tell what Bungie does to fix this situation for a game that has already caught a lot of backlash from the video game community.
What are your thoughts now that Bungie admits to stealing assets for Marathon? Do tell us in the comments.
