Bungie blames “former” employee for latest bout of reported plagiarism

The studio confirmed the "unauthorized use" of art inside Marathon.

Bungie has confirmed the “unauthorised use” of artist Antireal’s work within its upcoming Marathon, saying that the alleged plagiarism was performed by “a former Bungie artist”.

Earlier this week, Fern ‘Antireal’ Hook took to social media showing her work had been inserted into Marathon‘s alpha build and beyond.

“The Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017,” Hook wrote.

“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.”

Bungie responded to the claims within 24 hours.

“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,” Bungie wrote on Twitter.

“This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to [Antireal] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.”

Bungie has been accused of lifting Destiny 2 fan art for cutscenes without permission, and last year confirmed it had used an artist’s nine-year-old work to produce a Nerf Ace of Spades gun.

In the Nerf instances, Bungie pledged to “make sure” to compensate artist Tofu Rabbit “for their incredible artwork”.

Now, Bungie says it will work to crack down on alleged plagiarism in light of these instances.

“As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artist without their permission,” Bungie wrote. 

“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. We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”