Last week, independent artist ANTIREAL came forward accusing Bungie of utilizing some of her work in its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon. Bungie came forward and confirmed the plagiarism accusations were the work of an ex-artist on the team. The developer also announced that they would be launching a “thorough review.” Unfortunately, this is not the first time an issue like this has occurred at Bungie and the situation has reportedly pushed the studio in “chaos”, with morale at the studio in “free fall.” It’s also unclear whether or not the game gets delayed out of this year.
Forbes reports that the “vibes have never been worse” across all departments. Everyone is concerned what would happen to the company if Marathon bombs. The legal departments at Sony and Bungie are sorting through everything and there will likely not be any new information as all of this contunues to unfold. It’s unclear how long an “audit” will take regarding the assets to remove or find any more plagiarism.
Before the plagiarism issue, Bungie’s marketing plans for Marathon would’ve included a new trailer in June along with the launch of pre-orders but everything needs to be reworked now. There were also plans for a Public Beta in August but that may have changed into a “roadmap of public playtests.” No actual details have been set yet.
Following the incident, fans have debated what the future holds for Bungie and what happens to Marathon.
“The game went from mixed/negative reception to PLAGIARISM_WILL_MAKE_ME_GOD, four months from launch in the eyes of the larger gaming community. If they don’t delay it, it’s 100% DOA,” suggested one player. “If the game does in fact die, we’re talking over $100 million+ lost (probably a gross underestimate for a AAA game/studio). So yeah, really bad.
“Make no mistake, this is an existential struggle for Bungie at this point.”
“I think it releases to a very lukewarm reception, similar to the Destiny expansion in July,” hypothesized another. “It will last til January for active updates, put in maintenance mode til about summer 2026, then shut down with Bungie finally absorbed into Sony.” “We have no way of knowing, and after the Concord situation, I’m sure Sony isn’t taking any of this lightly,” reminded someone else.
Destiny loremaster, YouTuber My Name is Byf talked about the situation, saying: “watching the video just sort of reminded me that most of the people who will likely be affected if Bungie goes under are completely unrelated employees that don’t deserve to be punished over this.
“I sort of feel ill about the whole situation now […] I want to see them make an effort to [independent artist] Antireal. I want to see them take the steps towards making sure this never happens again. I want them to win back whatever they need to make this game special (Goodwill, a delay, anything). I WANT to see the Marathon ship in this artstyle, man.”
“Ima be real I’m excited for this game. All this art drama is way overblown,” said one. “I think from what I’ve gathered in this game I fully anticipate the aliens to inevitably make their way into the game. Other than that I’d like the characters to be customizable but I anticipate any big changes like that to come later. Very hyped for Marathon.”
“I can’t remember who exactly, but it was a famous musician talking about how he would never copyright others’ music because all music eventually comes back to the same source,” replied another. “Basically the same principal [sic] every artist has been inspired by some other artists and so on and so forth. Of course, it’s not cool to blatantly just copy/paste someone’s work, but then again, even the concept of completely original art is debatable. Especially since there are recorded cases of people making basically the same art around the same time as someone else. So yeah, it’s pretty overblown.”
“For any Bungie employees checking in here, please remember that you have millions of fans that want to see Marathon succeed,” added someone else.