On May 16, a post by graphic artist Antireal (4nt1r34l) alleged that the new extraction shooter game Marathon have “assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017.”
Real name Fern Cross, also known as N2, the thread on the social media still mostly known as Twitter showcased damning evidence of various texture decals featured in Marathon’s alpha test last April that visually matched the work she’s done as Antireal.
While the minimalist future design of the late 90s and early 2000s are easy to replicate, the evidence compiled here shows a clear case of plagiarism. From unique icons to a particular decal “Aleph” that matches the font and wording.
One particular asset is just the same set of number and line with the text “Antireal” lightly brushed over, suggesting that it was straight-up lifted from the original work with minor attempts of hiding traceable evidence.
Within the same day, Bungie responded to the allegations of what it describes as “unauthorised use of artist decals in Marathon” and pinned the blame to a former Bungie artist (the developer has suffered through various waves of layoffs).
The developer has since reached out to Antireal to resolve the matter, as revealed at the start of new Marathon’s latest developer livestream.
As a result of this art controversy, the latest developer livestream for Marathon had no art or graphic being used in any way, as they are in the process of scrubbing all the assets. No gameplay footage was shown either.
What we saw is a shamble of a livestream laden with technical difficulties, with a visibly distraught Joseph Cross, Art Director for the new Marathon, on-screen for the whole show despite most of the topics in discussion were between Creative Director Joe Ziegler and a few others off-camera. The vibe was off. And chat (on Twitch) was constantly posting “PLAGIARISM WILL MAKE ME GOD,” a cheeky twist to the marketing tagline the extraction shooter has been using to remind everyone of the ongoing issue.
“It was kind of vindicating to see direct plagiarism because it meant I wasn’t crazy for feeling so uncomfortable with the overall direction,” Hook said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I kept quiet about it because I was advised to seek legal action, but… I don’t have enough time or money to fly out to the U.S. to pursue an unwinnable court case against Sony.”
Various members of Bungie, including Cross followed the Antireal account on socials. None of them interacted with Fern, as she pointed out. Until she stepped forward to point out they’ve been stealing her art, that is.
Meanwhile, Forbes reported that morale at Bungie is at a “free-fall” due to this controversy.
This isn’t the first time Bungie has had a plagiarism issue. Comments on social suggests this is the fourth or fifth case, one of which is the use of a fan’s design for a Destiny 2 NERF gun, which Bungie reached out and resolved with the aggrieved designed.
Sure, the developer have made amends when such an event has happened, but for such an event to have happen more than twice is not a good look. Regardless of this being the fault of one rogue developer that has since got laid off, why does this keep happening multiple times? Why haven’t the checks for plagiarism be more strict as this has been a recurring issue?
The biggest shame of it all is that new Marathon’s biggest appeal is the art style. The new-futurism vibe which Bungie calls “graphic realism” was inspired by various aesthetic movement including Swiss modernism and the works of The Designers Republic that created the minimalist graphic/vector look that defined the Wipeout racing games. But it turns out Bungie was more than just inspired by the few designers still cranking out this style of art.
Marathon is still expected to launch on September 23 for the PS5, PC and Xbox Series X|S.