Bungie has admitted that an external artist’s work has been used within upcoming game Marathon without consent.
The issue came to light yesterday following recent playable alpha tests of Marathon, from which an artist recognised their designs had been used.
“The Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017,” artist Fern Hook wrote on social media.
“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.”
Responding via its less-visible Marathon Dev Team social media account, Bungie wrote that it had “immediately investigated” Hook’s claim and found that, yes, a former artist at the company had swiped the designs.
“This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred,” Bungie wrote. “We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to
[Hook] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.
“As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission,” Bungie continued, stating – if it needed to be said – that the developer does not endorse plagiarism.
“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,” the publisher concluded.
This isn’t the first time Bungie has faced claims of using artists’ work without permission – with multiple instances coming to light regarding designs for Destiny 2.
“I don’t have the resources nor the energy to spare to pursue this legally but I have lost count of the number of times a major company has deemed it easier to pay a designer to imitate or steal my work than to write me an email,” Hook concluded.
“In 10 years I have never made a consistent income from this work and I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living.”
Bungie’s Marathon reboot is set to launch for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 23rd September. We recently got a solid look at the upcoming sci-fi shooter – here’s everything about Marathon you need to know.