The artist whose work was stolen to develop the look of Marathon, Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter, says it's all water under the bridge.
"The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction," wrote artist Antireal on X today.
The update comes nearly seven months after Antireal posted on X claiming that their work had been lifted and used as textures in a Marathon playtest in May.
"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," Antireal said at the time, "but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution."
Bungie later confirmed that Antireal's art had been taken without permission, laying the blame on a former artist who turned in a "texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game."
"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," the company said in May. "We have reached out to @4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist."
1/ Dear @MarathonTheGame graphic design lovers.It is time for me to burn some bridges.Because thanks to @4nt1r34l daily posters stolen and put as textures in the game and many other assets utilized, you have created AntirealTheGame. @Bungie @josephacross
— @billain.bsky.social (@billain.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-02T19:55:47.055Z
Considering the brevity and formal tone of Antireal's update on the matter, it's a fair guess that "doing right by the artist" in this case involved boardrooms, lawyers, and a fat paycheck. This is, unfortunately, a situation that Bungie has found itself in with confounding regularity—just last year, a piece of fan art somehow ended up on an official Destiny Nerf gun, and in 2023 it had to compensate an artist whose work was 'mistakenly' used in a Destiny 2 cutscene.
We've reached out to Sony for comment on the resolved dispute and will update this story if we receive a reply.
