Marathon’s art director, Joseph Cross, has addressed the recent art plagiarism controversy live, issued a direct apology, and outlined what Bungie is doing to fix it.
The Marathon community has been rocked by plagiarism claims this week after digital artist 4nt1r34l (ANTIREAL) accused Bungie of using her original artwork without permission in the game’s closed alpha. When the story first broke, Bungie responded by confirming that some unauthorized assets did make it into the game.
Now, during the highly anticipated PlayMA developer livestream, Franchise Art Director Joseph Cross appeared on stream to directly address the controversy and offer a personal apology.
Marathon Art Director Takes Responsibility, Outlines Next Steps
During the livestream, Joseph Cross gave a clear and personal statement about the situation. He explained that in the early pre-production phase of Marathon, an artist working on the team took graphic elements from 4nt1r34l, a graphic designer, without asking or giving credit.
These elements were added to a decal sheet in 2020 and ended up in the alpha build that has since been shared with testers and the community. Cross admitted there was “absolutely no excuse for this oversight” and said Bungie is now reviewing all of the work by that artist, with a special focus on environment decals.
He confirmed the team is delaying some content reveals to make sure every asset is properly sourced or recreated. In the past 24 hours, Bungie has already reached out to 4nt1r34l and started a broad audit of the game’s art to catch anything else that might have been inappropriately used.
Here’s the full statement from Joseph Cross during the livestream: (transcribed by The Game Post)
“It came to our attention that an artist who worked on Marathon in the early stages of pre-production took a number of graphic elements from a graphic designer without permission or acknowledgement and placed them on a decal sheet that was then checked in, in 2020. The decal sheet included icons and text elements. These elements ended up in our alpha build, and there’s absolutely no excuse for this oversight.
“And we are working on and 100% committed to our review process to ensure instances like this don’t happen again on Marathon or at Bungie. A few of the things that we’ve done over the last 24 hours, and what we’re doing to shore up the review process as follows: We’ve reached out to ANTIREAL, the artist in question, and followed up to ensure that we do right by this artist.
“We’re auditing all of the previous work by the artists, the internal artist, including the environment decals already in the build, which is part of why we’re delaying some of the content we’re going to show today. We’re committed to removing anything that is questionably or inappropriately sourced. We’re doing a very broad decal audit, and if we locate any other details or elements, we’ll make sure that those are eliminated or recreated in-house for sure.
“Hundreds of artists have worked on this project for years, internally and externally, and we share many influences, including modernism, Swiss typography, 2000s style vector art, cyberpunk, and of course the original Marathon trilogy.
“Our style is a result of all of those inspirations, and it’s also worth noting that none of our external partners who have worked on branding or any part of the visual design of our game were involved with this situation. And lastly, personally, I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for artists working independently and producing, making a living doing commercial or fine art. We’ve worked with many of them.
“It’s one of my favorite parts of the job to make those connections, create content, and collaborate. And so to that extent, I want to send my personal apology to ANTIREAL, whose work was used in this case, and I know how unfair this feels, and we’re doing everything we can to make this right with her.
“Her work is fantastic, and we clearly share mutual appreciation for a specific genre of graphic design, and it’s very exciting, and I’m excited to have folded that into our style in general. So thanks for listening and thanks for your patience.”
What do you think of Bungie’s response and apology? Do you feel the studio is doing enough to fix the situation? Let us know your thoughts below.
