BungieMarathon’s artwork plagiarism controversy has reached its end, with the original artist, Fern ‘Antireal’ Hook, striking a deal with Bungie and Sony.
Earlier this year, on May 15, Antireal took to X (formerly Twitter) to compare their artwork with assets found throughout Bungie’s upcoming game, Marathon. They exposed the extraction shooter for featuring direct copies of their artwork, which they published online in 2017.
Mere hours after the accusations gained traction on social media, Bungie admitted to its wrongdoing. “A former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet. We have reached out to [Antireal] and are committed to do right by the artist,” a statement read.
This saga ultimately derailed Bungie’s plans for launch. Shortly after the comparisons were drawn, Marathon Art Director Joe Cross admitted it was “inexcusable” how a former artist “took a number of graphic elements without permission or acknowledgement.”
Planned to release on September 23, the game was delayed indefinitely amid the controversy and as criticism of an early playtest mounted. Now, seven months on, the artist has struck a deal to resolve the issue.
Antireal / BungieAntireal strikes deal with Bungie over Marathon’s ‘stolen’ artwork
On December 2, 2025, the artist issued an update on X. “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.”
That’s all the concrete information we have to go off for now, as there are no further details as to what the deal may have involved. From a hefty payday to a listing in the game’s credits, it’s anyone’s guess for now, but clearly, they reached an amicable agreement.
The initial accusations led to a game-wide audit of all visual assets, delaying early playtests as a result. As of November, however, private tests have been running again, with invited players signing NDAs to keep their involvement a secret.
Related
As Marathon was already planned to have been out for three months by now, this could all point to an imminent release. Perhaps The Game Awards will bring a new release date for fans to pop on their calendar for 2026, but we’ll just have to wait and see.