An independent artist named ANTIREAL has recently come out to accuse popular gaming studio Bungie of plagiarism, find out more about the incident below
According to her claims, Bungie reportedly used her 2017 artwork without credit across several in-game assets for its upcoming sci-fi shooter Marathon.
According to ANTIREAL, Marathon art director Joseph Cross and several other representatives from Bungie have been following her account for years and in that time, there has been no communication between the two parties.
Who is artist ANTIREAL as she accuses Bungie of plagiarism and stealing her art work in Marathon
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. pic.twitter.com/G3FbPtbPJD
— N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025
4/ @Bungie should educate @josephacross : When you are stealing someone's posters, make sure you erase @4nt1r34l name from the texture.
(Left: an asset spread-out trough the game on various elements. Right: Poster named "Antireal daily series" from Antireal. 2017-2018 pic.twitter.com/MNsUYk8fa4
— B I L L A I N / A E T H E K / A N T I R E A L (@Billain) May 15, 2025
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 pic.twitter.com/w9spVE2w0p— B I L L A I N / A E T H E K / A N T I R E A L (@Billain) May 15, 2025
Her allegations have reignited a long-standing criticism of the company’s reported use of fan-made or third-party designs without proper attribution.
Bungie accused of plagiarism
An independent artist named ANTIREAL recently accused Bungie of copying her original poster designs from 2017 in Marathon. ANTIREAL posted the accusations on May 16, on X, claiming that:
the alpha’s environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs [she] made in 2017.”
ANTIREAL who is an independent artist made her statement using side-by-side comparisons between her artwork and in-game screenshots on Twitter/X. She shared all kinds of visuals including logos, fonts, layout elements, and thematic cues that she had created years prior. She further shared in her post how Bungie never reached out for permission, nor gave her the credit.
Another artist comes out from AntiReal, Including videos and more explanation about Bungie Marathon Plagiarism.
byu/kristijan1001 inGames
ANTIREAL noted how Bungie art director Joseph Cross followed her on social media for years, but never communicated. She also added how the company wasn’t obligated to hire her and stated:
clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution.”
The screenshots from the accusations show how the game uses the name “ALEPH” alongside the tagline “Dark-space haulage logistics,” both in the same font and design style that ANTIREAL used in her earlier designs. Moreover, several elements like directional arrows and thin-line graphic motifs were all nearly identical.
“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,” antire.al wrote on Twitter/X.
Bungie has now responded to the claims and blamed the incident on a former employee. The studio says it’s reaching out to the artist in question and conducting a full review of its in-game assets for Marathon, “We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game.”
Other similar incidents
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Bungie has been accused of plagiarism. Back in 2021, Bungie reportedly used a fan’s depiction of Xivu Arath in one of their trailers for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen without consent. The studio eventually apologized and obtained permission retroactively after facing intense backlash.
Later in 2023, Bungie used a close mirror of fan artist Julian Faylona’s 2020 work in their cutscene for Destiny 2: Season of the Deep. The following year, in September 2024, Bungie apologized and was accused again of lifting visual elements from an independent artist, Tofu Rabbit. The following month, a sci-fi writer named Kelsey Martineau sued Bungie for allegedly plagiarizing elements of their 2013 story for the Destiny 2 Red War campaign.