An artist claims that Bungie has stolen designs from Marathon from her. The developers blame a former employee.
What kind of stolen work is this about? On May 15, 2025, an independent artist working under the pseudonym “Antireal” reported that poster designs she created in 2017 were used in the playable alpha of the upcoming Extraction shooter Marathon, which was held in April 2025 (via X). Marathon is the latest game from Bungie, the developer studio behind Destiny 2, and is set to release on September 23, 2025.
In another comment on the social media platform, the artist writes:
“Bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when they develop a game that largely relies on the same design language I have refined over the last ten years, but obviously my work was good enough to use for ideas and implement in their game without payment or credit.”
Antireal then explains that she has never been able to earn a steady income from this work in the past 10 years and is tired of large companies using her designs while she “struggles” to make a living (via X). However, she does not have the resources or energy to take legal action.
Bungie admits: An employee helped themselves
What do the developers say about the allegations? On the official Discord server of Marathon, the development team reported that they are investigating the incident.
During the investigation, they found that “a former Bungie artist had included these [designs] in a text URL list that was eventually used in the game.” The current art team of Marathon was not aware of the problem. Bungie is now investigating how this error occurred.
Bungie has also contacted Antireal to “discuss the matter”. They are now making efforts to make things right for the artist.
Bungie announces extensive review
What lessons does Bungie learn from the incident? In the statement on Discord, the developers also announced that they will now conduct a thorough review of in-game assets to avoid similar problems.
During the review, particular focus will be placed on the designs that come from the former employee who also included Antireal’s designs.
Meanwhile, Bungie’s legal dispute with the team behind Destiny 2 continues with an author claiming that Bungie stole the ideas for the campaign of Destiny 2 from one of his stories. However, Bungie is having difficulty proving otherwise and is relying on YouTube videos about the lore of the loot shooter: Destiny 2 loses in court because the judge does not want to watch 10-hour explanations of the lore
